getting healthy

[Tiggeroo]

I need to do it. I need to get serious about my health. I had made promises to myself to do this and was doing really well and then I got super busy with school and dropped it all.
Now I just don't know where to start anymore. My cabinets are empty so I want to start by picking up some good things. I want to get food for three days of healthy meals. Then on the weekend I can think and plan a bit more. But like I said I just don't know what to do any more.
Right now I go to school three long days a week. I generally leave without eating breakfast, grab a coffee, grab a snack at ten and lunch at the cafeteria around one, generally bad for me crap. Then I get home late and either skip dinner or eat junk at 7:00 or so.
On my days off I'm running doing alot of stuff and I again skip breakfast, eat a late lunch and a late dinner with dh. Lunch is often out and junk, dinner is too heavy for so late.
I'm getting no exercise except running to places.
Today I started by taking a good long walk. Then I had some cottage cheese and pineapple for breakfast. Help. Give me some tips for fixing this mess. Give me some ideas to stop eating at school and to have dinner already to go or in a crock pot when I get home so we don't eat fast food or late at night. If I don't fix this it will kill me, seriously. And I want to be around for my grandkids.

 

[MizTink]

Wow...you sound like me. Except I'm not in school. But things are so hectic it's hard to fit the basics in. The bad thing for me is that I see me dragging my kids down with me. We are all gaining weight. Even when I try...something usually ruins my good intentions. And eating health is more expensive than the junj!
Sad isn't it?
No advice, but I feel for you!
I'm watchinh for responses too......


(I did pretty good about 1 1/2 yrs ago and lost 40 lbs. Now I'm back up almost 20 of it. Every day I say THIS HAS GOT TO STOP)

 

[Hercules10]

Water, water, water and more water.

Get the munchies? Drink a full glass of water. Then drink some more. After a while you'll be so busy running back and forth to the restroom, you'll forget you're hungry. Plus it flushes your system.

Good Luck and good for you!

 

[Tiggeroo]

this might seem odd but the biggest problem is not eating enough, esp. not eating scheduled meals. From what I hear this can cause your body to hold onto weight. Whenever I've gotten serious about it I always find myself eating more. Healthier, but more. It doesn't take long until I feel better when i start this, but maintaining is hard.

 

[noodleknitter]

Fix a pot of soup. You can have it for dinner and take it for lunch.

Buy some good whole grain bread, (first ingredient on list.) And make something yummy like tuna or egg salad. Buy some fruit, and some veggies. (I buy whatever is on sale.) Make a Mexican Casserole. Meat and veggies all together, and the kids think it is something special!

Drink water, not diet soda, etc.

We started slowly changing from junk to whole grain, and more natural choices. We aren't rabid about it, but it is going well.

eta: we do fix treats, but not everyday, and not by the dozen!

 

[Hedy]

I get a lot of unique lunch ideas from veganlunchbox.com. I try to buy health single packaged stuff from the store 100 calorie cookie packs, single serving containers of low-fat cottage cheese, so i can just toss them into my lunch bag and go. Alternately, try pre-packing cold noodles, pasta salads ahead of time in to-go containers.
Try to scope out healthier options in the caf-water? Salad? Broth based soups?
Try to keep quick and healthy options around-you can't pop a frozen pizza in the oven if you don't have it on hand, but veggie nuggests, frozen veggies and potatoes aren't that hard to heat up.

 

[WeirdEyes]

I've gone from a size 20W to a size 8 by changing my way of eating (NOT dieting) and exercising. YOU CAN DO IT also!!!

Cut out all of the sugar you eat now. Add whole grains instead of processed whites (rice, white bread, pasta, white flour, etc.). Try to eat some fruits and veggies during the day. Add some low-fat yogurt to your diet. Make sure you eat breakfast every day within one hour of waking.

Exercise! Exercise! Exercise!! even if you only walk 30 minutes a day to begin with.

Be patient. You didn't gain it overnight so you won't lose it overnight.

Good luck!!!!

 

[Tiggeroo]

congrats to you sheila. That sounds like just what I want to do. I eat so poorly that I believe the weight will come off by just fixing this and walking every day. At least in the beginning that should be enough. It's just so hard when you've neglected it so long to get back into it. I have the knowledge in my brain somewhere for how to do this. I just am drawing a blank and just don't seem able to take even these baby steps I want desperately to do.

 

[Sherri]

I need to do it. I need to get serious about my health. I had made promises to myself to do this and was doing really well and then I got super busy with school and dropped it all.
Now I just don't know where to start anymore. My cabinets are empty so I want to start by picking up some good things. I want to get food for three days of healthy meals. Then on the weekend I can think and plan a bit more. But like I said I just don't know what to do any more.
Right now I go to school three long days a week. I generally leave without eating breakfast, grab a coffee, grab a snack at ten and lunch at the cafeteria around one, generally bad for me crap. Then I get home late and either skip dinner or eat junk at 7:00 or so.
On my days off I'm running doing alot of stuff and I again skip breakfast, eat a late lunch and a late dinner with dh. Lunch is often out and junk, dinner is too heavy for so late.
I'm getting no exercise except running to places.
Today I started by taking a good long walk. Then I had some cottage cheese and pineapple for breakfast. Help. Give me some tips for fixing this mess. Give me some ideas to stop eating at school and to have dinner already to go or in a crock pot when I get home so we don't eat fast food or late at night. If I don't fix this it will kill me, seriously. And I want to be around for my grandkids.

