Hi guys! Myself and emerald eyes have decided to start a thread to help each other lose weight the healthy way. That means no pills, fads or life threatening behaviours! So if you want to be a part of it just post here!

I'll start:

I am 26 years old. I have been struggling with my weight since high school. It goes up, I freak out and then lose some and then it goes up again. It has been a pattern like this for nearly ten years! So now I want it to go down and stay down. I know this will only happen if I change my lifestyle so here are my goals:

1. To do a high intensity cardio workout at least three times a week.
2. To eat a healthy diet with lots of vegetables.
3. To lose thirty pounds. (That would put me back into my healthy weight range.)

I want to lose weight and be a healthy strong person. I want to feel proud of the way I look and my accomplishments.

If you want the same things then sign up! Encouragement and understanding can only help, right?

mrs.pennell

Good tips Orange! I am also an active cyclist/swimmer/walker. Maybe once I get my eating on track that'll help with the weight loss! I love sugar...I think that's my biggest problem. But thanks for all the food tips. I will try them!

emeraldeyes

Thanks to all on the advice. Here's the problem I have....I eat my fruits and veggies(luv them), I don't drink any sodas maybe only sprite(sometimes) I always try to stay away from caffeine. I eat wheat instead of white bread. I'm always drinking water. I just have a hard time figuring out what to buy at the grocery store. I mean I heard so many things about which food is right but then I'll hear from someone else that it's not good to eat that. I'm not a expert on nutritious foods. I also don't want to be on this very strict diet, tried it before and just hated that fact that I couldn't enjoy the foods I like to eat. I'm Hispanic and I think everyone here knows that some Mexican food are greasy and fatting. But I don't want to feel that I have to give up on my Mexican cultural foods, it's a part of me. So how do you divide that into making selections that are healthy and foods that I enjoy eating like Mexican food? What do you have to look for when shopping for groceries? I don't know what kind of diet works for me, I've tried to figure it out. I do know everyone's bodies are different and different things work for people. So how do you figure out what works for your body to react to diets and exercises well? I know without a doubt that exercise is good for you but which exercises are the best for you? When it comes to fitness and to know exactly what foods to eat that are healthy for me, I'm totally clueless! lol! This is really frustrating for me, I hope I didn't sound to mean here. I apologize.

I do have to admit I've be struggling here on my goals. Though I have taken 2 30 min walks in my neighborhood this week. The first 3 days of this week was keeping good track on my 2000 calorie diet but failed when I started getting stressed out and depressed. I ate McDonald's and had a pizza hot-pocket yesterday. I'm feeling better today, my buddy here Mrs. Pennell brought my spirits up. She's a sweetheart!

Take Care to all!

orange

You're right, being on a very strict diet is just going to make you frustrated and crave foods more. What I eat isn't a diet; it's true that I avoid certain foods, but I am comfortable with that. I'm counting on eating what I eat currently for the rest of my life (with some alterations, like for example now, because I am pregnant I need more calories and vitamins). Everyone is different, so you need to find a food and exercise plan that works well for you. It can be a long hard process, but how I did it was read, read, read the advice of others on exercise and nutrition, use the things I liked, and leave the rest. Eventually I developed a plan that I could live with.

I love Mexican food too! I would suggest cooking your favorite Mexican foods at home rather than eating them in a restaurant or take-out. And when you use a recipe, substitute the higher fat ingredients for lower fat ones. For example, if your recipe calls for ground beef, sour cream, cooking oil and cheese, I would use extra lean ground beef, low fat sour cream, a "good" cooking oil such as safflower or sunflower oil, and low-fat cheese. Just by doing that, you're eliminating a lot of unnecessary calories and you're still able to enjoy a meal you love.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do great if you keep working at it!!

mrs.pennell

Orange is definitely right here! Making things at home where you can control the ingredients is a great because you can use lower fat, higher fiber ingredients. When you eat out, you just don't know what you're getting!

Does any body have any good mexican recipes? I LOVE mexican!!

LTheobald

Yeah, don't worry about the cheeseburger. You're not going to change overnight Just think oh well and make sure you do enough exercise to burn it off.

And I don't think I know any mexican recipes but if you ever want any oriental recipes - that I can do :P

orange

No one's posted in here for a while, but I just discovered a new tip so I thought I'd share...

Maybe this is a well-known tip, but it was news to me, and I love it... "Salad in a Bag": You take a clean vegetable bag, like what you get at the grocers, and place all your salad ingredients inside. Then pour in a very small amount of salad dressing. Blow up the bag like a balloon, and shake the contents. Even though you have used only a small bit of dressing, the dressing coats every part of your salad, making it a lot tastier. I'm doing this all the time now!

Marj Ann

Orange, you may already know this, but based on what I've read, I tend to believe the primary vital steps toward weight loss must commence with changing the body from acid to alkaline. As though that wasn't sufficient 'challenge', according to my reading, our fat cells act pretty much as a 'frontal guard' whose job is to identify, take up, store & thus keep acid away from the body's major organs so the organs & body is protected against damage/death; which would otherwise result when we eat or drink acidic items. On top of that, it seems fat cells multipy and get larger as the cells continue to take up & store acidic 'material'. ok... so assuming that's true, how to back-peddle & reverse the process? A lot seems to depend on water; specifically, the type, quantity & 'quality' of water; having the properties capable of 'pricking' open the cells, & then hydrate & flush all of the stored acidity 'stuff' from the accumulation of enlarged fat cells. To me it seems logical & makes sense, but there's other 'schools of thought' and I can't scientifically prove that's the actual process even though my gut level instinct says it's accurate. Uh... are your eyes GLAZING over yet? That's probably weird sounding enough ... and SUFFICIENT for you to 'chomp on', mull over for now. I'd be interested in other' thoughts you and others may have on the topic... Anyway, 'nuff for the time being. ... We can perhaps explore the matter further if you'd like. ~ Best thoughts...MarjAnn

orange

Hmmm... actually no I've never heard what you're talking about MarjAnn... does it have a name haha? You can explain it to me if you like, I'm always interested to hear new things. Just to let you know though, I'm not overweight, I actually have often struggled with being underweight... but I did manage to achieve a normal weight during my pregnancy, and now I'm just interested in maintaining my current weight range and sharing tips with others. I'm already on quite a strict diet, since I'm recently discovered that I'm allergic to milk and gluten, and I also don't eat any meat or sugar anymore.

spalmi

Keep drinking the water. My wife had bad ankle swelling and water is said to help with that.

http://free.000angels.com/spalmi/weightloss.html