OK. My top weight was 260 pounds. That was last March after having my last baby. I slowly and with no drive worked on losing weight for the past year and I lost 20 pounds putting me at 240. Then I plateaued there and stayed at 240 until I was about ready to give up. About five days ago I decided to get real with myself when I had a dream where someone called me fat. Not only am I thinking of weight and food all day, but now all night, too??!! NO! I won't allow it! So, I got some new workout DVD's and for two days now have worked out for at least two hours a day. My appetite is down and I seem to be consuming about 1/4 of what I was eating...without feeling hungry all the time. I am thinking that if my body is not hungry then I must be eating plenty to sustain it...right? I am so paranoid of throwing myself into starvaton mode by not getting enough calories. So here goes for today:

Breakfast: Half a cup of Weight Control Oatmeal and 3/4 of a banana.
Lunch: An opened faced Turkey sanwich on multi grain bread with 1 oz cheese and a handful of raw spinich. plus mustard
Dinner will be: Grilled chicken breast, 1 cup steamed veggies, and 1/2 cup whole grain rice.

Any snack I have will be 100 calories or less.

I am drinking only water right now and plenty of it...I think.

For exercise I am alternating between my many work out DVD's including Yoga/Pilates, TaeBo, and different dance workouts. I have been keeping my body moving for at least two hours a day.

Today I did the 25 minute TaeBo basic workout followed by a Yoga/Pilates blend workout. I am sure I will be doing more later...plus some housework, if that counts.

I hope all of that sounds right. I am the type of person that seems to have become spoiled to instant gratification. So knowing this is going to take a while gets under my skin a little, BUT if I am throwing myself in to it and really spending a lot of time working on it and seeing results, I know I will stick with it. Is it possible to work out too much I wonder? I am a stay at home mom right now, so I could almost do these videos all day if I wanted...is that unhealthy?

I can't wait to get to know some people on here! Thanks for welcoming me!!

welcome tiffany i'm sure steve will give you all the answers you need in regards to exercise and nutrition. your food looks good. i started with less calories (i was around 1350 daily) but then steve told me i should go up. now i'm ranging between 1600 and 1900.
to help you foodwise (calories and all) go to Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople or FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal, you can find some helpful tips.
i hope you reach your goals tiffany i'll be here to support you

Lena

Thanks, Lena. I appreciate your help and encoragement.


I wonder if I am not eating too few calories. I seem to be losing about a pound a day. It has been wonderfully encouraging to see the scale go down each morning, but it seems too good to be true. If I am losing a pund a day, am I not eating enough. I am actually exercising for several hours a day...so maybe that offsets it?

I started to feel a little overwhelmed today, (probably due to the fact that I got very little sleep last night) so I gave myself permission to just not think of weight loss for most of the day. I did do some yard work, but did not formally work-out. It was also my baby's first birthday party so there was really no time for a real work out. I also ate a small piece of birthday cake and a spoon of ice cream. I don't feel guilty for it, though, because I did not over indulge and I have the mind set now that one pice of cake does not change my goal or my purpose. It is normal for someone to eat cake now and then. Anyway, other than that all I ate today was a bowl of weight control oatmeal and one turkey sandwhich. All I drank was water. I felt hungry a time or two, but was not in the position to get a snack.

I still do not know how many calories I need to shoot for.

Weight loss is a lot easier at first, so count any big losses you get as a bonus, but planning is the key to making sure you can get into the habit of eating right and exercising.
Be careful about they weight loss calculators and calorie counters, don't take them as gospel; each person is different. That said, they are STILL a great source of information and a good guideline for figuring out what is going to work for you.
Being new to this, you need to start educating yourself about weight loss, and start setting goals, both short term and long term, and also make sure that you don't feel "locked in" to where it will depress you if you don't meet a goal (It took you a long time to gain the weight, why should it come off easily?), and also make sure that you develop an eating plan you can live with; if you go back to your old eating and exercise habits, you'll start going back to your old sizes and weights, so it is better to make a small long-term change, than a big short-term change.
Make sure to write about your successes and your failures, if you miss a goal by a week, write it out! It helps me a lot, and it gives you a record of what you are doing; besides, if it doesn't work you might help someone else or even figure out what didn't work right.
One thing I also want to note: A lot of people need good moral support for the changes to stick; I have found a whole lot of it here, and this is honestly one of the places where I feel like I get a lot more than I give. It's a good effort:reward ratio in my book

That said, I think I should summarize my post a bit:
- Early losses are often a bonus; don't PLAN on losing weight at the same rate for a long time.
- Plan your meals and exercise, it takes time to develop better habits.
- It's not easy, but it does get easier... eventually.
- Don't believe everything you read; do your own research and discuss what you find.
- Set goals, short- and long-term, for both diet and exercise.
- Remember to take the long view of things, if it happens overnight, it can un-happen just as quickly. Take your time, do it right.
- Try to have fun! Celebrate your successes! If you celebrate them here, then it will help ME, too!
- A lot of us need support, especially early on; this forum does a pretty good job of that, but make sure it works for you.

