Completely CLUELESS about diet and weight loss - HELP!

[~Trish~]

I have always been blessed and never had weight issues in the past. But now I'm in my 30's my body isn't being so kind to me! In the last 12 months I have put on 8kg and I feel yucky . I had been pretty much the same weight my whole adult life up until 12 months ago. Now it's slowly piling up and I don't know where to start when it comes to getting it back off!

My diet completely sucks (although I always cook a healthy dinner!) and I hardly drink water at all . I hate water and just won't drink it. How bad am I?! I can't eat fruit because I have a hiatus hernia and the acids in fruit set it off .

I am a mum of three and I run two businesses from home so finding time to exercise is difficult. Although I do walk DS1 to school every day which is better than nothing! It's a 10 minute walk uphill there, so I probably walk around 40 minutes in total most days, although some days DS2 goes to the kinder and I end up walking another 20 minutes per day on top of that.

I have a Wii Fit that I intended to use this year, but I have been so busy. By the time the kids are in bed I do a little bit of work for the businesses and then I'm too exhausted to do any exercise. Arghh!! Maybe I should try in the middle of the day when DD sleeps?

Help!! I have no idea where to start! I want to eat healthily, but I just don't know where to get ideas and inspiration from. I want to exercise more, but when do I fit it in? Can anyone point me in the right direction? Does anyone have any good resources I could look at to learn more?

TIA

[Astrid]

Well there are a number of paths you can go down:

Weight Watchers - some people swear by this, but it does cost

Calorie King - free. Able to track calories, weight etc. Food database, so you can check at what is any of the major foods.
Has weekly lessons about eating, portions sizes, the type of eater you are etc. Also has recipes. I am on there at the moment, but do admit that tracking calories does my head in, it is good though for working out where you are falling down eating wise.

Food Coach - free - able to track weight progress, has interesting articles plus recipes

Various health magazines - many at the supermarket magazine section these days. Not bad for what is the latest

It is a struggle to find what suits you and your family. For me, I need to keep the protein up and lower the white carbs, I am also at that point in life where I need to reduce portion sizes, so I use a small plate when I can. Wish I was able to get in as much walking as you do each day, so you have a great starting point there.

[~Trish~]

Thanks so much Astrid! I'm just checking out Calorie King now - free is always good LOL! This is a great start, thanks again

[~Kim~]

Good on you for even making the decision Trish.
My best advice would be don't try and overhaul everything at once. Start small and accomplish that first and make it a permanent change. For eg the water thing maybe use a smaller glass and just try to down one when you walk past it? Once you find that easy, make it more/more often. Don't cut out everything you love all at once. It just leads to craving and caving.
Research the healthy eating guidelines and proper portion sizes - many people don't know.

[Beach Mama]

Hun I am going to pop back tomorrow coz I am stuffed after work today but wanted to say I could have written your whole post a while back (minus the fruit coz I do eat a bit of it!) but had no idea. Just wanted to say that CK is definitely a great start. I use My Fitness Pal (same thing but I find it easier to track on my phone!) I found that tracking for the first week or so just made me realise what I was eating, when I was eating it and why. Then I could look at what I could replace with healthier choices later.

Will be back tomorrow night lovely. xoxo

[~Trish~]

Thanks Kim! I like the idea of smaller glasses to begin with, it would be much less overwhelming. I will definitely do some research into healthy eating guidelines and portion sizes .

Thanks also Tan! CK looks really good so far, but I'll also check out Fitness Pal. It was very eye opening tracking what I eat yesterday on CK!

I did some exercise with my Wii Fit yesterday while DD slept and it felt good . I will try and do that each day. I am also looking into aqua aerobics, I think it will be good for my back injury because there is no impact. I just worry I'll be amongst all elderly ladies and feel the odd one out haha!

[MissM]

Good on you for making the first steps! I could've written the same post! I still have 20kg of pregnancy weight to lose so I'm trying to include more fresh fruit and veggies to my diet. I think a meal plan could also help, we are implementing one as of next week

[Beach Mama]

Back again! I did aqua aerobics when I was pg with Izzy and it was great fun, lots of oldies but nobody thinks anything of it because I think lots of people do it for rehab too hun!!! It is really good for you!! The walking you are doing is great hunk I do the same with kinder drop off, and then do a loop. I just amp up my intensity, rather than just strolling and really pump hard with the pram!! Wii is great, also if you can get your hands on something like Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, it is a 20 min workout that is fabbo although some bits might be too high impact. I really think that just tracking for a week is a great idea. It opens your eyes to what you are actually eating, and while you are at it you think about what you could have had. I eat lots of eggs now, it is my staple lunch, omelettes usually, or if I haven't had carbs for brekky I will do mashed or sunny side up on toast. Wraps are a good replacement with salads for lunch, I find healthy deli meats are a good protein, things like chicken breast or turkey are good. Summer is good for salads, although my weakness is potato salad probably not too healthy really but oh well! Fruit smoothies are healthy, and good for the kids as well. That's all I can think of right now - maybe pop into the diet and weightless thread too hun - lots of support and ideas there!

[~Trish~]

Sorry for my very late thank you for your reply Tan lol! For some strange reason I missed your last post. I looked this thread up to find out what the calorie counting app was and realised you'd replied again . Thanks for your great ideas, I'm going to get serious as of tomorrow (this holiday break has been a write off ) and will hopefully lose some kilos!!

[JLeigh29]

I'm probably the last person you'd want to take advice from since I am metabolically blessed (for want of a better phrase, lol).... but DH has weight issues and I've done a fair bit of research into options for him. He doesn't want to do any kind of weight watchers-type thing (can't afford it and too restrictive) but we've found a whole heap of easy ideas to improve what he eats without it being too much effort (seeing as he is a male and all, lol!)

Some of our best ideas are:
- a food checklist with the food groups and check boxes for how many portions a week (or a day if you prefer) of each you should be eating so he can tick off when he has one of each. If he's trying to get to 5 serves of veges a day, he's more likely to choose a salad sandwich for lunch than a packet of 2 minute noodles (or he'll add a handful of frozen peas or tinned corn to make it 'healthier', lol) We also have check boxes for 'good fats' like avo, nuts and olive/flaxseed oil, 'treats' and 'exercise'.
- don't have the bad stuff in the house. At all. If it's there, you'll eat it. If you crave something 'bad', go out and get just enough for one portion. The cost will make you wince and there's none left for later, lol!
- substitute. Olive oil for the other stuff (and butter in cooking), low fat for full fat, NAS/low salt for salty, wholemeal or multigrain for white bread, low GI for high GI, low sugar for high sugar etc
- Make your own - biscuits, cakes, muffins etc Use recipes where you can freeze them so you don't have a whole batch of muffins to get through or you can cook in advance.
- Healthy snacks - we have a list on the fridge. e.g. fruit, yoghurt, cheese and crackers, raw nuts, the healthy peanut butter/cream cheese/cottage cheese on toast/ryvita/rice cakes, vege sticks and hommus, homemade healthy muffins etc, boiled egg...

Also, you mentioned you hate water. I did too until about 12 months ago (actually, I still don't like it, but I can tolerate it now). I stared drinking cordial instead, then gradually decreasing the amount of cordial until it was barely there. Or try herbal tea, soup etc - Any liquid is good! Is there any fruit you can have? If it was me, I'd be looking into what fruits don't upset you as fruit is pretty important.

GL!