scrubbedexpat091

I am actively trying to lose weight before I get even heavier and before any diseases I am currently at risk for (diabetes and fatty liver) actually develop.

I don't have a steady healthy diet exactly but here is a run down of what I ate so far this week.

Breakfast- bowl of cereal 3 cups with 1/2 cup milk 1%

Lunch- I get up late so just an apple today.

Snack- 2 banan's and 2 apples.

Dinner a stuffed chicken breast with Swiss cheese and broccoli.**

1 cup broccoli

2 more apples before bed.

I have dropped all sugary pop from my day and drinking a mix of plain water, waster with some pure lemon juice and sometimes flavored sugar free water flavorings.

I am going to start tracking actual calories tomorrow so I have a better idea of how much I end up with in a day.

I am am not a meal eater with high preference to snack on small things all day. I eat a serving of oatmeal for example, 2 hours later my stomach is hurting and I feel hunger cramps and pings.


I am also looking into more exercise, I do walk once a day for 20-30 minutes right now with a round trip of 5km's at the moment.

Running is out on a hard surface (no soft surfaces around) due to knee issues, or I'd pick up running.

I am also going to buy some weights to use at home, not to get a muscle bound, but in hopes to build back up muscle tone and strengthen my muscles. I think some of the pain in my back and neck that doctors have no explanation for, might just be the muscles being weak and my skeleton system taking more stress on then we are designed for.

For my age and height 40 pounds should not be difficult to life and considering I used to lift 75 pound bags above my head, well I have gotten pretty damn weak.

I'd like to do some running on a treadmill and if can score a cheap used one, I am going to. It would be good to get some running in but in a controlled environment like a tredmill.

Gym's are too much $$$$ for us and our local recreation facility only offers a pool but I do not swim (well can't swim) so can't go there.

I can get my heart rate up to 100-105 by walking, but the doctor says should work it out to 120 for 20 minutes a day, but man that is a lot harder then it sounds.


I just don't want to get any heavier, hitting 230 today was my limit, I went from 175 last November to 230 this November, mostly attributed to 2 things:

1) Having access to a car again and driving everywhere, where prior I took transit everywhere or walked because Vancouver was much easier to get around on transit and walking. I got a lot of walking done there.

2) I was on general assistance so didn't eat much, used food banks and likely averaged 1,000 calories a day.

I am trying to find cheap foods, that are healthy and good for weight loss and how to make veggies good without ruining their veggie benefits.

My goal is to get back down to my 2012 weight which was still on the high end of things but I had none of the high blood sugar and fatty liver at that weight.

Current 230 pounds, almost all carried in the stomach.

Goal weight 190 pounds

Goal to lose 40 pounds.


The more I am seeing people in my age group dying and coming down with serious illnesses and diseases from just being over weight and not exercising, I need to do this now and become healthier before something bad happens.

I may not always seem that I like living, and I admit I sometimes don't, but I am finally getting things together and want to be here long enough to see them through, and hopefully live 30 or 40 more years so I can accomplish, build and enjoy my new life that is being built.



** I dont usually eat chicken stuffed with cheese, norm is 1/2 chicken breast covered with 1 tbs of bbq sauce and cooked in oven.**

Beaverstate

Get a dog for some nice long walks.

Shard

Wahey...new avatar!

That looks to be around 1200 calories so you will definitely lose weight if you continue to eat a similar menu. Lots of veggies. Well done! I wish I had the same discipline. Sugary pop is the worst. I never understand why anyone drinks it.

scrubbedexpat091

Sugar is my downfall no doubt. I have struggled on and off to ditch it forever and I doing better. I did dump pop, and I admit I replaced it with diet and weaned off, and now I am on just water sometimes plain, sometimes with lemon and sometimes with mio but all are calorie and refined sugar free.

I can already tell my body is reacting to my stomach issues are 35% less now (acid re-flux) so that tells me its appreciating the foods being sent down.



As for the other poster about a dog. I would love to have a dog, but we are in a pet free unit, and no pet friendly units have opened, only 5 pet units in the complex.


Moving to another complex to have a pet would double our rent which isn't doable right now. Rents are high in Squamish.

But I would absolutely love a pet, they are also very therapeutic for my mental health concerns, my last dog did more help for my mental health then anything or anyone else did.

Shard

If you like apples and diet cola...

