Looking for Advice for Loosing Weight

I agree with not having junk food or sweets in the house. No juices either. Drink water or milk only.

I hate working out, so I don't. It's tedious and boring and a waste of my time. So, I walk in town, I hike in the woods, I canoe with my husband. I look for opportunities to take the stairs or park further away from my destination so I have to walk farther. My job also has me working 10-12 hour days twice a week on my feet in a restaurant.
At the beginning of February I weighed 193lbs (I am 5'7"). I started using My Fitness Pal to keep track of my calories. I found out to lose weight with a sedentary lifestyle I couldn't eat more than 1400 calories a day, I started with 1800 and worked down to 1400 by the beginning of April. Once I started keeping track, it became my own personal challenge for myself and I stuck with it. Now that I've been doing it so long, I don't have to keep track of the calories since I have a good idea of how much I am eating. I cheat sometimes, because I can't totally deny myself anything with my work. I learned a few things:
A breakfast sandwich with egg, ham, cheese on an english muffin, with a piece of fruit and coffee in the morning is all I need until lunch time. That's less than 400 calories.
A salad with a ton of protein is usually my lunch.
Dinner is a protein, 2+ servings of fruits and veggies, and sometimes a grain.
Eat more veggies to fill up.
Drink lots of water or tea throughout the day.
Cut down on processed carbs and eat more protein.
Use butter and olive oil, but in smaller amounts.
Keep nuts in the house for a quick snack, and eat popcorn to satisfy my need for crunchy salty snacks.
I've lost 23 lbs so far, it's slow but steady progress. You just have to dedicate yourself to it. I was tired of being fat and remembered never wearing a bathing suit last summer, I was NOT going to deny myself that again this year. And the more weight I lose, the better I feel, and the more drive I have to keep with it.

ps
I am 43, 4 kids, my husband works 50+ hours a week, and I have bipolar disorder type 2. If I can do this, so can you.

First of all congrats of getting through your depression. Give yourself a big hug because that's major. After work get out of the house and do something with your child. Take a walk around the block or go to a park and kick around a ball. Do some yard work. Use a walk behind mower instead of a ride on mower.

Your husband is old enough to be able to go to the store and buy treats so don't purchase them for him. That way you won't know what's in the house so you won't be tempted. If he does have a treat have a bite or two and them grab a big glass of water. That way you'll have a little something but won't over eat.

I lost weight by cutting out processed food. No crackers, cookies, premixed anything. I also fill my plate with 1/4 protein and 3/4 veggies. If I want seconds it's veggies only.

OK not to be harsh or mean, but anyone that says that they "don't have time to work out" just doesn't want to do it.

I'm 37, and I have a 6 and 4 yr old, and also work full time. And I workout 6 days/week. I have for years. Through pregnancies, recoveries, newborn exhaustion, etc... Because it is a priority for me. Part of my lifestyle and mental health.

The short answer is, if you are serious and you want to do it, you will make it a priority. Whether it is getting up and hour early, or doing it after the kids are in bed. Or breaking it up during the day. There is ALWAYS a way to get it done. Period.

And there is no secret to dieting. It doesn't work. You just have to eat less every day. Don't worry about what, in the beginning. Just less.
There is no magic trick.
And like I said....it will not work and you will not succeed if you don't really want to. It will be hard, and you will not enjoy it. But it takes 2 weeks to build a habit. If you can make it that far, you're already over the hump.
But you have to want to do it.

M.,

The great news is that within a few weeks, you can have a complete turnaround. I promise! If you take today to be a new beginning, you can succeed!

3 weeks ago I was at 162. I have yo-yo'd for years. I read a blog post (ourbestbites.com: how to get fit" (very inspiring) where the writer said she was committed to "finishing it" this time. That is my goal as well: stop yo-yo-ing. Just finish it.

I work full time and have 3 kids. I have lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks and feel beautiful. I still have work to do, but I feel committed and I feel great!

