I need to lose weight *down 10 lbs*

[Sprite_babies]

wow, now i see why my husband wanted me to read this. yall have amazing advice.
... this is Nick's Wife.
im going to give Spark people a try. thanks!!

[texxie]

zumba, zumba, ZUMBA

good luck to you!

[Lori63]

Originally Posted by texxie zumba, zumba, ZUMBA good luck to you!

Our schools have a class on Fridays-haven't gone but heard it's GREAT!

[texxie]

i dont' need to lose weight, i need to firm up. my youngest is 2 but ya know those trouble areas that the baby weight is stuck to for dear life! anywho, i do cardio, pilates, etc. while it made me feel GREAT, i noticed the scale was'nt moving. I was at 131 for MONTHS. again, not heavy but i wanted back in the 120 somethings. They started offering Zumba at my rec center. OMG.....it's SOOOO fun AND...In less than 2 months, i'm down to 126 and dropped a pant and shirt size! I've never felt better and again, so much fun. our class (because it's summer) have girls from 12 years old all the way up to 79 years young.

I'm not a dieting type person. i just won't do it. love food too much. zumba, however, works for me. go to a class and report back, you'll love it, it's just dancing afterall.

[mom2lucas]

well, I need to get my butt moving too! I use Spark People, but the exercise is hardest for me right now. I can track food all day long! ;) Menu planning helps me a lot. I don't go looking for unhealthy snacks if I know I'm having XYZ in an hour for dinner.

Everyone in my house has been sick off and on for a month now, and I have totally lost my routine. Time to get back in it!

[cspigner28]

Watch it with Propel. It has a high amount of carbs for a flavored water.

Never even looked at the label on propel (My thinking: Water Good, Soda Bad) Thanks for the info!!

[abond0017]

I second a lot of the things that some have already said, and some of them I wouldnt recommend at all. I am studying right now for my fitness and nutrition degree, and here are some things that I have learned that I would recommend. This is going to be long, but I really hope it helps. However, these are not a substitution for getting a diet and exercise program specifically tailored to you by a professional. That is the best thing you can really do.


Diet:

DO NOT cut out carbs, especially if you love food. This is only setting yourself up for failure as it is asking way too much of yourself in the long run. You want a diet that is maintainable over your life. I actually odnt like to call it a diet, it should just be your new way of eating healthy. Not to mention as others have said carbs are necessary for your brain to function properly. The average person needs minimum 125 grams of carbs a day.

Also, if you really crave sugar, chocolate and the like, do not cut it out completely either. This is definitely setting yourself up for failure. Just make sure you use it in moderation.

When you do eat carbs, make sure they are whole grain. This is very important because eating white bread and rice is almost just as bad as drinking a soda, just empty calories. The no-carb diets have been made only because we eat so many refined products. If you are eating healthy whole grain carbs, noone in their right mind would suggest to go on any kind of no-carb diet. If you are buying wheat bread, make sure it says 100% whole wheat. If it does not say 100% then you are getting mostly refined with just enough whole grain to change the color a bit.

Fat free items are often as bad for you as regular products because of the excess other stuff they put in to make up for the fat lost. Low fat is a better choice, plus as someone else said also, you need fat too. It is very important for many body functions including the absorption of many essential vitamins. Also, get to know what the difference between good and bad fats are and reaplace many of your bad fats with good ones. Olive oil is one of my favs.

Make sure you are getting your recommended servings of vegetables and fruits in. As far as diet goes, this is the most important thing you can do for your diet. It will automatically keep you from eating as much junk food cause you just wont have room. It kills two birds with one stone. Just remember that corn and potatoes ore not the vegetables I am talking about.

CUT OUT the boxed/pre-packaged foods like Hamburger helper or packaged potatoes. These things contain a ton of calories and have nothing but refined processed things in them. Plus Im sure if you look at the serving sizes, they are probably a lot smaller than what you are actually eating so you may be consuming more calories than you know.

And to add to the calorie thing. Make sure you actually know waht a serving is. So many manufacturers these days list such small serving sizes on their packages that most people consume much more than that, and do not realize that they may need to double the calories that are listed.

If you have a problem with cravings, drink a decent size glass of water whenever you get the craving, then wait 15-20 min and see if that takes care of it. Often your cravings could actually be triggered by thirst, but if not, the water may fill your stomach enough to get you to your next meal without a slip.

Another good tip that you can use before your meals is to eat a small handfull of good nuts about 15-30 min before your meal. You see, when your stomach starts getting full, it will send a message to your brain to stop eating. However, the bad thing is that this message can take about 20 minutes to reach your brain and actually start working, so even if you have reached your full point, you make not know it before you have gobbled down 2 plates. If you eat the nuts beforehand, this gives your stomach and intestines a head start on sending those messages. Plus the protien and fat in the nuts will make you feel a bit fuller as well since they digest slower. Make sure you use a healthier nut and as I said only a small amount. Peanuts are not the most healthy nut, too much fat.

Also, if you eat slower, you will also give your brain more time to recieve the message. Take smaller bites and chew them well. This will not only help take longer to eat, but is also better for your digestive system. Eating in front fo the TV is very bad for this. Studies have shown that you eat much faster and more when watching TV than if not.

Lastly, just eat a healty diet and make sure your calorie intake is adequate because consuming too few will actually slow your metabolim in the end and that is when it gets really hard to loose even a pound. I promise that if you eat whole grains, your recommended vegetables and use fat and sugar sparingly, you will not only feel better, but you will have a diet that will help you keep the weight off for good. You REALLY ARE what you eat, just remember that and learn how to make imformed food choices.


