want to start back losing

Could someone please help me with getting started losing weight again. I am having a really hard time with this. Can anybody tell me what I need to do to get started again. I have gained 5 pounds and it is about to drive me crazy. I still walk about 2 miles everyday besides walking here at work. I am extremly depressed over this. Please help!!!!

Have you let snacking creep up on you? Start monitoring your food intake and water intake. Sometimes, those bad habits have a way of sneaking up on you. You might change your exercise up. Your body may have gotten too used to your walking. You could try adding a little jogging in there are you might try aerobics for awhile. Sometimes just changing your routine is all that is needed. Good luck, Linda

Thanks linda, how long ago has it been since your surgery and how much have you lost

My surgery was 05/23/05 and I started at 273. I'm currently 153, my goal is 140 (but would really love to get down to 135 since that would mean I'd lost over half of me and it's my wedding weight 28 years ago). My maintenance plan is to stay between 140-150. I hope to never again go above 150. I know that my weight will fluctuate so that's why I've given myself a 10 lb leeway. But once I hit 145, then it will be back to paying very close attention to my eating/exercise habits. I really don't count calories and I haven't really faithfully counted my protein grams for some time now but I have a fairly good idea how much I'm getting. I drink plenty of liquids most days, religiously take my vitamins and I walk between 15 and 30 miles per week. I try to add some jogging in there. Weight loss is slow but then again I'm so close to goal that I expect it to be "slow". It's taken me about 4 months to lose 12 lbs and almost half that was in 1 month when I actually cut back on my exercise. I was consistently walking/jogging about 32-35 miles a week and then I took a break for a week where I probably only got about 10 miles in that week and now I'm getting about 15 miles a week and I'm slowly losing again. Willow had an interesting fact that if you exercise over 90 minutes a day that you stop burning fat and start catabolizing (sp?) muscle. (I need to look up the definition of catabolize). That probably explains why it was so hard for me to lose weight when I was exercising so much. I firmly believe that you can start losing weight again if you make sure you are eating a healthy diet and exercising. I never want to go on any more of these stupid fad diets that I used to do. Good luck, I know you can do it. Linda

Continue to walk, cut out all snacks (just eat breakfast, lunch, & dinner) and drink lots of water. I have walked since surgery and have never stopped. Sometimes my weight loss stops and sometimes it fluctuates up to 5 lbs. Sometimes that just happens. However, these last 3 weeks I started making myself drink at least 100 oz. of water and I lost 10 pounds!! Making good low carb high protein choices can definately help also.

By the way, here's a suggestion to help you get back on track with your eating. I suggest doing this after your dinner when you aren't hungry. Make up a lunch box for everything (and I mean everything) that you can eat the following day. Make sure it has all the protein you need and, if you count calories, that it has the required number of calories. Be sure to include healthy snack foods for those times you need to keep hunger at bay. Try to spread it out so that you are getting 3 to 6 meals a day. Eat everything that you put in that box to make sure that you are getting in enough calories to not go into starvation mode. Only eat items in that box and absolutely nothing else. This should help you get back on track with your eating. HTH. Linda

I'd love to know what types of things you put in your "lunch box". Sometimes we just need new suggestions to get out of the rut we're in. Betsy

Well, mine tends to be many of the same things fairly often. But, I might put in Peaches N Cream oatmeal with AnyWhey Protein Mix added, 1 cup of chili, 1 or 2 oz of cheddar cheese, 2 oz of peanuts, Slimfast Low Carb Protein Shake, sometimes a protein bar or yogurt, sometimes a banana, small salad, SF jello or pudding, I'll usually put a few crackers for my chili or if I have leftover chicken, I'll put that in, occasionally some baked chips. Things like deli meat, tuna, whole wheat bread or tortilla shell. I usually don't put my dinner in there since I make it for my family that evening but if I have leftovers, I'll put that in for lunch or dinner the following day. A lot of my lunches tend to be leftover from a previous night's meal. I make an awesome spaghetti bolognese using whole wheat spaghetti, I have to measure this since I could easily overeat. I also make Hamburger Greenbean stew that's good. If we go out to dinner somewhere, I'll usually bring home my leftovers and have that for lunch (recently had 3 ribs and 1/2 c of chili from Texas Roadhouse...yum). Just choose foods you like to eat and you're more likely to stick to this. On weekends I generally will cook stuff in my crockpot and make plenty to have for some of my lunches. I already know how much I can have and I measure it out and put the right amount in small containers for lunches or dinners. Anyway, this is usually a way to curb snacking if you've gotten off track. I don't use this method often, only if I feel that I've gotten off track. Many in my support group do this every day. I'm not quite that diligent but so far I haven't had too many problems eating correctly. If anything, I probably don't eat enough for the amount of exercise I do (based on reading Willow's post), since I've hit many stalls during the last 4 months that tends to coincide with my extra exercise and then I start losing again when I cut back on the exercise. I'm not patient enough to figure out how many more calories I need to eat based on my increased exercise. So, I eat when I'm hungry and mainly try to choose healthy foods. Not perfect but I'm still slowly losing and I don't feel hungry or deprived. HTH Linda

Join Weigh****chers! I am 5 1/2 years post-op and joined WW in January '06. I've lost 30 lbs and feel fantastic! I had originally lost 100 lbs with WLS and slowly managed to gain back 19 of it and I REFUSE to be larger than a size 16 ever again. I'm now down to a size 10 with some size 8's thrown in. You can do it, just put your mind to it. WW has a great support team and the meetings are motivational! WW is a tool, just like WLS! Use 'em!! I love the challenge of the points system, I try to come up with as much food to eat as I can... and it's healthy things. Recently had blood work done and it is PERFECT. Just try your best to set your mind to it, allow yourself days that you will fail but don't beat yourself up over them... be on a way of life, not a diet. Good luck!

Hey I had thought about joining, what are some examples of what you eat. Please email me at [email protected]