Greetings from BFE (south dakota)

[Ferocia]

After several weeks of lurking, I've finally decided to take some action and get involved. My story goes something like this:

I am a 25 year old nerdette working my way towards an engineering degree. My husband and I are living with his parents (*sigh* and *sobs*) while we work, go to school, and try to remodel our house. I am an introvert and anti-social by nature, so being forced into close proximity with others causes me to not want to venture outside my office. His family is unsupportive of my attempts to get healthy. There is a constant stream of junk food, fast food, and meals out that I am trying to deal with in a way that doesn't offend or alienate them. I realize that they won't change, so it's my attitude and behavior that needs to do the changing.

I love information and have every crap fad diet book written recently...17 Day Diet, Dukan diet, Atkins, etc. My problem is I do A LOT of reading and don't take enough ACTION. I get bogged down in the planning stage so often that the doing stage is uncomfortable for me. Perfectionism is the scourge of my attempts to get healthy. I feel like I can't move forward until my plan is flawless. So...the moving forward never happens. The main thing I want to take away from all of this is that any progress is better that being stationary.

[CyningaDena]

Welcome aboard! It sounds like you have a reasonable, mature outlook on the living situation and how it affects your goals; you can do it! I also had no idea how to plan or pick a diet when I started, so I eased into it by first just counting calories per day. I didn't even shoot for any certain level per day, I just counted so I could get a benchmark and see what X number of calories looked and felt like. When I got a pretty good handle on what my target calorie count looked like, then I started counting the carbs/proteins/fats breakdown of all those calories. Just that alone has made me feel really empowered to make better diet choices -- because that way I can make decisions about tweaking my diet, instead of some faceless author who doesn't know a thing about my body, my limitations, my strengths, my weaknesses, and my goals.

I tend to think all those hyped-up "eat this/don't eat that" diets are bull***t. Eating shouldn't be so gd complicated. There's nothing magical about blueberries, or prime rib, or baguettes, or whatever the latest diet is demanding/forbidding. Most of the battle is just getting the right amount of calories in the most useful carb/protein/fat proportions for your goals, and getting them from foods that aren't full of extra crap. Picking a diet with a name can help by giving you boundaries and measuring tools and focus, and there's a lot of value in that, but I think that's all they give you.

I had no idea this was a Thing for me that came with a soapbox. Sorry! I'm sure you'll find lots of advice and support from folks here who are much more knowledgeable than I am. I'll be cheering you on for your challenge!

Love the profile name, btw.