Lord Falconer says he has lost five stone on Diet Coke and apples | Life and style | The Guardian

(5 stone is 70 lbs)

CFAmovingsoon

I'm not an expert. But I'll give you my experience and I'm checked by docs/dieticians regularly because I have a chronic illness, their opinion is I'm doing fine, I have no complications from my illness after 20+ years. I could go and get facts on what I propose here, but I lack the time, but I suggest one researches this for oneself, before trying, or discuss it with ones Health person.

Contrary to popular belief low-fat is not the key. Your body needs fat to function and will go into stealth mode and hang on to your stored fats. Diet-soda is not so good either. Research has just come out that diet pop may promote type 2 diabetes. Because it does some weird things in the gut.... Moderation and choice of food is key. You say you don't fee full on oatmeal, which is considered quite a fill you upper, do you use ground or whole flakes? The more whole, the more your body needs to work on it to digest it, the longer it takes to need more fuel. I hate hot oatmeal (a texture thing) use it only in cookies I bake, but my OH has whole oatmeal with full fat milk and dried fruits or maple daily and is full for 3 hrs. YMMV You might need more protein to fill you up. A boiled egg or beans to start the day with for instance.

I've been 62 kgs (165cm) for approx 15 years now.
I eat real things. That are closest to the original form they came in. I prepare my foods in butter and olive oil. I eat wholemeal, 5 different veg (I say away from fruit as fruit sugars are not my friend, I only tend to eat apple and cherry pie - home made, not sugar added, but with a nice buttery crust) a day and hardly any processed foods (yes I do eat crisps and cookies at times but always those with as less junk added. I eat a lot of legumes: ie beans: lentils, kidney beans ( take a jar/can of kidney beans, make a dressing with oil, vinegar, garlic (powder) salt and pepper - mix - leave for a night to soak. Prepare a salad, add beans, add feta cheese and quartered tomatoes. Enjoy!)

A typical day in meals:
Breakfast: two slices of wholemeal bread toasted with one boiled egg and butter, with tea and coffee and/or water
(home baked) cookie or cake (recipes with buckwheat or wholemeal, half the sugar, butter) for coffee break.
Lunch is lentils, with olive oil and lemon juice, with half a wholemeal flatbread and left over veg from the day before.
Afternoon snack is popcorn (freshly popped) or a piece of dark chocolate.
Dinner is mushroom risotto with a mixed salad or grilled or roasted veg mix.
If I'm peckish in the evening I eat either crisps or (crackers with) cheese or pickles.

But everything in moderation. Use a small plate. If you do eat ice cream (I do) take just one bowl of it, not half the tub. If you do eat crisps take a small bowl. And enjoy eating it, don't eat in front of the telly. Eat whilst looking outside and speaking to your oh. Don't put the pans on the table, fill up your (small) plate in the kitchen. And don't go back for seconds.

And try to walk 15 mins daily.
BTW 1200 KCals is quite low. And some might say a crash diet. You might loose fast at first, but keeping it off is another matter. You are starving your body, it goes into hold-on to fat mode...

Again, I'm just sharing my experience. This is not a diet. This is not medical advice. YMMV. But I've seen friends and family do this through the years and it breaks my heart. Your not enjoying your food if you crash diet (usually) and in the end they're right back where they started...

caretaker

Jsmith give the humane society a call and ask if you can be a volunteer dog walker. My friend in Trail does it and really enjoys it. I'd like to drop about the same amount of weight as you (or more) and know how difficult it is. I gained weight after each of 6 surgeries in the past 5 years. 2 years ago I went from 225 to 190 over about 5 months then got sick out in BC and put it back on. If I could get back to the 175 I weighed as a young man on the railway gang it would be best but I'd settle for the 200 lb I weighed when doing roofing, concrete and carpentry for 30 years. I'm on my feet all day and do physical work but keep the weight on as much from drinking as eating. My head tells me toast and an apple but my heart says sausage and eggs.

ann m

Good luck with it. Losing weight as we get older seems more and more difficult. I'm on yet another plan to lose 30lbs by next July. It seems really tough this time!

Be gentle when introducing a lot of healthy but heavily fibrous foods. Your tummy can complain (loudly sometimes) and feel gripey, windy or crampy, until it gets used to it.

Sounds like you have some good plans - as others have said, moderation is key. Don't cut out a whole food group, like all carbs, or all fats - you do need them, and you're les likely to stick with it.

My goal this time around is realistically slower. Maybe a pound a week if I'm lucky. I've lost 6lbs in 7 weeks, so that is ok. Previously that would have been hugely disappointing but it took years of work to get to this weight so if it takes me a year to shift it, oh well!