I hope those help! If not, feel free to ignore me.

Thanks so much Ojay. Isn't it funny how losing weight can be such a back and forth emotional battle? Two days ago I was ready to charge "weight loss Hell" with a water pistol....today I just want to crawl back under the covers and have someone remove all the mirrors from the house.

I guess the only thing to do about that is bypass all reflective materials on my way to the Pilates mat to get my bottom moving. One workout at a time, right?

Breakfast was whole grain cereal and low fat milk. I need to go look for some low-cal low-fat recipes so I can start switching things up a bit. Anyone have any good sites for these kind of recipes? Have any favs you have already tried yourself?

I thought I would copy and past this from my very first post here. It has a little more info about me and my dieting ignorance. I am so glad I found this site.

from original post:

Hello. My name is Tiffany and I am 26. I was thin and athletic my whole young life. My weight gain problems started when my husband and I decided to have children. I had many problems and had to take a prescribed steroid and go on bed rest to keep from loosing the baby. With that, I gained 80 lbs.!! My next two pregnancies were back to back(with no steroids) and they only added more weight. Now, my youngest is about to be one and I am ready to shed these pounds. It feels as though weight loss is on my mind all day and night. I even dream about it. It makes me feel so low and awful. I have now been overweight for almost four years. Although I know that is no time at all compared to the struggles of some, the fat is just so consuming for me, too. The problem is I really don't know where to start. I have always been able to eat whatever I want and due to my athletics, I always got enough execise because someone else was there to make me do it. Now I find myslef giving in and eating something I know I don't need and then I have such guilt and hear myself asking, "Why are you such a weak willed fatty?" I know that thought process is unhealthy. What do I do? Where do I start? How many calories do I need a day to loose weight, but not go into starvation mode? How many minutes or hours of excerise and day or week do I need to make a difference? Should I weight train more or do more cardio? What kinds of foods should be absolute NO's? Is it unreasonable to want to loose at least 50 pounds by January 2008? Can anyone help me get on the right track?

Hi Tiffany,
Welcome to the WLF and to your new diary

clear that thought f rom your head -you aren't weak willed -you're now fixing the problem...

you've started already by deciding you want to make a change...

I don't think there's anything that should be an absolute NO - the absolute NOs are what leads to b inging - smarter choices are better... working within your daily calorie range you can have anything - though I personally avoid anything with trans fats or High Fructose corn syrup - or really any ingredient that I can't spell.. basiclaly anything processed but that's m y choice.

that's a reasonable amount to lose in 7 months... you can absolutely do that as long as you're focused on your goals.

Hi Tiffany! Glad you started a diary!! How are you doing today? Hope you're having a great Monday!

Well, I hope I did not sabotage myself already. I was ignorant of the fact that eating less than 1200 calories would put my body into starvation mode. I have only been eating about 900 calories, but I have only been doing that for about a week. That is not too much damage...is it? From what I have been reading and by using that calorie chart, I should be consuming about 2,100 calories a day to loose a pound a week. Is it damaging to subtract 500 more calories to try to loose 2 pounds a week? I think I am going to aim for about 1600 calories a day...unless someone who is a lot more knowledgeable than me tells me it is a bad idea(and then adds what I SHOULD be doing.)

I have the exercise part under control, but I just need more knowledge about the calorie part. And I need to become more familiar with how many calories certain food have without having to have it written right there in front of me.

I thank you all for your help. Since I got started and they've seen the results, my mom, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law have all gotten motivated to get healthy and lose weight. So, now my transformation is not only helping me, but people I love, too!

nah if its only a week it should be fine. Definatly raise it a bit. I think i did something similar not understanding the whole BMR shite.
I ate 600 calories the first day and went hard out exercising those 600 plus some off. I was wondering how on earth others did it, and i found the whole BMR thing

You body is amazingly resilent, it will get better. Just eat the way you should be & work out as much as you can & you will see changes.

There are A LOT of people on here with WONDERFUL information that can help you out along the way. & then there are those of us who are here for support even if we are just finding our own way too.

Good luck & glad you are here.

Today's final tally:

I ended up with about 1900 calories consumed. That's about 300-400 more than I was shooting for, but still under the 2100 that is my upper limit.

For exercise I did my 30 minute Yoga/Pilates blend DVD this morning and then I did my weight training this evening. (Not to mention the housework that is a never ending battle) After just about a week of exercise, I am already feeling stronger and I definitely have more energy throughout the day.

My daily victory:
1) I baked brownies to fulfill a promise and I did not eat even one--wasn't even tempted
2)My husband made me fuming mad and I did not eat a single thing "to make me feel better"--wasn't even tempted.

SMALL VICTORIES WIN HUGE BATTLES!!

Why, oh why, did it take me so long to make this commitment? It feels so great!

whoo hoo for the small victories great you started eating more.
i couldn't believe also the amount of energy i have since i started exercising. great isn't it?

Lena

Hi Tiffany,
Sounds like an excellent day!