I get up EARLY- and you can do this! My boss gets up at freaking 4:30 am to work out, I can certainly get up at 5:30. I do 20 minutes of strength training (following Bob Harper's Jump Start to Skinny book, but you could do any strength training exercises like squats, pushups, sit ups, etc. Pinterest fitness pages have lots of ideas). Then I do a 20 minute video like 30 Day Shred and 20 min on the treadmill (walking fast). So 1 hour total. The good part is my workout is over before my brain is even on. I have a lot more energy and focus at work, as well.

A big key is drinking lots of water, especially right when you get up. Get up, start workout, drink water, take a water bottle with you all day. It helps soooo much!

Also, plan your meals and pack your lunch. I can only eat what I brought from home which has helped with avoiding temptation. I eat high protein meals and am not hungry in between mealtimes, which has been so helpful.

You can do it! I would recommend that book because even though I am not following the meal plan to a T, the meal ideas are a good template and I have found a few recipes that I like and stick to often. For example, I cook a batch of quinoa each week and keep it in the fridge. Mornings I have 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1/2 cup almond milk. Microwave 1.5 min. It is really good, fast, low calorie, high protein and I feel full until lunchtime.

Good luck!!

Tale as old as time: eat less, move more.
Walk at lunchtime during work day.
Walk after kids are in bed.
Exercise DVD after kiddo are in bed.
Take your 3 year old on a walk after dinner. Let him ride a Big Wheel or trike at the park while you walk.
Take him into the woods for a hike.
Take a bike ride.
Swim.
Walk the stairs at work. At parking garage, etc.
Park far from the stores.
Don't eat fast food.
Give up soda/sugary drinks.
Drink more water.

Every mom is busy.
You can find 30 minutes here and there and you can RESIST your husbands unhealthy habits!

Stop the excuses and start making small, positive changes!
There is no magic wand. 😁

Find a boot camp style exercise program and sign up for it. Around here, there's Kaia FIT, Adventure Boot Camp, and a few others. I know you don't have a lot of time to exercise, but often times, it's just a matter of making the time. Truly. Signing up for a program where you have a coach who will help keep you accountable is what you might need to get you going in the right direction.

Secondly, start keeping a food journal. You can get the My Fitness Pal app on your phone (or use the website). Studies have shown that people who keep a food journal lose 20% more weight than those who don't.

As you journal your food intake, you'll notice that the processed foods are just not doing good things for your body - high in calories, fat, and salt, low in nutrition. Get rid of the processed food and instead, eat fruits, veggies, lean proteins, etc.

Just making those changes, and sticking to them for a specified period (say, 6-8 weeks) WILL start to make noticeable changes to your body. You'll feel better right away, and when you start to see changes, it's a lot easier to keep making the right decisions. Good luck!!

I'm very glad you're feeling better and off your medication! Depression is no fun any way you look at it.

Let's look at the weight thing straight on. You're a very busy woman. You want to lose weight, but you say you haven't the time to do what it takes to lose it. That's like saying you want the floor in your house to be clean, but you just can't manage to run the vacuum and get out the floor mop. Or that you want your child to learn good manners, but don't have time to set an example. OR... that you want your driver's license but can't take the time to learn to drive. (We all know people who must have said that and are behind the wheel!) Can't be done, friend.

Age does have something to do with weight. As you get older, your metabolism does change. But not usually at 30.

You and I gain weight because we take more calories (a calorie is simply a unit of energy) into ourselves than we put out of ourselves. That has to be reversed to lose the weight.

There are lots of products on the market that claim to make weight loss easy. They do a lot of advertising, too! But they're more interested in getting your money than in getting you healthy.

Please, go talk to your doctor. Get a complete physical and ask him/her what to do in order to start to lose these pounds and get healthier. Ask what's safe and what's unsafe. Consider that what you want is not a quick fix but a lifelong change (you don't want to have to do this over and over, believe me). You'll have a number of good options, but they all take some time and work. And that isn't something you can't do - if this is a real goal and not just a wish.

I'm rooting for you.

You've just got to find a way to keep the junk food out of your house.
Don't even walk down the snack/soda/candy/baked goods aisles in the store.
Drink lot's of water, eat a well balanced diet, count calories (shoot for 1200 per day) and do you best to stop eating when you've hit your limit.
30 isn't as easy weight maintenance wise as 20, but it's a WHOLE lot easier than 40 or 45 will be.
If your house has stairs, go up and down them a lot.

