Umm..hi..

[kimikimikimi]

Umm, I suck at introductions. Or talking about myself in general. 

Oddly enough, I'm pretty good at telling stories.

 

I was sitting in the cafe with my friends, listening to a guy talking about his diet plans and exercise routine. I know, it sounds like he is one of those guys who try to attract girls by boasting about their routine types, but he was not.

He was a chubby kid before joining college, but managed to lose a lot of weight the wrong way, then got it back in the right way. This guy also helped three other people in our class lose a lot of weight, by simple diet tips and exercise.

So he's saying all this stuff, and I'm just sipping my Pepsi and just nodding and shrugging and yeahing at the correct times. I think I was frowning, or something, because he looked at me and suddenly got angry.

 

"What's wrong with you?" he snapped.

"Nothing, I'm just- you know..blah" Truth be told- no fat girl not on a diet likes hearing about diets. When he first met me I was 176 pounds - still overweight, but not so bad.

Now, I'm over 220 - if you see that in kilos, well that's just 100 kgs. It's a terrible weight to be at, if you're just 5'5.

"Well I can't do anything if you're gonna sit there like a worn out middle aged lady..." he mumbled. I heard it, and I looked at him. He gave me an odd look then excused himself from our company.

 

He is right. He is totally right. And when we see each other each day, if feel he's frustrated with me, and I get pissed at myself. It's so stupid right? It makes sense if it were someone else we were being angry at, but it's me, and he's right, he can't help till I help myself.

 

So I told him so. I started walking, 3 miles everyday, and really tried to control my eating.I've been doing that for three months now. I would lose 5 pounds in a week, and some lame thing would happen, and I would over-eat, or miss out on my walk, then hate myself, gain 5 pounds again.

 

Other than being on this stupid weight rollercoaster, I have to bloody meet that guy everyday, and he seems to be judging me every time. He'd drop a comment randomly for laughs - "Damn, can't wait to hit the gym and stare at my abs all day," or "My mom is gonna be happy this week, I got my tummy back" but I KNOW they are directed at me. Tiny hints telling me to get a move on. (Or maybe I'm just crazy. Whatever, I'm fat, I get to be crazy.)

 

tl;dr- help me, I'm a 5'5 girl  weighing 220lbs, and I can't stick to any change more than a week. Seriously, I've been trying for 3 months and everyone seems to be expecting something from me.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

The first thing you're gonna have to do is decide what you want from yourself. If you are trying to be health to please other people you're just gonna make yourself miserable, even if you do lose some weight. 

 

Do YOU want to lose weight? If so, why?

[kimikimikimi]

I DO want to lose weight. I'm so hopeless at it, that I needed someone else's prodding to make me realize it.

It's not that I'm trying to lose weight 'for' someone, but I feel I could do better, and those around me want what's best for me, for my own good. I can't fail them.

I want to lose weight so I can buy good clothes, and feel confident that my lumpy fat is not sticking out of my jeans or t-shirt.

Also, a long term goal of mine is to learn and practice parkour. That kind of free-running motion really inspires something in me, and I want to learn how to do it.

Also, on a more practical level, I need to be somewhat slim-looking- I'm training to be a nurse, and I can't tell my patients to lose weight if I'm fat!

I really need help on sticking on for more than a week.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

That makes sense, those are all good reasons to be healthy.  My first recommendation is to stop trying the same things. Find something that works for you. Also, don't try to change too many things at once, make two or three simple changes, stick with them, then add a few more. You might want to check out the Assassins guild, they do a lot of parkour.  

[messingaboutinboats]

You're right, it's a terrible place to be at. A couple of years ago, I was 5'6" and 257. What I am going to advise you to do is figure out a couple of concrete goals to achieve, as opposed to "losing weight" or "looking slim." For me, I wanted to do a full, real push-up and I wanted to be able to run a full mile without stopping. That was hard as anything when I was more out of shape. (Not that I am super in shape now, but am more in shape.)

 

Working towards a goal that you can see progress will give you the motivation to stick to something for longer than a week.

