Help me lose 40 lbs?!
Question: Hey everyone! I am a 21 year old mother of a two and a half year old and a 9 month old. ( yes Im still with the father) Anywho... He finally proposed to me New Years Eve YAY!!!
But, I dont want to even start making plans for it till I lose 40 lbs, Its my New years Resolution. Lets see.... Im 5'7 approximatly 180 lbs right now. Ive been wanting to excersie and lose weight forever now. Just need to build motavation. I know the basics, Eat healthy and excersise, But what can I do as a stay at home mom who is unable to go out for walks and what not ( specially here in the winter) What are some good healthy meals I can make for me and my kids? And good tips and tricks to " fast" weight loss? No miracle, just would liek to see that all The work Ill be doing is going somewhere.
Concentrating on my stomach and thigh area the most, And of course...my health... Im very lazy through out the day Like I have no energy at all...Help me out? God Bless :)
Answers: Hey everyone! I am a 21 year old mother of a two and a half year old and a 9 month old. ( yes Im still with the father) Anywho... He finally proposed to me New Years Eve YAY!!!
But, I dont want to even start making plans for it till I lose 40 lbs, Its my New years Resolution. Lets see.... Im 5'7 approximatly 180 lbs right now. Ive been wanting to excersie and lose weight forever now. Just need to build motavation. I know the basics, Eat healthy and excersise, But what can I do as a stay at home mom who is unable to go out for walks and what not ( specially here in the winter) What are some good healthy meals I can make for me and my kids? And good tips and tricks to " fast" weight loss? No miracle, just would liek to see that all The work Ill be doing is going somewhere.
Concentrating on my stomach and thigh area the most, And of course...my health... Im very lazy through out the day Like I have no energy at all...Help me out? God Bless :)
Congrats on the engagement, first of all. Now, I'll jump right into the answer and hope you find it helpful.
First of all, losing weight takes dedication and motivation, there is no way around it. You have a reason motivating you to lose weight and that's good. You will find times along the way when your motivation may flag, and you'll have to remind yourself why you want to lose weight and that you will reach your goal. Commit to your goal and stick to it, and you can get there.
Now, second thing: not everyone can or should be the same weight, and I advise you to make sure you set realistic goals based on your body type and personal goals rather than what someone else may suggest. Are you small boned, medium framed or do you have large bones? Losing 40 lbs. may be not only impractical but uncomfortable if you have a larger frame. I suggest setting your goal at 20 lbs and when you get there, reassess how much more if any you want to lose. If you chose to continue and lose more, you will have less weight to lose to reach your new goal and the confidence of prior success to build upon.
Fitness and weight loss have a very important mental component to them. Seek every advantage you can and make use of them in order to make your experience pleasant and a bit easier.
Here are some basic principles you should embrace to lose weight...
1) You must eat three full meals each day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Do not eat late at night, after about 8pm, as your metabolism will be slower and your body will tend to store calories taken in at night as fat.
2) You should eat a snack between breakfast and lunch, and another between lunch and dinner. Many people mistakenly think if they skip meals they should lose weight. The opposite happens because your body's natural response is to store more calories as fat...it thinks meals are getting scarcer and it is preparing you for hard times. Eating regularly is a MUST if you want to lose weight and remain healthy while doing so.
Your snacks should be low calorie and healthy. A small pack of unsalted peanuts or a small portion of fruit (try to get ones low in sugar and calories) or some veggies (eat a large cucumber with lowfat dip or a bit of salt substitute on it if you like). They are meant to keep hunger pains at bay, thus allowing you to eat reduced portions during your three meals and not start feeling hunger pains, which will trigger an urge to overeat and break the disciplined diet you should be on. Don't eat to fill you up...only to stop hunger pains and provide some nourishment. A couple ounces of veggies, fruit or a snack bar is all...a small serving.
3) You must reduce your caloric intake. This means your meals should give you fewer calories than you currently get. However, if you are only eating two huge meals, you may find that simply eating three meals will help you retain less fat and stay leaner. To help you reduce your caloric intake, you ideally should be counting calories. Aim for about 650-900 calories at each meal, depending on your health and current caloric intake. Some people can eat a lot less, but not everyone can. Slow and safe is better than drastic reduction and failing. If you've been eating 1000 calories each meal and snacking on unhealthy stuff, reducing to about 750-850 calories each meal and limiting your two snacks to low calorie fruit, veggies, nuts or health bar or whatever will be more than enough to get you losing weight.