Exercise:

Physical activity is the most important thing you can do to loose weight. I actually think the effect that diet and exercise has on your weight loss is somewhere around 60-65% exercise & 35-40% diet because the muscle you form from exercise also has the added benefit of burning more calories per pound than fat. So if you arent exercising, or arent pushing yourself enough, you arent giving yourself the best chance to succeed.

If you find that the scale isn't budging after you have started your new exercise routine, do not be discouraged. You are most likely gaining more muscle mass than you had before. So, you are essentially replacing some of the fat you lost with muscle which weighs more than fat. I think that during this first adjustment period people should NOT look at your scales. Pay attention to how much better your clothes fit and how much better you feel.

BE REALISTIC. It is not healthy, nor is it often productive in the long run to think you should be loosing a bunch of weight each week. It takes MUCH longer to take the weight off than it does to put it on. A good goal is .5 to no more than 2 lbs per week. If you loose more than this each week you run a significantly higher risk of putting the weight right back on. It has been proven that people who loose weight over a longer period of time tend to keep it off.

Know that you will most likely loose a good amount of weight in your first couple of weeks (this is the exception to the .5-2lbs rule as it usually is out of your control). For many people, the first couple of weeks are exciting because they may loose 5-10 lbs rso quickly, but this is usually water weight due to the change in your diet. This IS NOT how you should expect the rest of your weight loss to go, and in some cases you might add a bit of that water weight back as your body adjusts to your new diet.

You probably will reach a plateau where you do not loose any weight for a few weeks. This is usually the toughest time for most women since it is so discouraging to work so hard and not see results. This period is when your body is trying to adjust to its new calorie expenditure/intake. To help this phase pass without you giving up completely, be patient and bump up your physical activity just a little bit. It shouldnt take much. Just 5-10 minutes here and there. This will help jump start your metablism again.

DO NOT lower your calorie intake to try to get over a plateau. This could send your body into starvation mode making your metabolism actually slow down more. Not good.

When exercising make sure you do some weight training in addition to your cardio. Now, Im not talking about building huge muscles. But some muscle is good and if you continue to do toning weight training after a small initial muscle gain, you will have a higher metabolism, plus there is the added benefit of ensuring that you loose less bone density as you get older.

If you have a hard time exercising without feeling too out of breath or exhausted, try doing some exercises in water or laps. It is not only fun and cool in the summer, but it works almost your entire body relatively easily. Plus it is easy on the joints.

Make sure you know the proper form when performing exercises. This will ensure that you are working the muscles as effectively as you can be (why waste the energy if you arent getting the most out of it) and it will help prevent injusries.

As others have suggested. You would be surprised at how much the little things can add up.
Taking stairs
parking further away
standing instead of sitting to do laundry
cutting out most of your tv or internet time so you arent just sitting as much
buy a stability ball to sit on while you watch tv or surf the internet
playing catch with your kids or other low intensity things more often
doing small, easy exercises while watching tv (you're just sitting there anyway)
walk your kids to school if it is close enough and you have the time
if you have stairs in your house, do a few sets of them a day


Ok. I think that is enough for now. I will add more if I can think of any others.

HTH

[jess323]

My husband and I just started doing p90x and i am going to try and follow the 'lets do lunch' diet, my mom lost weight very quickly with that diet alone. its premise is to eat your biggest meal for lunch, and a light salad/fruit for dinner...

p90x is a killer workout though, you have to be in pretty good shape to initially start out- but it will kick your butt! - in a good way!

[angeleyeza]

watch out for those drink inserts too they all contain alot of sugars, and sodium!

sodium helps u RETAIN water weight therefore giving you that "puffy" like look and feeling. sugar just turns into fat which parades more around your middle ,backside, and thighs. the best flavored drinks that I have found has been those sparkling waters at Family dollar they have diff flavors, no salt, no sugars.I like the strawberry and tropical flavored. next time you reach for a lipton tea, flavored water pouch it may not be all that healthy as you think it is. just check out the suar and sodium count. us americans and other nations eat/drink, use more salt than we think daily. the daily recoomended allowance is 1500-2000 MG/day not per hr lol (i think) HTH someone I cut back and have drank water and made my own green tea no sugar My family both sides has diabetes, heart problems, hypertension, I dont want it for me and my family.

todays meals:
Breakfest:
1 c puffed wheat with 1/2 c strawberries 1/2 c super skim milk

Lunch
fresh chicken tenderloins 99% fat free no skin
dipped in egg whites and special K (for crust)
1 tsp Mrs Dash lemon pepper seasoning

1 c Fresh Green beans boiled/ssteamed

1/3 C mac n cheese (home made)
Whole wheat/grain noodles
Fat free and 2% cheese
fat free milk
ICBINButter spray

Supper:
1 sugar free fat free meal smoothie (choc. covered cherry)
1 c super skim milk
1 pkg sugar free carnation instant chocolate mix
1 c Fresh cherries (here is one for all those cherries everyones been buying ;)
mix in a blended with 1/2 c ice until smoothe. place in a covered cup drink right away or place in the freezer ;)

[wealthybarney]

angeleza-mmmmm...yummy! Can I be your new friend & come over for Lunch?
I am going to try that chicken dipped in Special K!
I wonder if I can do that with the ton of Fiber-One I bought that I can't stand?