My Introduction: First Steps?

[lrat]

Hi Guys,

So I guess I'll start off with a bit about myself:
This month I will be 21years old. I'm a student (currently an intern on work placement in central London). For most of my life I've been a very large person. Currently (as of this morning) weighing at 123.3kg.

I've tried numerous times to lose weight but even if I take off a stone or two I put it back on three times as fast. It feels like I'm going in circles.

For the past month I've been trying to cut back my portions and doing casual jogging/running of (4-5km atleast once a day) and on the weekends a long walk of approx (~10miles-15miles). As a result of my running I feel like I have made no improvement (performance wise) and seem to always be in pain especially in the shins (of which some say may be shin splints).

As a solution I've been told to cut back and give my body time to recover - but this seems to me counter productive; and also yo switch some jogging for swimming however for me I am too self-conscious about getting my body out in front of strangers (I think i've not been swimming for at least 3 years now). Which is kind of sad as I really do enjoy being in the water and swimming.

I think before I started again (about a month back) I weighed between 130kg and 127kg. I'd like to think i'm fairly disciplined; I don't eat junk and try to exercise daily. This time I wish to take it all the way and lose weight and maintain a healthy weight once lost (therefore reaching out for support and advice).

I have a 2 wheatabix with fruit for breakfast. I try to make my own meals for both lunch and dinner. More often than not I eat chicken salad (for lunch mainly). Each meal is (what i'd like to think of equal portion). I have a small blow which I serve my food in (trying not to be too greedy and over filling it).

So to conclude this thread; I just want to reach out and say hello to everyone and get myself known in this forum a little bit. Also to get some feedback and ask questions to you guys.

Feel free to dig at my post and ask questions about me and challenge my current techniques. I'm not easily offended and open to suggestions and criticism.

Some questions I guess for you guys.
- Are there any keen joggers/ runners around here and what advice would you give me?
- Is there anything I can be/ should be doing to improve my weight loss experience?
- Are there any good physical support groups in central London that anyone would like to advice - maybe around weight loss or running in general (i think via PM because the rules state no advertising?) Sorry if this isn't allowed here.
- I've been advised to go gradually go vegan cutting out cheese, milk then red meats, then all. Does anyone have any experience with this and is it a good idea?

 

[Omega]

Welcome to the forum.
I calculate you are 271 pounds or just over 19 stone...
You do not mention how tall you are so we can get a feel for you BMI.

In my big project (a decade ago) I went from 21 stone to 9 stone so I certainly have a feel for how tricky it is to lose weight - once you are bigger than you would like...

You certainly have a good idea about what you need to do - eating healthily and becoming more active...
As I see it - your biggest problem is consistency - keeping it up long enough to get the desired results.
Hopefully the forum will benefit you with that.

Do you wear a pedometer every day? You talk about long walks and jogging - but I know how easy it is to give yourself a day off... A pedometer permanently on your waist reminds you of your stepcount on those less than perfect days.

For what its worth - I joined both Weight watchers and Slimming world in the latter stages of my project... Both had nice friendly groups of people but I found it less supportive or effective than this forum. I joined them as part of my maintenance strategy, both are free once you get to goal and a good opportunity to chat about weight during maintenance.

Why are you considering becoming vegan?

As for your project. I suggest you check out the clubs and challenges... I always found these to be very useful - for getting ideas, staying on track and making friends.
Also start a diary - visit other people's diaries and see what they do, make friends, cheer them on and with luck some of them will return the favour and visit your diary.

Good luck with your project.

 

[lrat]

Thanks for the warm welcome Omega and sorry for the delay in the reply. I was out and about with some friends today.

So I haven't measured myself in a fairly long time. Last I measured I was about 6ft give or take and recently I calculated a BMI of 37-40 but I wasn't sure if I done it correctly. While on this subject do you think it's worth getting a tape measure to measure the size of my stomach / arms / legs etc?

I weigh myself once a week (usually on a Sunday to signify the end of a week). So if I was to do make a diary would recording this information and noting it down be worth while?

So last weekend I bought a fitbit charge2 which calculates my steps. I have a goal of 10,000 steps daily which I sometimes find hard to achieve especially working as a software developer where I am at a desk all day coding.

