Losing Weight - Floral Park,NY

You mirror me in the past. I have lost 25 lbs since January 1/10 and can attribute it to the following: I believe in the power of the subconcious therefore I use ( and still do) hypnosis tapes. $100...Regardless of what anyone says, if YOU believe they can help, they will but YOU have to truly want to lose. Also, in conjunction (with the help of the tapes I gave up eating bread, red wine, cheese and anything WHITE. I eat smaller portions and lots of fruits and veg (tapes help) I have a gazelle that I use faithfully 5 days a week for 30 mins along with stretching and hand weights (again the tapes help w/this if you aren't motivated) I take a good multi and CLA Slim. I am over 50 and anyone knows how much harder it is to lose as you get older. I feel great and look good too for the first time since I was 28. And yes because I am happier w/myself my daily life stresses seem easier to handle. Hope this helps.

i know what it feels cause i've been there too. after my pregnancy i become obese, i tried everything on the market...EVERYTHING ...pills, shots, diets, exercise planner, gym, dance, eat less, drink more water, patch, teas...EVERYTHING!! but nothing seems to work. Its so frustrated trying to feel good when you dont like your body. After a year trying everything my sister start taking some Chinese Pills...name: Reduce Weight Fruta Planta after a week i started taking them too. you can find ____@____.com
believe me you dont regret it ... if you start now by summer you'll be great...i've lost 25 lbs in a month....go to google and fing some reviews about the pill and you'll see im not joking. my english is not good at all but i hope i could help you i know what it feels that everytime you ask people just answer "eat healthy and exercise" ...sometime that does not work...at least not for me.
ohh ...once you order the pill watch out for scam...read the reviews first...when i bough it i find them in amazon @ $4.76 + S&H = $9.76 for a month supply...dont get the most expensive cause you think is the real one, because i bough the less expensive one and it was the real one......in the street people sell it at $20 each box.

good luck!!!

A.-Lots of good advice so far. Here's mine.
I do not need to be a certain weight to feel good about myself. I weigh 315lbs and I feel GREAT about myself! WHAT?? (you may be asking yourself). Well, I started off at 420lbs.
Here's what I have learned. It sucks going to the gym. I go everyday for 2 hours a day. BUT, that is the time that I get to myself. The kids go and play with all their friends in the child watch area and I focus on myself. I had to decide if I wanted to spend the money on weight watchers or the gym, and I decided gym. I am not good at following programs. So the gym...not fun. BUT, what is great is that I feel fabulous when I am done. I have more energy to play with the kids and get housework done and cook. I go in the morning, and I have noticed that if I don't go until the evening it feels like my day just goes by at a snails pace. It's horrible. I have got my body used to working out in the morning. When you work out your body produces something (I am sure the other mama's know what it's called, I can't remember right now) that goes to your brain and actually wakes you up more.
I have completely changed my diet. I only shop the outside of the grocery store, stock up on lots of fresh fruit and veggies, have changed to leaner meats and chicken. Ground turkey instead of ground beef for tacos and chili. I only drink water throughout the day (milk with dinner) and I take pictures of myself. When I started and then I have taken three more since then. (I started in June of last year) That way I can see the progress.
Here's the thing. If it's frickin' hot outside wear shorts!! Why do you care about what everyone thinks? Does your husband love you? Do your children think you are the greatest thing ever? Do you have great friends? I need to remind myself of that sometimes.
My husband married me morbidly obese, he loved me no matter what. Since dropping more than 100 pounds I have more energy, I fit into tons more clothes, and I am damn proud of myself. I will be the one wearing shorts this summer when it's hot. And when people look at me and think "Oh my god, she's fat and wearing shorts" I will think "yes, but I worked hard to be fat and not obese. My husband loves me. My boys love me. And it's HOT!"
You can always email me if you want to chit chat!!
L.

After I had my son, I joined Sparkpeople.com. It is completely free to join and they have tons of advice and support teams you can connect with. What I found most useful was the calorie tracker. It's a bit time consuming when you get started but once you get going and can track what you are eating you start to pay more attention to it. It worked for me. Between home workout DVDs and tracking my calories on Sparkpeople I lost 30 pounds. It took me a while obviously because Spark guides you to lose weight the healthy way (about 2 pounds per week). I have a friend that has had some success with it too. It's free to join so what do you have to lose? Everyone is different and you have to find what works for you. Maybe this will help you though. Good Luck!