You should keep a calander and give yourself a check mark on the days that you stick to your plan. As they accumulate you will feel so proud of yourself and it will be your encouragment to go onward with it.
One huge thing you can do to see results quickly is cut out soda from your diet, if you are a soda drinker. I don't know if you are.
I cut out soda completly and coffee (for other reasons- the dropping of the coffee was a huge sacrifce for me). I must say I feel really much healthier without caffine in my system.
If you have a whole Foods near you, that would be a great source of some good healthy food.
Good luck, I think you will do great because you have the will to do it.

 

[TheGoofster]

If anybody ever tries to tell you that eating healthy and staying in shape is easy, give them a good swift kick in the backside. Taking care of yourself is very, very difficult, BUT, it is possible. And, it all coms down to choices. Let me use myself as an example. For most of my life I was a junk food junkie. I would literally drink over 3 liters of coke a day, a bag or two of chips, various sweets and snacks as well - every single day. The problem was that I didn't really gain weight, so I figured, why not, apparently it's not too bad for me. Then I finally went to the doctor. After running a battery of different test, he came back and told me, I should be dead right now. My blood sugar count, and triglicerites were so high, that my blood was like molasses. Either I changed my eating habbits, or I should go and pick out my casket.
The first choice I had to make was replacing the coke (actually MNT. Dew) with water. Then the chips had to go, as well as the sweets. The first few weeks were torture. We're talking sugar and caffeine withdrawels at the same time. And the fact is that I hate water. This was something that I did not want to do, and my poor wife had to put up with me during this time. BUT, after a couple of days, the headaches went away, and the routine started to kick in. When I started getting my enegy back (real energy, not sugar induced energy) I also started walking every day. I started with about 15 minutes, and have worked up to about 50 - 60 minutes a day. Do I still crave the coke and sweets - YEP, but I DECIDE not to do them. Do I feel like walking every day, NOPE, but I decide to do it.

My point is this. Although taking better care of yourself is not easy or fun, you can do it, if you truly decide to do it. I understand that there is always a good "reason" not to do something (time, cost, energy, etc...) but the fact is that if you really want to, you can do it.
Tell, you what, try this, set a reasonable goal for yourself to start with (don't do what I did, and go cold turkey over night if you can help it). Start with small changes. Replace most of your cokes with water, or don't order that desert. Once you get good at that change, add another, and then another. Be firm, but reasonable. Also, have a bigger goal that in say, 6 months, you will be at a certain point (hopefully the smaller goals will start adding up). Also, find a diet plan that you feel good about (weight watchers, Atkins, etc...) and stick with it. And make sure you find time to excercise at least 3 or 4 times a week. If you can do these things, you will be well on your way to a much healthier lifestyle.
Good luck.

Oh, by the way, something else to consider, try drinking a cup of Juice everyday with two spoons of fiber blended in (get the one that has no flavor), it is one of the best things (along with water) for cleaning you out.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I did the coke thing last winter. I've been coke free for a year. I swear that was the hardest thing I ever did. I was addicted to coke with ice, drinking the soda and chewing the ice. I not only hurt my health but broke two teeth in the process. After I quit the coke I no longer craved chewing ice. If I get a soda now I don't even finish it. No desire to any more.
My goal now is at least three meals a day, a walk, and at least 5 fruits and veggies. Wow, that sounds so hard just reading it.

 

[DVC Daisy]

Do you have iTunes? I disovered two great podcasts (FREE!) that you might enjoy:

Health Bites - very short (one minute) daily health tips. Lots of good info in them! There are like 85 or so now so it may take a bit to catch up to the current ones.

Achieve Change in 28 Days - great tool for starting any new habit!

Good Luck!

 

[cstraub]

Be willing to pay more for healthy convience foods. There are many foods out there that are premade or almost that can offer a lot of nutrition (at least more than the way you are currently eating) while on the go. Here's a list of some that I use.

-SouthBeach lunch wraps (in lunchmeat section)
-Ready to eat cut up fruit (wide variety)
-Veggies and dip in a single serving package
-Variety of weight watchers frozen dinners lunches and breakfasts (nuke and serve)
-Apples with carmel in a single serve package
-Fruit leather
-Power bars
-Power breakfast drinks
-100% fruit beverages such as cranberry, in single serve bottles
-V8 or vegetable jusice in plastic single serve bottles

One other thought is to look in your town to see if they offer a place where you can go and make pre made meals that you freeze and eat later. Some of my girlfriends have been doing this and they love it. You spend a couple hours some afternoon or whenever and pick between ten to fifteen meals that they have to choose from. You go around from station to station and fill the ingredients for each meal. You take the meals home and freeze them and when you are ready to eat them they are just heat and eat and only one pan or skillet is needed!

