LOSING WEIGHT

[miishriish]

Is it true that all you really need is MOTIVATION to lose weight?
I have had friends who used to go to the gym then stopped and did their own exercise at home for free. I mean different things work for different people. I weigh nearly 70kgs and Im only 19. I used to be 55kgs 2 years ago. Im also a vegeterian. What do you propose is a good, healthy way of dieting ?

[mum2four]

After reading the yoga example I had some more thoughts. The people around you can influence your food intake and exercise as well your mental health. If we are going to loose weight and keep it off we need to also start to observe how other people influence our choices, our energy level, and mental state. We need a plan to over come those chalange too.

I remember being told once that if I was ever to get over my depression I needed to suround my self with positive people. This is so true. Using my recent experiances as an example. I'm currently trying to get my cert 2 in community studies. The people in my class are people who gosip and complain a lot they seem to thing that other peoples lives are more interesting than there own. While I'm a very strong willed person and I can ignore there stupid comments and there negative attuide(example one person said that I need to just suck up my anxiety and get on with things lol) Ignoreing comments take my energy away from something els I could be doing. I've been surounded by the sort of people in my class all my life and had depression most of my life. Recently I also had to a week of work experiance for my course. I was worried about enjoying it as I decided I was going to work with disabled kids at a school. I thought being around children that have the been given a negaitive start to there life would be hard. I was so wrong The teacher and parent and specially the students were all so happy. I had a blast I loved it so much I miss it and I have now started the process to become a volenter at the school till such day that I have my cert 3 in disablities. I had way more energy when I working at the school than I do in class with the negative people. I ate healthier while at the school and give in easier to going to the canteen to get bad food(chocolate milk and donut) I want to excape the class for just long enough to get my head ready to cope with them for the rest of day some times that I get a donut when I really dont want to be eating it but I continue to eat it cause people dont talk to me as much when I'm eating and i have an excuse if I dont want to answer.

I need to control my habbits better I'm just doing my self harm and undoing my hard and good work as well. BUT people can influence our choices and some time people around us also sabortage our effort as well. My partner does this to me not on purpose like other people can I dont think but he does do it. He makes a meal and put too much on my plate and get's offended if i dont eat it all this makes me feel bad and some times I dont want to cause him to feel bad so I eat it all and other time I get the dog to eat it when he's not looking like I'm a child giving my food to dog to get desert faster lol. My partner was not raised with good eating habbits and he mostly only eats tea and forgets that I have been eating my meals when I'm supose to. He could benift for seeing a dietition him self to learn healthier eating habbit's. My friend has  a serious sabatour for a partner. He's like her butt being big and he tells her that and he also is just mean to her and make it hard for her with the kids so she cant exercise.

take notice of the people around you they may be influenceing you more than you think.

[Barb135]

The thoughts expressed above are great -- they pretty much say it all.  Motivation is key to weight loss because if you don't have a reason, you won't do it.  

Just remember the definition of the word "diet" ---- a diet is simply "what you eat".  Look at it this way:  A koala bear's diet consists of eucalyptus leaves -- that's it; that's what they eat.  A cow's diet consists of grain/grass.  

Your "diet" can either be healthy or not, it's whatever you choose eat.  If you choose for your diet to be vegetarian, I'd strongly suggest that you do a lot of research first in order to make sure you get all the nutrients your body needs or find out what supplements you will need to make up for what might be lost from the diet.  

It's always best to incorporate things into your diet that you like and can stick with -- lifestyle changes; by doing that, it's not so much like a "DIET" ------- I'm a believer in eating small amounts of most everything, because if we deprive ourselves of all the "good" (bad for us) things we enjoy, we usually end up binging at some point and undo everything we might have accomplished.  

At any rate -- by  making "lifestyle changes", you will never go off the "diet", so you won't have to worry about gaining back everything.  Portion control is key for this idea.  I'm learning it myself.......

Exercise is pretty much essential for weight loss, toning muscles, etc.  Sometimes, just toning muscles can make us LOOK like we lost weight even if we didn't.  The key to exercise is finding things we enjoy, that we can relax with........ I'll use mum2four's example -- she loved the gym until her sister appeared on the scene; she was no longer relaxing and enjoying the exercise, so I'm sure it became more like WORK than something fun.......