If counting calories seems a bother, then keep it simple and follow these easy guidelines:
(a) Drink an 8 ounce glass of water, slowly, about 5 minutes before each meal. Water is a natural appetite suppressant, and your body needs more of it to help shed fat anyway. Drink another two glasses throughout the day as well. Do this even if you are counting calories, it is important!
(b) Eat until you feel about 3/4 full...not until you're 'stuffed.'
(c) Eat a salad every day for your lunch. Nothing else except perhaps some crackers if you don't have crutons. Lettuce, kale, raddishes, carrots, tomatoe, cucumbers, celery, etc...you can eat a huge salad and the calories are low. Use low fat dressings or lemon juice with some spices added and you will keep unneeded calories out. This is probably one of the easiest weight loss secrets there is. Make one meal a low calorie salad EVERY DAY and exercise, and it is a rare case that weight loss does not occur. Couple that with drinking water before your salad (and the other two meals) and you will naturally decrease your caloric intake. Your other two meals...just try to balance them with the four food groups as we learned as kids and if you are drinking that glass of water prior to eating breakfast and dinner you can avoid counting calories if you don't like the tedious nature of doing so.
* Some people need to count calories as they like to know the numbers and it gives them something to focus on. Others don't like doing so. No weight loss method works the same for everyone and so everyone must find what works for them.
Remember, there are many kinds of salads and lettuces and salad vegetables. Try a chef salad one day, a salad with red leaf and green leaf the next...then one with iceberg and a medley of vegetables. It is fine to add meat in your chef salad, or to have a Caesar salad with grilled chicken for example, but purposely make the amount of meat small! It should be there for a bit of texture and to give you a sense of variety, not as something you can sink your teeth into. The lettuce and veggies are low in calories, and you don't want to offset that with too much meat.
(d) If possible, make one of your two snacks half a grapefruit. This will do two things for you. First, it will increase your vitamin C intake and keep you healthy in winter and boost your energy levels. Second, it will help you burn fat. While I only did a bit of sparring in the Army to keep in shape, I knew several of the boxers who represented my division and they had were religious in their dedication to their grapefruit intake, and it was a standard in their diet.
4) You must exercise. Indoors and unable to get out for walkes, eh? Try a step-up block of some sort. Find or make some step or block that you can stand in front of and step up onto it, and then back off of it. It should be of a height that you get a workout stepping on and off it, but not so high that it causes you pain and injury by stressing your knees. Standing with your feet about 3-6 inches from the step, your thigh should not go past parallel to the floor when you place one foot up on it. Something about 5-8 inches in height should be sufficient. If you have a staircase or steps at home, you're set. If not, you can build one out of wood or buy commercial ones made just for the purpose. Start using your stepper and exercise 3-5 days a week. As a bonus, you can do it while watching the kids or catching up on news or other television programming or in your backyard out in the sun...or in the quiet of your own room.
Also, forget about spot reducing fat around your abs and on your thighs. When you get your heart rate up to where it should be you get into a calorie burning zone. Keep it there for 20-30 minutes. As your legs build muscle and your abs get a workout from your legs being lifted, and as you reduce your caloric intake, you will lose weight and fat. Don't demoralize yourself by doing too many exercises or ones that may be awkward or painful. Stepping up and down for half an hour (work your way up to it over two weeks), eating right, drinking water, and reducing your calories WILL get you headed in the right direction with results if you stick to it.
What you SHOULD do in addition to your stepping routine is begin a STRETCHING routine. Staying limber avoids injuries and relaxes you as well. Calming the mind and feeling relaxed when starting an exercise program is as important as the exercising! If you want to burn more calories, get you a set of light weight (1.5-2.5 lb dumbbells) and hold them as you step up and down after you have worked up to your 30 minute routine and have done it a few days comfortably. Try variety in your routine. Step up and down for 5 minutes with them, then take time to stand on the floor and do a set of shoulder presses, then start stepping again. Repeat this for your entire workout. Think of other exercises you can do with your dumbbells.
The point is that you really don't need to do a lot of exercises, nor to buy a lot of equipment. Consistency and increasing the duration or difficulty of your program will cause you to continue losing weight. The more muscle you build, the more fat you will burn because muscle burns fat even when you are asleep at night. More muscle from exercising means you burn more fat as you rest. With a good diet, this means the further along you get, the more your body starts helping you in your efforts!