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[TheGoofster]

I did the coke thing last winter. I've been coke free for a year. I swear that was the hardest thing I ever did. I was addicted to coke with ice, drinking the soda and chewing the ice. I not only hurt my health but broke two teeth in the process. After I quit the coke I no longer craved chewing ice. If I get a soda now I don't even finish it. No desire to any more.
My goal now is at least three meals a day, a walk, and at least 5 fruits and veggies. Wow, that sounds so hard just reading it.

Let me give you a big secret about walking. If you don't already have one, get yourself a small MP3 player. Then go to the Parks and attractions thread and find "Does somebody want to download Disney Audio", and download as much as you can. Then, everyday as you walk, listen to a different Disney ride or attraction. It is incredible how fast the time goes by, and you actually start looking forward to your daily walk. I just got back from my walk, and I listened to It's not easy being a Bug, Dinorsaur, the Muppets 3D show, and the Kilamanjaro Safari Ride. Plus, it helps keep you going until your next Disney Vacation.

Also, about the Fruits, try being creative. If you've got a blender, try mixing a few together to find your favorite combos.

 

[Christine]

Tiggeroo,

I don't have any good ideas about "jumpstarting" you but I wanted to add that once you do get started, think about reading Cooking Light Magazine and visiting their message boards.

All of their recipes are good tasting yet low-fat and healthy. Some are very easy to make, others are for full-fledged cooks. I've read on their message boards of people who have adopted the Cooking Light way of eating (which is to use all their recipes for your meals) and have lost weight and felt better. If superquick weight loss is not your goal, this may be the way to go for you.

It also depends what kind of "foodie" you are. I'm kind of a food snob. By that, I mean that a can of soup, a cereal bar, or a prepackaged lunch (like a South Beach lunch) or a Lean Cuisine is just not going to work for me. I feel so unhappy when I don't eat "real" food. So, this style of eating makes me happy. Lots of the Food Network chefs also do healthy stuff (like Racheal Ray or that Sarah woman who cooks mostly from scratch). The key is that you've GOT to cook in the evening. Such a drag. But it gives you lunch the next day!

 

[momrek06]

A few ideas, OP, are www.sparkpeople.com/index.asp ! This is a great site for ideas. Click it on and register for FREE and you will be given fabulous TIPS daily.

Also http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=275509 This is a CROCK POT Thread and you can easily subscribe to it by hitting the red box at the top of the page that says THREAD TOOLS and then click on "Subscribe to this Thread".


Also please visit the W.I.S.H. Forum on the DIS Boards for people just like yourself looking for inspiration and motivation to get in shape. We are Inspired to Stay Healthy!


And like many on here have said...just get out and WALK!!! Walking is a fabulous form of exercise.


I have a CD player and I buy all my books on CD and listen to them as I walk...I get my exercise IN as well as all caught up on my reading!!


Good Luck to you!!!

 

[TheGoofster]

Here, I found that Thread if you are interested in downloading Disney rides and attractions:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1163839

As the previous poster mentions, audio books are also a great source of diversion when walking (or driving for that matter).

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I love Cooking Light Magazine as well as Eating Well. Great recipes and articles!

I also have done Walk Away the Pounds at home to help drop the baby weight I gained and it worked! I did it 3 times/week. I stopped this summer and recently started back up again. Good luck!

 

[WeirdEyes]

congrats to you sheila. That sounds like just what I want to do. I eat so poorly that I believe the weight will come off by just fixing this and walking every day. At least in the beginning that should be enough. It's just so hard when you've neglected it so long to get back into it. I have the knowledge in my brain somewhere for how to do this. I just am drawing a blank and just don't seem able to take even these baby steps I want desperately to do.

Thanks Tiggeroo! It has been a long journey! You've received a lot of great advice/tips on this thread. Now, you've just got to make your mind up to do it. You can make changes slowly at first and then work up to the bigger changes. It isn't going to be easy, but just think about how great you're going to look and feel!

 

[Aidensmom]

About a year ago my son was put on a high fiber, low sugar, low fat diet for some stomach problems he is having. Our whole family started following it - we eat whole grains instead of white flour products, ground turkey instead of ground beef, bake instead of fry, and sugared items are only a treat. We do still have the ocassional McDonald's meal, etc, but on a regular basis we are eating much healthier. I believe DH has lost about 20 pounds without even trying.

Just recently, there have been a LOT more healthy-alternative convenience foods available at most grocery stores, and it is also much easier lately to find whole grain products. Some do cost a little more, but it is worth it!