[Shakeel_R]

Stories yeah! You can do this. If you need help shoot

[BeaVer]

Hey girl, 

 

First of all, if you don't like the things that guy is saying, tell him! You don't have to put up with people saying comments about your weight or how you should eat.

 

And second, you can do this. Just one step at a time.

You can set some goals and don't do them all at once. 

For example: you can start by replacing the soda with water. Does that work for an entire week? great! Set an extra goal for the next week: no soda and no chips (or whatever your to go unhealthy snack is). Add a goal every week and add some exercise also and before you know it, you changed your entire lifestyle.

 

This is just an example of how you can do things. Just try to find what works for you and don't overdo it.

[kimikimikimi]

Thank you all, for the help and advice!

I love walking, and I found the "Walk to Mordor and Back" spreadsheet. Of course, I can't walk 18 miles in a day, much less run, so I divided the days into.. more achievable goals. Like 4 miles a day  I'm trying.

And yes, doing one push-up should be on top of my strength goals list. I have tiny, skinny hands and a whoa big body. When I exert any sort of pressure on my hands I swear my wrists might snap.

Already I had cut out junk for 3 weeks, and I'm at 216 now. 

[Shakeel_R]

Hah no pain no gain! You can do this! One more, two more! You are a pro

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

If you're not ready to do a pushup yet, do a wall pushup. Just put your hands on your wall, back your feet away from the wall a bit, and do the pushup motion. Then when you can do say 3 sets of 10, move your feet a little further away from the wall and your hands a little down. Eventually you will put your hands on a dresser, a chair etc till eventually you are doing normal pushups.

 

Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

[kimikimikimi]

Wow, thanks Tanktimus! Actually that's an exercise I remember being taught in PE.. man I wish I can join school again for those classes..

Speaking of which, I don't understand how the rep/set system would work if I want to do the Beginner Body Weight workout...so I do those exercises, once? then how do I add on?

And how did you add the battle log goal bar?  Its so fancy, me wantee!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

A rep (Short for repitition) equals doing something once. One pushup equals one rep.  Two squats is two reps of that exercise. It's convenient shorthand for "this many of x"

 

A set is a group of reps. 3 sets of ten reps means you do the exercise 10 times, stop, start a new "Set" of 10, etc.

Sorry if this is too simple, it sounded like you were asking for definitions of reps and sets, if not I apologize.

 

For the Beginner workout, a circuit is all the sets one time through. Most beginners start out at one circuit, then build their way up. Just try to do as many of each exercise as you can, up to the recommended number of reps for that set. If you can't do one, modify (like with pushups), we would love to give any advice on modifications needed. If you can't do all the sets recommended, do as many as you can and work up to it.

 

The progress bars are done by editing your profile, then going to signature. There is a "progress bar" button on the second row, to the left of the twitter icon. you can see the button when you are replying to a post, but if you want the progress bar automatically in all your posts you need to do this from the signature page. When the window pops up, the first box is for the color of the bar, the second is for a number 0-100 (The percentage that shows). It will then populate some code into your signature box.  The number between the two sets of closed brackets is the percentage you entered earlier, edit there for changing the bar in the future.  Just type on the line above the code to title the bar. For each bar you want in your signature hit the bar multiple times.

[MelNaux]

Little changes to achieve bigger things... I'm just applying this. I tried to do to much and of course I failed. 

But if we fall we can stand back on our feet as many times as possible!

 

Failing isn't bad as long as we fight!

 

Good luck!

[BerBer]

Team Small Changes, YES! Even if you feel it is so small that it won't make a difference, trust me it will. You need wins right now to realize what everyone else already knows (you can do this ). Did you have one less soda today? That's a win. Did you struggle through 2 squats? That's a win. Get excited about it! (Even if you have to force it at first) Try removing the word "only" from your vocabulary replace it with "totally". You didn't "only" do a 5sec plank, you "totally" did a 5sec plank !

The best change to start with its always more positive thinking, then diet, then exercise. I'm no expert, and I'm here as a semi-noob struggling through my first assasins guild challenge.(I still can't do a regular push up ) But I've gotten farther by taking the advice and encouragement of the wonderful people here then I ever could have alone.

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