Keep us posted on your successes.

Shard

Oatmeal seems to have different impacts on different people. I've tried several times and find after an hour or two it will leave me hungrier than I normally would be (if I had eaten something else).

scrubbedexpat091

I am eating like 4 servings worth, and sometimes I barely make it an hour before hunger pings start in. I've always been someone who has to eat small but frequent, and that can be hard sometimes.

When I worked overnights it was so easy, I had a smoothie before going, because of the nature of the job I ate small portions pretty much non-stop until I went home, and my weight was steady.

Now with the 3 meals per day, and some apples in between as snacks, I just keep getting bigger even though I am actually eating better.

Strange thing our bodies are.

Oink

Try this website. Lose It!!

HID bought me a couple of these jobbys. One for home and one for work. I don't actually need to lose weight but my diet really only consisted of sausages and restaurant/fast food. Now at least I'm getting some vegetables.

Ninja

BristolUK

Yep.
I managed to keep to around 1000 a day for 5 months in 1994. Naturally much of the weight loss went back on - although it was a holiday that broke the cycle. 1200 is likely much more stickable. Eat little and often did the trick for me with apples between meals involving a plate loaded with either broccoli, cauli or cabbage to go with meat or fish.
Diet/zero cal versions are so good these days I can't rink the normal stuff.
I don't find it's the drink itself so much as wanting something with it.

Cereals without sugar are quite easy (except shredded wheat). Or, at least, I found it easy.

Coffee without sugar I found absolutely impossible. I waited to get used to it. Waited some more and waited again. All that happened was I didn't enjoy a coffee.

I switched to sweeteners - Canderel in the UK/Equal here - and never looked back. No funny/after taste at all.

Of course, there are those sweetener scaremongerers who'll say cancer is just around the corner (isn't it always?) but you're likely just trading one thing for another.

Tirytory

It's really hard so don't beat yourself up about it...society with its marketing ploys are designed to make you want to buy and eat.. It's a struggle to combat that, but of course you're right you need to do it for your health.

The dog walking for a charity is a good idea....you could even set up a little sideline business for yourself. Walking with a dog you'll probably get your heart rate up to the required amount. It sounds like the best form of exercise for you at present. The required amount of exercise per day though is about 30 mins where your heart rate is elevated.

Dietary wise all indications (medically it's hard to argue with the growing evidence) point to vegan plant based diets as the best form of eating plan (not diet, long term way you eat) now to my mind this isn't a nice way to eat for a lot of people, but you could do a modified version of it say two/three nights of lean protein and four nights veggie...there's lots of nice veggie recipes if you google it although exclude the ones with cheese if you want to lose weight. It's also a cheaper way to eat... We try to eat like this with the fails in between obviously!

So my day looks like..

Fruit salad and yoghurt (you can buy frozen fruit and add an apple to it so it's cheaper) or alternatively scrambled eggs and beans. We use low cal spray to cook anything.

Lunch...baked potato with something, salad (not a huge lover of salad especially when cold outside) or Pasta with tuna and sweetcorn - kids get this in their lunch boxes quite a bit.

Dinner- vegetable soup- Butternut squash makes a real hearty winter soup with bread and will make two dinners for two of you with leftovers for lunch. Veggie spag Bol/chilli/ that type of thing with lentils for protein and whole wheat pasta/rice- took me ages to get used to but I'm there now, it is way better for you in terms of not raising blood sugar too quickly.

Snack on fruit/veg in between, make sure you drink lots of water (2 litres a day). Use lean white meats, processed red meats are associated with health risks but not as someone rightly pointed out because of saturated fat anymore- something to do with the processing/smoking of it.

I have to say I find chicken too expensive so rarely eat it.... Perhaps you can spend your chicken money on eggs instead? My problem is picking in between meals not helped by being home alone and tired a lot of the time. I went swimming the other day- dear god it was hard...I can't believe my son does that for three hrs a week!!! Ask for a fitbit for Christmas? - great way to keep an eye of what you're actually doing not what you think you're doing...

HTH

Shard

Nuts a quite good nibbles to keep hunger at bay, especially plain almonds. The only problem is that the tastier the nut, the more moreish they are!

Why did you not have three meals previously?

Tirytory

Perhaps you're not eating enough though....make sure you fill up on wholewheat carbs pasta/rice not bread though- devils work!