What woman doesn't struggle with this one! Over the years (almost 40) I've had my ups and downs. As I get older it gets harder. I find I feel best overall when I am healthy. Therefore, I would focus on being healthy and not losing weight. If you treat your body well, you will feel better all over. AND you will lose weight in the mean time. Maybe find a good nutritionist or book to guide you and incorporate exercise (walking and cleaning count in my book - just make sure you are moving).
Some suggestions: Focus on eating fresh foods vs. processed. Cut out all soda (even diet) and juice - try to drink water only as we get so many empty calories from what we drink. Also, nothing fried and limit the red meat, and sauces (ketchup, tomato etc). We all find what works for us, but I can say I'm happier when I know I'm treating my body well - and it is happy too. Good luck

I am not about weight, but rather about exercise... perhaps trying to fit in 30 mins a day for yourself to get a good walk or a home workout in will help you feel better in your own skin. Having come from a history of eating disorders, I don't weigh myself, but I do make sure to get in my workout. It helps me to feel better about me without the pressure of a number. It means rolling out of bed at 4:50am, but hey... I'll take the time when I can get it!

Herbal weight loss teas are the best choice to rid of baby weight without affecting breast milk. I have used mummy magic weight loss tea and lost 39 lbs.

Losing weight will not make your life any happier or easier. Even when you lose the weight all the same stressors will be there. Some of us even turn to food when stressed, which doesn't help at all, but I've been guilty of that. I am doing e-diets right now trying to get in shape for summer. It's an online program that gives you several diets to choose from. They give you a daily menu..you can change if you don't like something..and they give you exact exercise instructions. They have nutritionists and exercise specialists that you can e-mail, chat with and talk to on the phone. It's not very expensive at all..I pay $13.47 a month.

Hi A.,

Losing weight in and of itself will not make you any happier. However, there is a component to being healthy that will. Our body is chemically based and if we don't get the right nutrition, our system gets off balance and we do feel bad, not just physically but about emotionally. If Weight Watchers is not working for you, then try something else. Obviously you know how to eat the "weight Watchers" way. If the meetings help, that's great. It doesn't sound like they do or you wouldn't be asking this particular question. It sounds like you just like the social or the accountability. You can get that somewhere else, like the YMCA in group exercises...

I use an absorbable multivitamin that has removed the excess weight from my frame. I was not trying to lose, I just wanted to stay healthy. My husband lost 110 pounds with this vitamin. Sixty of them were with no activity or diet change. We feel great and don't get sick anymore. If you'd like to try this, let me know. I'll walk you thru it and even hold you accountable if you want. I have other information that will help as well if you want it.

Don't lose heart!

God bless,

M.

I think that you need to discover what it is that you are really looking for. Acceptance from your husband, from yourself, or from the mirror? A number on the scale really isn't going to mean anything if you aren't happy with yourself otherwise. I thought I needed a number, and after having my first baby, I reached that number. It didn't make me happy. I still looked in the mirror and saw the same person with stretch marks and cellulite, and bulges here and there. I really didn't have the will power to lose any more (and had only lost what I did because of breastfeeding), so I knew that I needed to be happy for myself instead. I won't say that I loved looking in the mirror after that, but I now know that after this current pregnancy, I need to be down at that weight for my health, but that I need to change my outlook for my mental health.

I also learned that if I want to wear shorts, I am going to. I don't care what others think - although I might warn them to wear some sunglasses. :)

Everyone is going to have a different opinion.

I, too, am one who feels better about myself when I'm at a more ideal, healthy weight. However, I also find something in life to stress about. When one crisis is complete, I magically find another to focus my attention on.

My goal is to be healthy. I'll never be a size 2 (nor do I want to be). My Mom has type 2 diabetes which makes me much more likely to develop it from the genetic component of the disease, and because I sold insulin/other diabetes medications for 8 years, I know too much about what happens when you do let yourself go.

