New to forum...looking for thoughts...kinda long! Sorry!

Re: New to forum...looking for thoughts...kinda long! Sorry!

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  dappledachsie member

  

  June 2012

  Just as a side note...there has been a large wild fire near my town and the smoke has been very heavy. We've also been over 100 degrees (or high 90s) for 2 weeks. Health advisories have been out and people are recommended to stay inside. So walking on my lunch or anytime before 10pm is not currently an option. I've lost close to a month of walking at this point. A co-worker and I were walking on our lunch until the temps got so high. We had been walking approx 3 miles in 45 minutes. But that stopped the beginning of this month due to the temps and smoke.

  

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  Starqueg

  

  June 2012

  In terms of your drinks, you switched from one caloric drink to another.  You're probably still drinking a large portion of you calories.  Have you tried watering down the juice?  That's how I started drinking more water.  I would buy 100% juice, often mango or blueberry, but anything works, and mixing it with water.  1 cup juice to 1 cup or more of water.  It still gives you the delicious flavor of juice, but increases your water intake.  You get used to it being less sweet pretty quickly, or at least I did.

  
  

  If you have a sedentary job and want to lose weight or tone up, you're going to need to start doing some sort of exercises.  Can you ride horses on a regular basis?  Ride a bike?  Take dance lessons?  Something fun that doesn't seem like exercise but is.  From your post, I don't think suggesting you hit the gym would be all that helpful, but you do need to move more on a regular basis to get your body back to where you want it.

  

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  dappledachsie member

  

  June 2012

  At this point in time I don't have a horse I can ride as mine passed away suddenly 3 summers ago. Our donkeys (yes, donkeys) are down at my mom's ranch, about 3 hours away. So riding really isn't an option for me.
  
  The lemonade is 250 cals per bottle vs 280 cal (Code Red)
  lemoade has 67 grams of sugar vs 77 grams (code red)
  Lemonade has 87.5 mg of sodium vs 170 mg (code red)
  
  So yes its still more calories than water, but its a reduction from what I was drinking. Considering how much soda I used to drink, this is a big improvement. Also its alot less caffefine! I can't stand anything watered down, juice or diet sodas, anything of the like. It all tastes so weak and flat. I prefer my lemonade strong sour to sugar sweet.
  
  Thank you for the suggestions! I'm far too uncoordinated for dancing and aerobics. And home dvds aren't so much of an option because FI has the tv when I get home from work. Again, the weather and smoke has made outdoor activites impossible right now.
  
  Thank you!

  

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  ZeroOrchestra member

  

  June 2012

  Have you tried the crystal light lemonade packets? Fresh fruit in your water? I know it sucks, but if the majority of your caloric intake is through beverages, it really should be cut back if you want to see change. 250 calories could be a meal. I'm not trying to come off rude or snarky, but if you want to see change, you are going to have to make some sacrifices. As for exercise, could you walk around the office at all or on lunch? Take the stairs? Perhaps make a compromise with your FI on tv time. Or, look up exercises online or in fitness magazines and make up a workout plan, you don't need a tv for that.

  Married! in New Orleans

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  dappledachsie member

  

  June 2012

  Tried the fresh fruit/mint/lemon in water and it all is nasty to me. I just end up not drinking anything all day. Its been a while since I've tried the Crystal Light drinks...I couldn't stand them before as they tasted stale.
  
  Our office is one level and very small so walking here on lunch is out. We tried walking at the mall for a while, but it takes so long to get there that we can only walk for about 5 minutes before we have to leave.
  
  FI doesn't really suppost my "weight lose" as he likes me the way I am. Says skinny is boring...though its what I was when we met. So if I ask for the tv or for us to go walk (or walk by myself) he throws a tantrum (yes I've discussed that on another board that tantrums aren't healthy...its a work in progress...). He's a good bit of my weight gain as he always wants to eat out and eats alot. I've finally got him hooked on a few shows on Food Network and he wants to cook more at home, but usually only on the weekends.
  
  I guess 250 cals to one drink throughout the day at work doesn't bother me as I actually don't eat much. I'm rarely ever hungry. I've had approx 10 oz of water today and I feel bloated and like I'm gonna float away.
  
  Again, thank you!
  

  

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  Windsor81

  

  June 2012

  At 250 calories, if you drink 4 drinks in a day you're at 1000 calories.  The lowest possible caloric intake needed for life is 1200 calories, which means you would only need to eat 200 more calories to "break even" for the day.  No more earned than burned.

  
  

  Put that into perspective that's approximately one medium size apple with 2 tbsp of peanut butter or two medium bananas.  

  
  

  66 g of carbs per drink is probably half your needed intake per day, and likely it's sugar - not fiber.  So, again, if you've had 4 drinks a day, you've consumed 264 grams of sugar which can either go to fuel your body (which is less likely since you're not exercising regularly) or it can be converted to fat.  Since all our bodies are fantastic fat creating machines, that's the more likely scenario

  
  

  I totally understand what it means to not want to give up certain foods.  But you'd be surprised how fast all those "non-calories" add up!  Try using myfitnesspal.com for a few days and see how much you're taking in.

  
  

  As a side note - I am NOT advocating that you eat less or not eat at all.  I think it's important that you take in a reasonable number of HEALTHY calories throughout the day.  I also don't think only 200 calories from non-drink items is enough to get by.  I just wanted to present some of the info in a way that might make a little more sense.  

