From Teresa, Age 17 - 05/24/09 - IP#: 71.102.143.xxx  Click here to reply  
Ht. 5'5", Start: 255 lb, Today: 225 lb (BMI %tile: 98), Goal: 140 lb - Hi all! Many of you new people may not know me but I used to come here all the time.. about 3 years ago? Wow. Anywho. I lost about 25 lbs at that time which would be about freshman year for me. I gained it back because a lot of the strategies I see that people are using here.. Now i'm a high school senior year who is about to graduate and I've lost weight, feel so much better about it and have the strength to keep it going.. (for a LONG time).. So I wanted to share my hints, tips and recent strategies.. Feel free to add any of your own!
- Eat every 2 hours. Really. Don't allow your body to become hungry for too long. As long as you feel full you can't feel starved!
- There's also that mentality of feeling "starved" or "deprived" because of the TYPES of foods you have to cut out to lose weight. Have these.. in SMALL.. and i mean small moderation. Don't have fast food one night or a peice of chocolate cake and weigh yourself the next day and say.. hey.. i didn't gain anything from that cake.. Because you'll keep it up and the weight you lost will slowly creep up on you. If you want chips, have a single serving and that's it. Just make sure it's not done all the time! Even a few BITES of something will suffice. I know it's not fair but it's life and that's why we're here!
- Become educated with your body and health in general. I've spent so many days reading different magazines and articles and websites, talking to different people to put together what i think is a healthy meal plan for myself. Different people say, eat this much fiber, this many carbs.. protein blah blah.
A SUMMARY: Have as much fiber and protein that you can with any of your meals. Have more vegetables then you have fruit (Many of us agree that fruits are better tasting and EASIER to retrieve, but they still have natural sugars!) Drink lots of water. (duh) Cut out lots of saturated fat by switching from red meat to white meat and fish and by swtiching all full fat dairy products to low fat or fat free. (this doesn't mean don't ever have those things.. sometimes you need and crave REAL cheese or yogurt..so go for it, get over your craving and move on)
- DO NOT UNDEREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can not stress this anymore than that. Undereating leads to malnutrition and bingeing. If you really think your doing your body a favor by giving it less energy, you are not! For a while it was hard for me to even get over 1000 calories. I read up on this so many times in so many different places and found that 1500 is a healthy cushion. Especially when combined with excersize. I found ways to add calories to my diet by incorporating healthy fats, such as avocado or peanut butter and nuts. I have at least one GOOD fat a day like this. This doesn't mean have a cheeseburger once a day to fulfill your caloric needs.. it means to simply fill up those calories with good foods! You'll have strengh, energy and your body will be CONTENT!
- If you're sick of excersize, you're doing something wrong. Face it, to lose weight and keep it off you're going to have to do it literally FOREVER. I know many people are saying.. "I worked my butt off for 2 weeks excersizing and haven't lose much weight.." Well.. it's going to happen. you're going to be excersizing for YEARS! So get used to it and love it! =)
- Don't weigh yourself. Really. I used to weigh myself every couple of days.. then every week and neither really work. Perhaps once a month if at all, if it really gives you that motivational feeling, but if you're doing it right you should start to look and feel better right? There are so many things to take into consideration; muscle gain, water weight, bloatiness, what you've eaten that day, or even the scale you're using. Scales make us obsessive! Work towards a healthier body instead of just a "smaller" one!
-When i kept a food journal, I found myself becoming obsessive. Back in 2005 I used to come on here all the time and post what I had eaten every day.. It makes you obsessive! You're gonna be eating those foods forever! It's a good way to catch what you're eating that's bad.. but this is for the rest of your life! So learn to live with it and don't think about it so much.. you should have a good general idea of good foods and obsessiveness will just lead to a relapse.
- Plan, Plan, Plan! Really. It's the best thing to do. Everynight I make my lunch for school the next day so I wont wake up in the morning, too tired and rushed to do so and eat junk at school. It takes getting used to but soon enough you'll whip up a good lunch or dinner in no time!
- If you feel yourself craving bad foods and on the edge of a binge, look at success stories or busy yourself with something else. So many times i've gotten over wanting to eat chips of french fries by just doing something else! I wasn't even hungry!
- Lastly, Don't give up! We can all do it! =)