First of all, diets don't work because people starve themselves, which puts the body into a slower metabolic mode. The body thinks there is a famine (evolutionary response) and it conserves fat to save for the times when there is no food. And a slower metabolism slows everything down. Think bears needing enough fat to keep them alive during hibernation, and you'll see why diets are a problem.

Secondly, too many dieters avoid fats, which are essential. So go to healthy fats (avocados, olive oil, fish, nuts). Use unprocessed, whole foods that take time to digest. That means a balance of protein, complex carbs (no white flour, white potatoes, etc.), fiber-filled foods and fats at every meal. Eat at least 2 snacks a day to keep your blood sugar levels steady - that can help with cravings. Find healthy alternatives to satisfy your cravings - for example, a teaspoons of plain cocoa powder in yogurt can give you the chocolate you want. Sliced zucchini rounds dipped in olive oil and then a mix of whole wheat bread crumbs (or wheat germ) and Parmesan cheese, then baked until crisp (15 minutes or so) can give a great crunchy snack - I do them in the toaster oven, and 8 or 10 fit perfectly in the little tray and make a nice snack.

Switch over your DH to better choices. Sweet potato wedges drizzled with some olive oil and salt/pepper and an herb of choice (dill is a good one) or just tossed with some onion wedges and even some broccoli florets is a really nice alternative to fries. If you like to grill, use a mix of lean ground turkey and lean ground beef or bison, then add moisture-laden foods like diced onion (with the juice) and defrosted frozen spinach, mashed up beans (black, refried, kidney or a mixture - great use for leftovers), or grated zucchini - the added moisture makes up for the lower fat content and gives you a nice juicy burger. Then grill as usual.

Stop buying things you don't want to eat, no matter how much your DH pleads or puts them on the list. Give everyone healthy choices - veggies to dip in humus, a taco bar or salad bar with lots of healthy items. Cheese is great as a taco topping and not so much as a heavy sauce for white macaroni! Get everyone off processed foods. Today's children are the first generation who will have shorter life spans than their parents, so being an advocate now will help your child later in life.

Age, at 30? Probably not. Age is a factor because we slow down, and because epigenetic changes affect our cells. The slowing of our pituitary glands can start to be a factor at age 30, but it takes time for the organs to slow down and be less effective. There is a healthy way to address this without side effects or drugs with warning labels.

MAKE the time to exercise! A healthy mom is the best thing for a family. Too often, we put ourselves last. Put the 3 year old in a stroller and go on a brisk walk. Take a bucket for the child to collect fun things (rocks, leaves, sticks) and then go home and make a project out of it. Get the child, and yourself, out of the house. Invite Dad to go along! Take a picnic to a park or a nature area. Walk the beach looking for shells or a pond area looking for tadpoles.

Look into some recipes for weekend cooking where the whole family gets involved, and make meals for the week. That will give you plenty of things to just pop in the oven or the crockpot so you don't go for prepared foods or take-out during the week when you are rushing home from work. Rachael Ray has a whole series on this - go to the website or get her cookbook from the library.

Use farmers markets - they have what's fresh and you'll find some new things. Kids like to eat stuff they helped pick out. I saw a great thing on Facebook - give a toddler an ice tray with a few bites of 10 different foods in each compartment - berries, star fruit, cut up carrots, some chickpeas, edamame, some zucchini chunks, a few bites of roasted or grilled chicken, a couple of oven-friend sweet potatoes, a little dollop of yogurt, and so on. It lets them try a few different things without being overwhelmed by a whole plate of "I-hate-this" foods.

Step one, is to just get started...you know the old saying, "Just do it".

I have been over my desired weight for some time. Now that my 8 year old is on a bike, I recently purchased a bike for myself, to ride along with her.

I work full time and run my very active 8 year old to a sport perhaps 4 days out of the week and somedays twice in one day and some weeks more often. I have no idea how much weight I need to get off in pounds, but I will know when I am comfortable in my clothes and in the mirror. I am not interested in a number, but I will take a guess it is likely pretty similar to your number.