The best exercises would be lots of sex or swimming, in all honesty. They work more muscle groups and have the benefit of being low stress. Stair stepping is about as simple and low impact as you can get and you don't have to worry about getting outside to walk in bad weather or dangerous parts of town if there is public walking track nearby. I suggest you not spend money on any stair stepping gizmo...most will break, are awkward, and you can't use dumbbells safely in conjunction with them. A simple box/platform is all you need. One made of a box formed by 2x4's, 2x6's or 2x8's on their side with a piece of 3/4" or 1" plywood across the top is all you need. Make sure it is cross-braced across the center with an additional board to support your weight in the middle, and either have some handy guy run a router (woodworking type, not computer!) with a round-over bit around it to smooth the edges. I would suggest making your own (or you can find a local cabinet shop or handyman to make you one), and make it wide enough that you can stand comfortably on it with both feet and so that it is stable. If you like, glue a non-slip mat or piece of rubber on top to lessen impact.
That's it. Eat three meals, snack twice a day, reduce your calories, eat until only 3/4 full, drink a glass of water before each meal and start stepping and a stretching routine. Make lunch a salad every day, and you'll make quicker progress.
It is simple, but I know it is at the same time hard. What you have to do is decide what kind of person you want to be and live that way. If you want to live like a healthy, in-shape person that weighs less than you do...decide that's the kind of person you are and then live that way. Replace sweets and such with veggies and low-fat dips. When you feel an urge for a late snack, treat yourself to some hot chamomile tea or iced tea or some other drink...or find some extremely low calorie snacks.
You don't have to stop eating good tasting food or drink horrible shakes to lose weight. Simply reduce calories, balance your food groups, and eat often so that you can eat smaller portions and your body will digest better and make better use out of the nutrients in each meal.
That's as simple as it gets. No dozens of awkward or painful exercises and no yucky shakes, no spandex required, and no paying for a gym membership. Remember, it is always a good idea to pay a visit to your personal physician before beginning a weight loss or exercise routine and let her or him know what you have in mind. Your doctor knows your medical history and condition and may offer valuable insight into the routine and diet you have in mind.
Lastly, don't expect to drop 5 lbs each week. Everyone loses different. A lot of people drop 15 lbs in their first week or two if they are extremely obese and begin dieting and exercising...this is common (and largely water loss). Other people may build muscle (which is heavier than fat, remember that) and show no weight loss for two or three weeks and then suddenly start dropping 1-2 lbs every week. Monitor your weight, but do NOT become preoccupied with making the numbers change. Focus on sticking to your diet and exercise and use a scale for periodic monitoring. A realistic and healthy weight loss of 2 1/2 lbs per week is a good goal. However, if after three or four weeks you have only lost two or three pounds but you are eating right and exercising and have more energy, DO NOT become discouraged.
The hardest part of losing weight is making those lifestyle changes. If you are sticking with your program, continue to do so...the weight loss will happen. Remember, if your 30 minutes of stepping becomes easy, increase it to 40...or do a second workout two of your workout days. Keep your body working.
Good luck. I hope this helps or provides inspiration!
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congrats on ur engagement! try kapalbhati praanayaam- its a kind of breathing exercise. (check out swami ramdevs site fr video clip of the exercise) and limit the carbs in ur diet.if u must ,take whole grain not refined.try lots of protein and water .
Congrats on the upcoming wedding!
Those cheesy workout tapes are great because you can pop them into the DVD player so you have no excuse not to go to the gym, no matter how tired you are. Also invest in a good exercise mat and some light weights for toning exercises.
Play with your toddler. It's the best way to multitask--a cardio-workout for you, a childhood memory for him/her. There are tons of exercises that can be done while performing other tasks, just search them online.
Gradually replace any refined grains with whole wheat (the key is to not do it all at once--it scares the children when white breads and cookies are replaced with brown bread and whole wheat pasta, plus doing it so drastically can cause cramping). Avoid high fructose corn syrup in most products. Choose the darkest and brightest veggies--they have the most vitamins and fill you up longer. As for meat portions, keep them no bigger than the size of your palm, and limit servings to one or two. Keep healthy foods in the reach of yourself and the children (have a bag of baby carrots in the lowest shelf in the fridge for the baby, and have a bunch of prewashed, precut things for you), and if you want a treat, limit its size.
Once you gradually start making changes, you'll find that you have more energy. The trick is to motivate yourself to take those first few steps.
I am including a few recipes that might help for meals/snacks.
Get a treadmill. Make up your mind that you are going to get on it for a while every day. Eat a good balance diet with lots of fiber, fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of salads. I'm sure you know all the foods to avoid.
Get some Fucothin ( made by Garden of Life, a very reputable company). go to vitacost.com for the best price on it and you can read the reviews about it. I have a friend who used it for 3 months and lost quite a bit of weight without changing a thing in her lifestyle.
CLA works well too and you can get that at any drugstore in the vitamin aisle and at Walmart too.
Good Luck.