Fitbit tries to encourage me to do 250 steps every hour between 9 am and 6pm but in my line of work I undertake a practice called Pair Programming (for this who don't know - it's where two developers work side by side on the same code). This obstacle makes it difficult for me to get away from the desk freely and move around although I guess my manager would encourage me to take this small break and stretch my legs.

I did / do aim to consistently go for a jog every lunch time but I've been told to strip it back and only go a few times a week. Thinking about this I plan to do Monday, Wednesday, Friday and again as mentioned briefly before take an extended walk on the weekend. Due to my determination I still opt to go on Tuesday's and Thursday's (where permitted) but I'm not expert and don't know entirely what is and isn't healthy for my body. I feel more exercise = better result. However if I go to a another forum about running they tell me that I am more prone to damage my body and I am not letting it heal properly with such frequent activity.

So I considered joining a weight community club due to the accessibility to other people in my situation; to gain advice, motivation and possibly some kind of partner (to push me to go jogging with them, go to the gym etc). I seem to read a lot of things online and never know what is right (and maybe you guys here can help with that). However I don't really have anything really to measure myself against and ultimately push me. Maybe if I can find a community that will join me on fitbit to challenge then maybe it will give me a push to be more active - and maybe this will keep me on track long term and keep me consistent (however there is also the fact I can fall into the shadows and never log on to this forum again; delete my fitbit app and give up). However I know it's 100% down to me through perseverance and determination to make this change and maybe why I'm being so hard on myself.

Why are you considering becoming vegan?
So no reason in particular; I was grilled about this before - another person who dieted and went vegan as a result and said it did her a whole lot of good. I've decided from this conversation I will cut out dairy products like cheese and milk as they serve little to no purpose at all. I am considering letting go of red meats but chicken is the one i'm holding onto as it is both a good protein and tasty ingredient for my meals. To note: I'm not a big fan of fishy foods so I avoid sea food (unless someone can convince me otherwise to try something).

As for your project. I suggest you check out the clubs and challenges... I always found these to be very useful - for getting ideas, staying on track and making friends.
Also start a diary - visit other people's diaries and see what they do, make friends, cheer them on and with luck some of them will return the favour and visit your diary.

Thanks for all the advice and support. I will definitely check out the rest of the forum over the next couple of days. I am a little skeptical about these challenge (i did see a little mention of them in the welcome thread). I prefer to do things solo as I don't like to let anyone else down but I'm sure if something catches my eye I will definitely sign up.

As for the diaries do you have any specific rules you abide to / diaries in particular you recommend?
Is this a daily or weekly log? Do you post certain figures like weight during each entry? etc

Again thank you very much.

lrat

 

[Omega]

You can always log your steps alongside mine...

I log my pedometer stepcount on a couple of challenges:
https://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/10-000-challenge.11390/
https://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/pedometer-buddies.15673/

I am currently shooting for a minimum of 14,000 steps a day...
I would enjoy you pushing me - as I can get quite competitive - and a competitive spirit always helps improve achievement...... We could both benefit...

We used to be a much more active forum - and I must admit that the challenges going back in the day were very educational... I left for quite a lot of years - and in that time things here became very quiet... It was through being active in challenge that I learnt about RDAs for such things as protein, fibre, sodium, calcium etc. Whilst cutting calories is of great benefit in losing weight - optimum health can only be achieved by honing a food plan so that our requirements are properly met...

The major benefit of diaries is a mode of meeting people and thus building a support network. As such they can contain whatever you want them to (apart from advertising - new people cannot post links for quite a while)... We delete numerous postings (and accounts) every day where people have come here just to sell their wares - the diet industry is full of businesses who want to prey upon our people - selling products which are not necessary. You can log food and exercise if you want - or share your life including the good diet days and the bad diet days...
You can post in it as often as you like... Some people post several times a day, while others post once a month...

The greater the support network - the greater the support which helps you stay on track... I made a load of lifelong friends on the forum a decade ago... Weight loss is not so important for many of them - so they have not posted here in many years - but a load of them live on my FB friends list now...

 

[lrat]

Awh bless you!

I hope we can become good friends and that we will encourage each other to be the best we can and achieve the weight loss we deserve.

I'll happily post my step count (when I remember). Just keep spamming me via PM or something if I'm inactive. I think I will receive emails and i'll come on to do it!