Prior to the bike, I started out doing stretches right beside my daughter, to get her started. The stretches felt good, so I have continued. It is extremely hot here if the sun is out, so we usually ride in the evenings, but homework gets in the way. Recently, I made a comment that she could get up at 5:00 a.m. before the sun is completely out and to my surprise she thought that was a wonderful idea. Today, we did it...at 5:30 a.m. we got up and put in about 4.5 miles. We had a wonderful time chatting as we stopped at parks and benches along the way.

We were back in the house by 6:30, she was showered and ready for school by 7:20 and all is well. During a weekday, we would have to be out by 5:00 a.m. in order for me to make it to work.

So with a 3.5 year old, you could tow him/her in a trailer. The trailers hold up to 100 lbs!!! I could actually tow my 8 year old in there.

Just get started, the eating habits will naturally begin to correct themselves. As well, a little fresh air and exercise will help with the depression.

Best wishes.

It's going to be really hard without your husband on board. Take the time to make the whole family healthier. Chocolate, sweets and cakes should never be around the house - we've learned that the hard way! if it's there, it WILL be eaten. I don't have enough willpower to constantly say no to goodies screaming my name in the cupboards. It's easier to say no at the market and be done with it. Exercise is VERY important but to lose weight, you need to eat right. They say weight loss is 90% diet, 10% exercise and in my case, it's held true. It's hard but you do start feeling better when you eat fruits, veggies, lean meats instead of the processed foods that are out there. I still cheat and splurge but the # of times I do that have lessened. Good luck!

The formula is still the same: burn more than you take in. Whenever I want to lose a few pounds I do two things...take two 2 mile walks a day (you can bring your kid in a stroller if you had to) and eat more filling vegetables like beans in my salad or bean soup (take Beano if you get gas). I lost all my baby weight that way and really didn't try that hard. The extra bonus is that the additional exercise is good for your depression.

Hi I'm on a weight loss journey too. I started at 160 and ballooned to 241! I lost myself after my first baby and when i was finally losing weight,I found out i was pregnant again. With a 2 week old son later,I am now at 208lbs. Thank goodness i lost weight bfore my 2nd pregnancy. Like you,i'm not an excercise fan. I downloaded myfitnesspal. Its a free calorie counter. I lost weight by calorie counting and walking when i feel like it. Also,the others are right when they say to minimize the junk food. For example you're only to eat 1200cal/day and a slice of costco pizza is 700. Then you only havd 500cal left for the day. Its all about managemnt.

Age is still on your side. I have had to lose weight with dieting alone when I sustained a knee injury. It is possible, but doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. Without excersise, you will need to be quite strict on diet. But I've done it with great success. Better than I could have hoped.
Counting calories is the way I do it when all else fails. There is a learning curve to it and you will need to give it all the extra time and energy you have in the first couple of weeks. But by one months, it will be second nature. The trick to dieting it not to go too low on your calories and create a starvation response. You need to create a calorie deficit, but just enough to lose a lbs or two a week. To do this, eat your basal or resting metabolism. You can find an on-line calculator and using your weight and hight, find your resting metabolism. The beauty of counting calories is that you can still have desserts and so forth, you just have to move numbers around, plan ahead, and get used to smaller portions. If you know you want cake at a party for example, you may need to make lunch a simple salad etc.
As for tempting foods, I suggest you sit your husband down and give him two options: skinny foods/ skinny wife, or fat foods/ fat wife. Don't come at it as though you are attacking him, you are simply laying out his options and asking for his support. He has a lot to gain here, a self-confident wife who loves her own body is a great thing for him too. You need his support on this one. I suggest you seek it.

Geneen Roth has some amazing information about the mind/body connection when it comes to weight. I highly recommend you get her books on CD and listen to them as you drive too and from work. She will help you see the connection between your inner, unhealed parts and your eating habits.

The same issues that drive depression will drive eating habits. You can be much more successful in losing the weight if you address your childhood woundings.

"The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. No matter how sophisticated or wise or enlightened you believe you are, how you eat tells all. The world is on your plate. When you begin to understand what prompts you to use food as a way to numb or distract yourself, the process takes you deeper into realms of spirit and to the bright center of your own life." -Geneen Roth http://geneenroth.com/books/