# Help



## demonwolfmoon (Oct 31, 2011)

the ONLY way I ever lose weight as an adult is by calorie restriction. I lost tons when I was on Jenny Craig (good food, but $$), and with willpower and seasonings, lots of seasonings, I lost with nutrisystem.

so

we eat more than we think we do. Some backstory: I had a nasty cancer scare years ago...they left the tumor in for 2 years, scared the bejeesus out of me....went from specialist to specialist. Anyhow, it was "benign but agressive"...and they could not remove it all. Long story short, I spent a year wondering wth was wrong with my ankle, unable to walk or be active (felt like an UGLY sprain, and my ankle would inexplicable collapse sometimes), a year of diagnosis, and prep....a year of waiting, cuz I got knocked up....and then they removed it. I LOST pretty much all my muscle mass. And Im short too lol.

SO supposedly the best way is slow muscle building exercises and DIET. Trust me, its easy easy easy to eat a few hundred extra calories, and that, without working them off, will cease your weight loss. And its hard to work those calories off if you have low muscle mass. 

Honestly? I am way too heavy at about 200 and ten weeks pregnant. Im gonna ride out the weight loss from breastfeeding (usually 20, 30 pounds) and try to get back on Jenny Craig if I can afford it. Once you lose enough they transition you to mostly outside food, and that decrease in $ spent motivates the heck out of me.  Then Im gonna try to COMPLETE p90x, but thats a whole 'nother story.

good luck!


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## Tracer (Sep 16, 2012)

The first few kilos are always the worst.

Have you talked to a doctor about it? Rule out any medical conditions that are keeping the weight on you first, so that they can't hold you back.

Start a food diary of everything you eat in a day - you'll be surprised how it adds up. Try not to eat any carbs after 6pm, and eat a piece of fruit within half an hour of finishing a meal. Do some exercise as soon as you get out of bed in the morning, before you eat breakfast. You could also start hand-walking your horse for exercise. Makes sure you eat at regular times every day, and eat before you get hungry so that you don't overeat.

Once you shift those first few kilos, it will get easier. The hard part is not falling back into your old habits.


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## Red Gate Farm (Aug 28, 2011)

For a couple of weeks, mark down everything you eat, and I mean everything. Don't cheat! We can sabotage ourselves and "forget" that pastry or not notice we had three heaping scoops of ice cream.

Then analyse what you've eaten. make a chart and research WHAT you ate and how much. Mark down the calories and the carbs and whatever else you want to track.

Take a look at what an actual portion is. It will surprise you.

That's when I sat back and went OMG :shock:

Now you can start making better choices.

Here's what I ditched from my diet, and I lost 40 lbs in 5 months.
- NO pop/soda. Even the diet stuff.
- NO eating out.
- Cut WAY down on the grains. We've been brainwashed into thinking those are healthy in the amounts we eat them. Don't get me wrong, grains are okay but NOT in these amounts. Look at any shopping cart and see how many products contain grains. 90% of them also contain corn.
- NO pre-packaged food. They put stuff in there that isn't good for you (corn and presertavies) and will not help in weight loss. Buy the ingredients and make your own. 
- I switched from margarine to butter. Yeah butter! I lost weight, go figure.

Eat breakfast, it's important. Some people don't eat breakfast thinking they can cut calories by cutting a meal. This leads to snacking (which you won't remember doing) or pigging out when your body demands fuel.

Less sugars, less prepackaged, less grains
More meat, fish, vegetables and fruits and WATER.


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

Red Gate has some great ideas there, and boring though it is the only way to weigh less is to follow this thought



> Less sugars, less prepackaged, less grains
> More meat, fish, vegetables and fruits and WATER.


I am the queen of failed diets, because I have spent my life looking for a quick fix, and that works in the short term, but for me is not the answer. My most spectacular result, was losing over 120 pounds in 17 months on a meal replacement diet, guess what, it taught me nothing and I regained nearly 100 pounds in less than 17 months

Now in recovery from an accident I have found the answer, I think, smaller plate size, eating a lot slower, choosing plain meat, fish, fruit and veggies as my main source of nutrition, although that should more properly be written, veggies, fruit, fish and meat, as the biggest quantity should come first.

The other benefit, because I am not on a diet, no food is banned, I can have what I like, within reason, so at a BBQ the other night, while I chose to have a large heap of green salad, and a tiny spoon of potato salad with my steak, I also happily chose to have the tiramisu and ice cream for desert. It wasn't a diet breaker, so no need to have the I have blown today, this week, this month, so I may as well eat what I want now seeing as I have failed, but it was a choice, and then I chose to go back to eating properly again.

IT IS HARD to lose weight at any time, if you are ill, hurt, damaged etc, it is even harder, but you just have to want to do it. I know that is simplistic, but last time I lost a lot it was the thought of being able to be the first one to ride my colt that kept me going. This time it is the mental images of the nursing staff having to manual lift me, and the effort I have to put in to help myself. It isn't that I am beating myself up over it, but just a promise that IF I have to be a patient again, I want it to be easier on everyone.


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## demonwolfmoon (Oct 31, 2011)

agreewith redgate on the water. WATER, not crappy diet drinks. Lucky for me, Coke makes me nauseous this time. LAST TIME it was coke zero. I STILL cant drink coke zero, five years later.

Long story short, diet sodas are bad, and being dehydrated can make you feel hungry. It helps to always have water in front of you, and drink it all the time.


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