Another example:  *I* love to do yoga and I have several dvd's that I was working out to most days.  The problem was my husband.........yep, sure was; he'd come in and see me doing some of the poses and start making remarks like "you're pretty old to be doing stuff like that" or "that's pretty tough for an old lady like you" or "look out, you're gonna put something out of joint there" ------------ I finally got fed up one day and told him that he could NOT be in the room when I was doing my yoga and if he HAD to be in the room, he could not utter a sound........... he got ever so offended and huffed off to another room.  BUT -- I got my point across; if I'm doing a yoga workout, he might watch me for a few minutes, but never makes a sound unless it's into a "slow/break" time and then only to tell me I'm doing great!!!  

All that said, I'll go back to motivation --- it I hadn't been motivated enough, I would never have spoken up and told hubby to be quiet; I would just have given up.......

[mum2four]

I lost 10 using the gym and pool before my struggle with tachycardia got worse. I agree that you need motivation but I also think you need to enjoy exercise. I went with a friend and had lots of fun. Not sure if it's a coincidance or not but I lost the 10kg before my sister join us at the gym. I have a lot of anxiety around my sister as she's a controling person and given any chance she will try to control me any way. I stopped loosing weight once she joined us.

I also think that enjoyment is a big part of loosing weight because if you dont enjoy it you'll be more likly to talk your self out of exercise.

I also think that if you can add exercise in to your day that does not seem like exercise your more likly to loose weight and you'll also be creating good habbits to keep weight off after. For example walk faster, take the longer route, park further from the shops, walk short distance leave the car behind, if you have a dog walk the dog more play with the dog more, if you have kids do more active things with them.

You should never keep anything thats bad for looseing weight in the house. If's its not in the house you cant eat it and if you crave it bad enough your either going to have to go out and buy it or forget about it. If you want to go out buy then make your self walk to shop to get it at least to doing your bit to avoid gaining to much weight when you do walk. Giveing in to craving is best avoided if you want to loose weight but I also think that avoiding all treats is BAD, because when you come off the "diet"(hate that word) and you give in to the tempation you wont have good habbits to also work those calories off and you could end up gaining the weight back.

A "diet" should be practical to help you learn good eating/exercising habbits. In fact my oppinion is you should not reduce you food intake drasticly instead exercise more. That way when you get to your desired weight you dont have to start eating more instead you can just back off on some of the exercise to maintain your weight.

I do wonder if your diet has enough of ALL the vit/min. I'm not a vegetarian so to speck but when I focus more on eating veg and fruits ect I struggle to loose weight. Yet when I eat some "junk" as well I seem to loose weight. I'm confused the only thing I can figure is the junk is giving me something the really healthy food is lacking. I'm seeing a dietition soon.

I'm not a big meat eater at all and when I do eat a little chicken or something made from mince the meat portion is tiny compared to the veg/salad. Cant eat meat by its self I struggle to swallow it with out feeling nausious or gagging. I think partly because I cant let my self think about what meat really is. There's more to in than that I think its also a sensory issue. Meat just feels horrible in my mouth. My 10 has the same problem.

Take care

[kittengamer]

Elaine is right. It sounds trite, but motivation is a requirement & that has to outweigh whatever holds you back. (for me it's being lazy)

I am not a veggie, but I have had friends who were. They were either unhealthy or they had to go through a lot of extra effort to get all the nutrition their bodies needed. Maybe this link will help you with planning a good diet for yourself.

http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/vegetarian.html

Good luck!

[elaine1961]

Yes Motivation is a very important part of weight loss, if you dont believe you can lose weight then you wont, because you wont stick at anything,
Losing weight is not about going to the gym or spending money,
I do go to a gym because for me i know that if i pay for it then i have to do it, i would maybe do it for a few weeks at home but then i would get bored doing it on my own so thats why i use the gym, I know people who prefer to do exercise at home or outside,
That is just peoples preferance.

The motivation and determination comes from sticking to whatever YOU decide is right for you. my 6yr old grandson is always telling me we dondt quit, and he now as a new top that says refuse to fail ( I gotta get me one of those),

A good healthy way to diet, for me it is eating 3 healthy meals a day and healthy snacks, drinking plenty of water at least 8 glasses, geting plenty of rest, and i exercise 5 days aweek, and weekends we go out walking, and staying motivated, doing these things as helped me lose 150lbs.

I dont know about vegitarian diets but someone else will comment about that,
Good luck on your journey