One foot forward

[sinkorswim40s]

Here goes, my first visit to this site and my first post, along with my first day on my journey of loosing weight through healthy lifestyle changes and choices. I currently weigh 11st 1lb, up until now I have being lucky I suppose that I have maintain a healthy weight for my height and ate what I wanted and stayed within 7st 7lb - 8st 7lb since being 18 (many moons ago). My rapid weight gain is an issue I have being running away from but no more. Eighteen months ago I weighed 8st 5lb, was healthy and active, I will highlight 'ACTIVE' as I feel this is the most important element to my weight gain. I can sit here and blame life changing events such as my dad passing, hormone changes, moving house, leaving a negative relationship (the last event was/is a huge positive) on the reasons I have gained this weight, and will admit to these life changing events being a contributor, but only as far as my mind set. The reason I have gained weight is because I have stopped listening or paying any attention to my natural stop switch, by this I mean I have become greedy and irresponsible, I am eating for the sake of eating, I am eating my main meals and then binge eating which has now become a habit. I have allowed myself to get in to the habit of eating trash not doing any form of real exercise and the most dangerous part making every excuse under the sun up to justify my weight gain, and allowing myself to believe it. Well as I stated in the beginning of this post I have decided as of today I will begin to break down these new found bad habits and excuses and start to get healthy again and loose some weight. I have decided to aim for a weight of between 8st 7lb to 8st 10lb, I will account a few pounds could be down to changes to my body due to ageing but I do not want my age to become another excuse for me to fall back on. I have being fortunate that I have never had to watch what I eat or being in need to lose weight and after speaking to other people who have tried to lose weight I realise it is going to be harder and take a lot my discipline for me to lose the weight than it has being for me to gain weight. Any advice anyone on here has for me would be greatly appreciated, I intend to visit this site and update every two weeks... wish me luck!

[YellowRose55]

Morning sinkorswim40s Welcome to the weight loss forum. The last 18 months have been a stressful time for you with all the changes and loss of your dad, no wonder you turned to food as a comfort. Sorry to hear you have been going through a hard time.

Today is your first day to losing weight and reaching your goal. Take a look at the "Welcome Newbies" in the pinned post on the right hand side or at the bottom if on a mobile. There are links in this post to the nhs 12 week plan and a BMI checker to see what your daily calorie allowance is.

Feel free to join in with any of the challenges that you will also find in the pinned post, they are good motivators to keep us moving. In the "Topic" section there are lots of information from members of this forum and how their journeys are going.

Good luck and have a good week.

Rose

[sinkorswim40s in reply to YellowRose55]

Thank You for your kind words... I will try and get on as often as possible to read other peoples blogs and journeys, alongside gaining invaluable information and motivation that is on this site. I decided to only get weighed every fortnight so thought I would post then (I am going to keep a journal along the way) as I don't want to obsess over numbers but fingers crossed will start to feel the health benefits of my change in habits, and obviously hopefully start to see the rewards

I'd like to think or did until I started to feel more like myself that the events over the past 18 months are the reason for my weight gain but I do not feel they were. I honestly feel that I became lazy and greedy with my eating habits. I have just read the lovely encouraging words of Anna61 and can understand how she interpreted my words as me being negative to myself but that is not how I see things. I am and always have being a believer that when life throws hardship your way as it sadly does at times to us all that you should give yourself time to heal, deal and accept and move on and further develop in the best direction for yourself. I also believe that if possible make the hardest changes and break the hardest of habits when you are at your lowest and do not allow yourself to become clouded or covered by excuses ( obviously this is only if it is possible for a person to do so at the time, they may be health reason or other factors that stop this)

As an example of my outlook I decided the day after my fathers send off and celebration of his full adventurous life to stop smoking as his passing was in some ways related to him being a smoker. This has not been a walk in the park as I was a deluded drug addict (as are all smokers) and smoking was a huge part of my life but I made a decision at one of the darkest moments of my life, there and then outside in my garden to never smoke again and I put my last cigarette out, that was nearly seven months ago some of it has being hell (obviously not really but at times felt like it) But the huge positive as each day passes and the habit along with all of the excuses of why I smoked start to fade I continuously reap the benefits both physically and financially. I am hoping to do the same with food... I say with gritted teeth :), I hope to once again enjoy the foods I am eating and not just eat for the sake of as I have been, reading some of the peoples post it instills me with great pride at how amazing and resilient once we accept our situation we all are... Wow sorry that turned in to a mini essay. Again Thank You for your words