I actually worry when I lose weight without trying. At 2.5 weeks postpartum, I thought I was amazing for being able to fit into my prepregnancy clothes. Then I was diagnosed with cancer. Weight loss was my only symptom, and that wasn't abnormal being only 10.5 weeks postpartum.

As long as you're doing it for yourself, your health and not for anyone else, I think it can be a reasonably good goal to pursue. It's when it's for other people (excluding your kids and husband so you can be healthy for them), that it is a problem in my opinion.

Good luck finding your happy place and ideal body image.

You sound a lot like me. I feel great about my self and a lot happier when I am at my Goal weight. I am miserable when I am not! I am also a lifetime weight watcher. But since having my 3rd child in September of 2008, I have been 20 pounds above my goal. Now I am 30 pounds away. I am getting stressed out because I had hoped to be at goal last summer and failed. This summer is coming up and I am farther away from my goal than last summer.
As long as I am attending the meeting AND following the points, I will get to my goal. I just havent been serious or motivated to do it since the baby was born. So the weight is slowly adding up. This last week I have decided to stick to the points, track everyhting and go to meetings. Hopefully I will be able to wear shorts this summer too!
If you need a WW buddy, I am happy to have you message me whenever you need to!
Good luck! A.

Hi A.- Yes, I feel better about myself when I lose weight. I feel better, I have more energy, I look better, I'm more comfortable in social situations - a lot of things - but my identity and self-worth cant be dependant on it. If it was, then I'd be in bondage to it.

I encourage you to "love the skin your in" and accept yourself for who you are and what you look like - right now. Think of dieting in terms of being good and faithful to yourself and less about trying to make yourself be perfect enough. If you're not ready to wear shorts, find some cute summer skirts or capris that you like. No sense living for tomorrow when today is right in front of you.

I feel better about how I LOOK when I'm slimmer, but my weight doesn't affect how I feel about MYSELF.

I have two kids. I think I started out around 160 before kids. I'm 5'9", so that's not skinny, but it's not bad either. I gained at least 40 pounds with each kid. I lost the weight (all but about 4 pounds) after the first time. I'm two years out from my second pregnancy and still have about 12 pounds to lose to get back to where I was (164). I'm not sure if I will lose it, but, to be honest, I'm not really trying that hard. There are just so many more important things to worry about in this life. My kids and my husband think I'm pretty no matter what I weigh and those are the only people who's opinions matter to me.

I feel like I'm a little heavier than I want to be, but it's not that bad. I look fine in jeans. I've never had great legs, even when I was a teenager, so I don't expect to look that great in shorts. I've accepted that long ago, so that doesn't bother me. I just don't wear short shorts. I find that as long as I choose my clothes with a realistic eye and don't try to fit into something too small or inappropriate for my age, I think I look fine. Of course, I don't look so good in a bathing suit, but I don't try to. Most people at the pool don't look good in a bathing suit. So, I figure I fit right in. When I really want to look my best, I have a corset I can wear under my nicest clothes. That takes off about a dress size, but isn't comfortable enough for everyday wear.

Your view of yourself shouldn't depend on your weight. If you're an unhappy fat person, you'll likely just be an unhappy, hungry skinny person if you manage to lose it.

Now, I'm assuming you're a little overweight. If you're really obese, that's different. All that extra weight will make a big difference in your quality of life. It makes it harder to do things and puts you at a higher risk for all sorts of health problems. In that case, losing the weight may or may not make you happier, but it will make you healthier, and that's a worthy goal to pursue.

Also, if the reason you think you look bad in shorts has more to do with your cellulite than your actual weight, then that's really pretty hopeless. Losing weight does not affect cellulite. It reduces it a bit, but you cannot actually get rid of cellulite. I don't really want to get into what cellulite actually is, but it one of those things that once you have it, you'll always have it. In that case the best bet is to just wear longer shorts.

I've never tried weight watchers, or any formal diet program. I do use the treadmill at the gym for an hour twice a week, but that's about it. When I do get really serious about losing weight, here's what I do. I stop drinking soda and replace obviously unhealthy things in my diet (like cookies and bacon) with healthier alternatives.