[La Siesta Encantada]

:( :( I work a full time job at a bank. Which is never a very physical kind of job. Since I started a year ago I gained 20 lbs. I was already slightly overweight before that. When I get home from work I just don't feel like getting up and working out. What should I do? I am extremely unhappy with how I look and feel. If anyone has any suggestions OTHER THEN EATING HEALTY please reply. I do the eating health thing, and the lots of water thing and I am taking the slimquick diet pills and still nothing happens. Please help!! :(

[ForeverZero]

Don't waste your money on diet pills, they don't work. Once you start working out, your momentum will be hard to break, so force yourself to get started

[iDish]

Sweetie you KNOW your problem. You told us it already. You're not active because you lack motivation. Motivation differs between people. But the fact that you are "extremely unhappy with how [you] look and feel" should be motivation enough. You are concerned with the way you look and how you feel. Shouldn't that be enough to take a 20 to 60 minute walk every other day? I suppose not. It's okay though. Because a lot of people are just like you. What's important is that you realize the problem. Some people don't. I'll tell you this right now, and I mean this with all of the vigor I have inside me, YOU WILL NOT MAKE ANY PROGRESS UNLESS YOU EXERCISE. Simple as that. The people who are very heavy who DO diet without exercising end up thinner but with sagging skin and thin hair. Is that what you want? I'm sure it's not. So if you don't make that change and exercise then you will continue to feel badly about yourself. If you only change the way you eat then you will be smaller, wrigglier with skin hanging, and probably still unhappy. Because if you lose the weight and STILL look awful then you won't know what to do at that point. You'll have sagging skin that you won't know how to get rid of. Your skin and hair will be in bad shape. And you won't be able to change any of that with ease. So, which way would you like to go?

You're excuse can't simply be that you don't 'feel' like exercising at the end of the day. No one feeels like doing more work after coming home from work. But they do it anyway because they realize that it will benefit them in the long run. Once you are ready to take that step, THEN you can worry about the best way to do it. But, of course, we both know the best way to solve this problem. Exercise :)

[smearcase]

You could get a job in construction, working with picks and shovels and concrete, and wheelbarrowing, climbing up and down ladders, crawling under buildings, moving heavy loads prom point A to point B, breaking up old concrete etc etc etc, or you could keep your good bank job in a controlled climate, and do some exercising. It's a no-brainer in my opinion.
Can you get up early and exercise in the AM and be done with it for the day? Who knows, it may motivate you at work too. You'll be a vp in no time (Disregard if you are currently the president)

[Always_helping]

:( :( I work a full time job at a bank. Which is never a very physical kind of job. Since I started a year ago I gained 20 lbs. I was already slightly overweight before that. When I get home from work I just dont feel like getting up and working out. What should I do?! I am extremely unhappy with how I look and feel. If anyone has any suggestions OTHER THEN EATING HEALTY please reply. I do the eating health thing, and the lots of water thing and I am taking the slimquick diet pills and still nothing happens. Please help!!!!!!!:(

Couple of quick options:

-Check with your local community college to see if they offer exercise classes. I did this once and I liked because I'm the type that "likes to go to class".

-If you have an hour lunch, spend 30min of that lunch *everyday* walking around in comfortable shoes that you brought from home.

-Partner up with someone so you *both* stay motivated. I also did this once and, before that, I never thought I'd be jogging/walking a mile at 5AM with a good buddy of mine.

-Also, as one responder eluded to, find out what motivates you. This is not easy for some people, but once you realize what truly motivates you, then you do great things; not only for yourself, but for others too.

-If you find yourself not making any significant progress towards your weight loss goals, then perhaps professional counseling might be an option because there are *many* reasons people don't have (or have lost) motivation.

Best wishes.

[Credendovidis]

The reality :

Losing weight means a negative result of the subtraction of calory intake less calory use each day. A woman requires around 1500 calories (a male around 2000 calories) per day to stay on weight. That includes EVERYTHING that enters your mouth!!

Even a cup of tea without sugar without milk contains calories!!

Your daily intake should include things like vitamins and other "musts" : you do NEED veggies, you do NEED proteins, and - yes - you do NEED some fat daily.

===

What you should do : make a list of EVERYTHING you eat and drink on a day.
Including water (of which you should drink at least 2 liters each day).

Calculate from that list the total amount of calories entering your mouth.
See where you can reduce that intake. Out goes chocolade, out go cookies, out go alcohol, out goes sugar, out goes cola and any other sweet softdrinks, out goes any fat (there is much hidden fat in foodstuff - more than enough for your daily intake). Reduce intake of other carbohydrates , INCLUDING pasta!!
And no more quarter pounder burgers with mayo and chips on the sideline !
Forget the existence of MacD and BurgerKing !
If you ever want to eat a burger : prepare it yourself ! KNOW what you eat !

In stay veggies and some limited amount of protein. Eat daily a salade of lettuce , tomatoes, and cucumber.
Eat daily at least 3 pieces of different fruits. An apple a day... And that is only on the intake side!!

===

Now the outgoing side :

While you reduce the intake of energy, you now also have to increase the loss of energy inside your body, and the only way to do that is by burning up fats and carbs.

START EXERCIZING!! Use a bicycle instead of your car. Walk instead of using other means of transportation. Go to a gym. In your spare time take up a delivery job : start delivering daily newspapers, mail, or advertising stuff : besides that it uses energy, it also makes you fit. Make a list of all the things you do on a daily basis, and see where you can change your habits to one in which you use more energy.

===

People who run a (half) marathon eat the day before a pasta meal to get a lot of extra energy in their body to consume the next day. But if you eat pasta and do not run that marathon, you add another pound or so to your body weight.

The problem with dieting is that most people have no idea how their body functions and how and why they keep gaining weight.

Now : at least I gave you the basics of that.
It's up to you now to reduce that calory intake, and increase that calory consumption !

Success !

:)