  
  

  I also think you could do things throughout the day and evening where you spend 10 minutes jogging in place at home, doing jumping jacks, or 5 minutes doing crunches and core work, etc.  Exercise is cumulative, and if you put in effort a few times a day throughout the day you can add up to 30 minutes easily.  
  
  

  There's a quote that says "Your body remembers every meal you ate, every meal you skipped, every workout you did and everyone you skipped without a notepad".  It reminds me constantly that no matter how much I'm trying to fool myself, my body is telling me the truth as to whether or not it's working for me.  Your body won't lie to you!

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  Sarah5200 member

  

  June 2012 edited June 2012

  The reality is that the less weight you have to lose, the harder it is to lose it.
  
  You are the one who has to make the decision to make changes in your lifestyle, if you don't want to change, you won't, and neither will your waistline.
  
  I don't want to come across as harsh, but I've been in the mentality that came across to me through your writing. You just have to tell yourself that you can't blame anyone else for your weight gain or loss - because you can't! If your FI doesn't want to exercise or eat in instead of out, it doesn't mean that you can't. It may be hard at first, but it will get easier. Eventually he may even get on board.
  
  As someone who used to hate water, and I mean HATE water, you DO get to like it. I used to drink 2 litres of cranberry juice a day, easy! And then coke all night at work! Now I drink a glass of juice (and by a glass I mean 250mL) and water the rest of the day. I started the way a PP suggested, watering down my juice. Your tastebuds will adjust as you stop overloading them with the sugar.
  
  I really suggest tracking every single calorie for at least a couple of weeks, honestly, like - every single grape, and really seeing where your problems lie. Because there's a deeper problem if you're really eating at a deficit and not losing weight.
  
  Good luck, I wish you only the best of luck, willpower and perseverance!

  
  
  

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  marston258

  

  July 2012

  I definitely hear you on being tiny and struggling to lose. I am 5'4", but with a very small frame. I weigh less than most people I know, but I still have some love handles and muffin top-age going on. When you are small it is harder to lose and I feel like it shows up faster because you have nowhere to put it.
  
  I also tend to get in alot of my "exercise" through work as FI and both work full time and are getting our own business off of the ground, which involves fixing up old houses. I frequently find myself doing cleanouts, lugging boxes, tree branches, sanding drywall, ect on the weekends, but during the week I am at a desk, so it's not really keeping things firm. I also sympathize with having a FI who loves to eat out!
  
  Can you use a laptop or other computer at home to do some DVD workouts or download from Netflix if you have that? That is what I have been doing and I feel like I am starting to see results after about 3 weeks.
  
  Also, I also used to think I had a pretty good handle on my caloric intake, but once I started logging on MyFitnessPal, I realized that I was probably going over my portion size a bit. Even being 100 calories over each day can make you gain or at the very least, fail to lose. Now I try more to measure out my portions and put them in there. Try doing it for a week and measure your portions and don't forget to log your beverages and meals out. You may find that you are going over by just a bit every day.
   
  If so, you really might want to try other ways of experimenting with your beverages. Maybe try different teas? Tazo Passion Tea is great over ice and very flavorful, kind of like a juice. Teavana also makes alot of fruity teas which can be great without sugar or with only a little. Lots of lemonades are very sweet, so maybe just add a little bit of water and also fresh lemon to take a few of the calories out to start.
  

  

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  MerAndTrick member

  

  July 2012

  Like one of the previous posters said... suck it up, put on your big girl panties, and do it to get fit/ healthy.  Or don't and stay fat.  Choice is yours.

  
  

  First - Drop ANY drink that has calories of any kind.  You don't need it.  Drink water, unsweetened tea, and black coffee.  You don't like water?  Drink it, lots of it, you get used to it.  You even learn to like it.  Even beverages that are sweetened with non-calorie sweetners like Truvia or Splenda cause an insulin spike in your body.  Insulin causes you to put on fat.

  
  

  Second - BMI means nothing.  According to my BMI I'm overweight.  I'm 5'9", 155lbs, and have a 17% body fat.  Go by waist, hips, arm and thigh circumfrence and body fat %.  You don't need anything else.  Because nothing else takes into account WHAT makes up your weight.

  
  

  Third - Eat good food...  Basically if it has a face and can fly/ swim/ run away from you - You can eat it.  If it grows on a vine, trees, or bush and hasn't been processed in any way - You can eat it.  The rest of the stuff... leave out.  Be aware... this basically means that you do 90% of your food shopping on the "outside" walls of the food store and not in the aisles.  The aisles have crap... the outside (normally with the produce, meat, dairy, etc) sections are where you find REAL food.

  
  

  Fourth - With the wildfires (which hope they haven't effected anyone you know or love, the news coverage is terrible) you can't go outside... So workout inside.  Do a Tabata workout.  30 seconds of rowk, 10 seconds of rest.  Pick 4 different exercises, and do each for 8 rounds... thats 16 minutes total of work.  I like Burpees, High Knees, Crunches, Push Ups, Air Squats, Plank Pose, Mountain Climbers.  The possibilities are endless...  But if you want to get in shape, sitting on an exercise ball just ain't going to cut it.

  
  

  Ultimately it's you... no ones going to do it.  If you want big changes in your body you have to be prepared to sacrifice big things, to makes big changes yourself

  Counting Down the Days...

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