[YellowRose55 in reply to sinkorswim40s]

Hi sinkorswim40s

You have a lovely positive way to look at things that need changing. Well done for stop smoking, nearly 7 months now that great. You will get there too with the healthy eating and exercise, we are all here to support you.

[wa2un7 Maintainer]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on taking control of your life. Don't worry, you'll swim, not sink and we'll support you all the way.👏👏

[sinkorswim40s in reply to wa2un7]

Thank You, I chose my name as it's the name of a comedy drama I am currently putting together... slow process but I am loving writing it. Again Thank You for your words of encouragement.

[IndigoBlue61]

Hello sinkorswim40s and Welcome to the Weight Loss Forum ☺

You have had a lovely welcome from Rose but if I may, I have a few suggestions? A couple of things you said sound very negative, as if you blame yourself. Our brains are hot-wired to turn to food for comfort in times of stress and anxiety. You are not greedy or irresponsible. These are REASONS not excuses, and understanding this is important if we are to learn from it. You have been through a lot and have found the strength to make changes, congratulate yourself for that ☺

Secondly, whilst inactivity isn't healthy, for weight loss, food is more important than exercise. Have a look at the 12 week plan, BMI checker and work out a plan. I also suggest coming on here more frequently if you can, 2 weeks is a long time. There are weigh in threads on 6 days of the week which many people find very useful. Today's is hosted by moreless ☺ if you 'click' on her name you will see all her posts. The weigh in thread is also a 'pinned ' post.

Thirdly, try to enjoy the process, learning new recipes and finding ways to get more active. Don't worry too much about the numbers on the scales, they are only one measure of health. Take photographs and use a tape measure. Challenge yourself physically. These are all important factors. ☺

I hope some of these points may help you. This is a very friendly group so please ask if you have any questions ☺

Best wishes

Anna

[sinkorswim40s in reply to IndigoBlue61]

Hello and Thank You for your words of encouragement, I have the day off from work today and am currently looking at new recipes and jotting down a shopping list of yummy things... I have part replied to your message through my reply to YellowRose55 trust me it was best if not you would also end up with a mini essay Again Thank You for your kind words of encouragement.

[elphie2185 10 kg]

Hello sinkorswim40s welcome to this forum. It looks like you've had a tough time the past couple of years. I think we are a few in the same situation where we have tried to convince ourselves that there was some sort of excuses for our weights to be the way it is.

I have found counting the calories in my food quite the eye opener. I am very active but I was still putting on weight. I have started the 12 weeks programme last week and I cook differently, have smaller portion and think twice about the "should I really have this?" In just a week my habits have really changed!

Good luck

[Grannynise 6lbs]

You sound like a very determined lady with a very positive outlook. Use the forum to support you, it's great to just read a few posts to get re-oomphed if you need a shove!

[ElliceMiles]

Welcome to the forum. Wishing you the very best as you begin your new healthy lifestyle.

[Hidden]

Hi, I do feel for you, as I have been in a similar situation myself. I need to be around 8stone 7lbs to 9 stones tops, and, at my heaviest, was 11stones 4lbs. This might not sound very much to people who have more to lose, but, actually, even a couple of surplus stones makes a huge difference to how you feel and to your health.

The only thing that worked for me was to accept that I had to be disciplined, and that if I applied the 80/20 rule - ie 80% of the time I am strict with myself, 20% of the time I allow myself to go out for lunch occasionally, pig out over Christmas, enjoy the odd slice of cake if it's someone's birthday at work, etc. So I can live a normal life and keep my weight under control.

Currently 9 stone, but aiming to be back at 8stone 7lbs by Easter. Then I'll eat a whole Easter egg just to myself!