**slightly long post, sorry in advance**
I have been unhappy with myself for a long time now, and am trying to do something about it. A few years back, I was in an unhealthy relationship and poor. I made horrible food choices, and gained a lot of weight. I went from a size 14 to a size 22/24 within months/a year. The guy I was dating and I would go out to eat all the time, get ice cream/junk food at every shopping trip if we could. When I had extra money to splurge it was always on food. Food made me happy while I ate it, made me feel better, but afterwards, I felt like crap. This started when I was 21. I am now nearing 27 and need to change my life.
When I was 24 I decided to make a change. I ate healthier, ended the bad relationship/situation, started working a second job and got more active. I lost weight (not sure how much, I avoided scales at all cost) and went down to a size 16. Where I have been stuck. I now fluctuate from a size 18 to a size 16. My weight fluctuates within about 10 lbs. I have decided that I need to make a lifestyle change. My husband and I both decided actually. We have been doing it over the past couple months but seeing little results, so we are trying to step it up. Some things we are already doing....
We are vegetarians. We eat a lot of tofu & fake meats, veggies (mainly broccoli, corn, peppers, lettuce, carrots). We have problems with soda, so have cut down and only allow ourselves one day a week that we can drink soda. We drink a lot of water but over the summer have had a lot of sweet tea, which is a lot of sugar. We cut out on sweets....no cookies, candy, ice cream (my weakness....). When we want a sweet "dessert" we plan to incorporate fruits or light puddings or yogurt. We don't eat fast food....except the occaisonal burrito from chipotle. We do eat pizza once a week probably, and are trying to cut down on that. Typically plain cheese, or veggie.
Our problem foods? We eat pasta, potatoes, rice....starchy foods too much. I enjoy wheat bread but DH does not. So we are going to try multi grain breads. I love brown rice, he is okay with it but likes white rice more, so I am working on getting him to make the switch. IDK what to do about potatoes....and we have been buying this Ronzoni (i think is the brand) smart taste pasta that is supposed to have whole grains in it.
Okay, so this is kinda a long post now, and I am sorry for that. The reason I am writing all this out, is because we could use advice. Recipes, food ideas....anything you could think of to help us eat healthier.
We are working on the exercise thing too. We don't have sidewalks in our area, and two busy highways on either side of our town so we aren't too comfy walking outside but are starting to try to plan a route. I ordered a cardio fitness dvd that I want to try that got good reviews...and he is trying to work on our basement so we have a workout area. We cannot afford a gym or classes at it, and the local Y is 60/mo for the two of us to join, so that has to wait. We want to go to a local park to walk but are trying to coordinate times with my schedule of having kids at the house (i do daycare from home all day). So if anyone has any ideas on workouts or ways to get more active that you think would help, or have helped you, I would love to hear it!
Also I wanted to know if anyone else was struggling with weight loss...if you wanted to have a friend to talk to about it, we could encourage each other, share tips and etc.
I have been unhappy with myself for a long time now, and am trying to do something about it. A few years back, I was in an unhealthy relationship and poor. I made horrible food choices, and gained a lot of weight. I went from a size 14 to a size 22/24 within months/a year. The guy I was dating and I would go out to eat all the time, get ice cream/junk food at every shopping trip if we could. When I had extra money to splurge it was always on food. Food made me happy while I ate it, made me feel better, but afterwards, I felt like crap. This started when I was 21. I am now nearing 27 and need to change my life.
When I was 24 I decided to make a change. I ate healthier, ended the bad relationship/situation, started working a second job and got more active. I lost weight (not sure how much, I avoided scales at all cost) and went down to a size 16. Where I have been stuck. I now fluctuate from a size 18 to a size 16. My weight fluctuates within about 10 lbs. I have decided that I need to make a lifestyle change. My husband and I both decided actually. We have been doing it over the past couple months but seeing little results, so we are trying to step it up. Some things we are already doing....
We are vegetarians. We eat a lot of tofu & fake meats, veggies (mainly broccoli, corn, peppers, lettuce, carrots). We have problems with soda, so have cut down and only allow ourselves one day a week that we can drink soda. We drink a lot of water but over the summer have had a lot of sweet tea, which is a lot of sugar. We cut out on sweets....no cookies, candy, ice cream (my weakness....). When we want a sweet "dessert" we plan to incorporate fruits or light puddings or yogurt. We don't eat fast food....except the occaisonal burrito from chipotle. We do eat pizza once a week probably, and are trying to cut down on that. Typically plain cheese, or veggie.
Our problem foods? We eat pasta, potatoes, rice....starchy foods too much. I enjoy wheat bread but DH does not. So we are going to try multi grain breads. I love brown rice, he is okay with it but likes white rice more, so I am working on getting him to make the switch. IDK what to do about potatoes....and we have been buying this Ronzoni (i think is the brand) smart taste pasta that is supposed to have whole grains in it.
Okay, so this is kinda a long post now, and I am sorry for that. The reason I am writing all this out, is because we could use advice. Recipes, food ideas....anything you could think of to help us eat healthier.
We are working on the exercise thing too. We don't have sidewalks in our area, and two busy highways on either side of our town so we aren't too comfy walking outside but are starting to try to plan a route. I ordered a cardio fitness dvd that I want to try that got good reviews...and he is trying to work on our basement so we have a workout area. We cannot afford a gym or classes at it, and the local Y is 60/mo for the two of us to join, so that has to wait. We want to go to a local park to walk but are trying to coordinate times with my schedule of having kids at the house (i do daycare from home all day). So if anyone has any ideas on workouts or ways to get more active that you think would help, or have helped you, I would love to hear it!
Also I wanted to know if anyone else was struggling with weight loss...if you wanted to have a friend to talk to about it, we could encourage each other, share tips and etc.