Just joined

I'm 29 and a mother of a 3yr old. I've gained a lot of weight after having my child and I have found it difficult to lose all this weight. I keep going up and down on the scale but no major difference. I love sweets and when I get depressed I indulge on all the sweets I can find. So advice would be appreciated.

Sun. Jan 29, 4:54pm

You have come to the right place! I have copied this from kissmekate02's blog. It has some great advice to start off with.

I have ultimately lost 88 pounds, but I have lost almost 30 since joining PEERtrainer in May, and I think my biggest successes have been the good habits I have formed as a DIRECT RESULT of belonging to this community and being accountable to myself as well as others by maintaining my logs. These are the habits that have made all the difference (and I did not go cold turkey; I incorporated them slowly over time so they didn't seem like huge
sacrifices):
1. Eating dinner early and not eating or drinking anything after dinner
except water
2. Eating wheat bread instead of white bread whenever I have the choice
3. Not ordering appetizers other than salad in restaurants
4. Ordering the best choice I can find (fish, chicken)
5. Asking for vegetables in place of potatoes or rice when possible
6. Not ordering dessert
7. To satisfy my sweet tooth, I have: low fat/non fat ice cream or frozen
yogurt, a WW Smart Ones dessert, a Slim Fast snack bar, or non fat sugar
free Jello pudding
8. Only drinking water, skim milk, and cutting back to one Diet Coke a day
(I used to drink like 6)
9. Not having mayonnaise on sandwiches, only mustard
10. Not eating cheese on sandwiches or burgers, or at all, really
11. Eating turkey burgers instead of beef
12. Not eating peanuts/peanut butter
13. Choosing pretzels, low fat popcorn or low fat chips (like Baked Lay's)
instead of regular chips or other salty snacks
14. Eating a LOT of salad, with only low fat dressings
15. Choosing low fat cereals for breakfast, like Cheerios or Kelloggs Tiger
Power
16. Exercising 3 - 4 times a week (when trying to lose a lot of weight,
doing 1 hour of cardio; when getting closer to goal, doing 30 min. of cardio
+ weight training to tone up)

Link

Sunday, January 29, 2006, 5:00 PM

Here is some more good advice.. this is from loricbme, you can see her logs in the spotlight.

Some of the first rules I taught myself were:

1) Eat healthy foods. Whole grains. Fruits. Vegetables. Drink plenty of water each day. I don't drink a lot of caffeine but do allow myself a diet soda on occasion. Diet sodas are really just a lot of chemicals. And some have high sodium. You don't want that extra sodium to retain fluids in your body.

I stick to fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. Frozen fruits and vegetables are flash frozen and retain almost all of their nutrients. Plus, they don't spoil in the fridge if you can't use them on time. Try to stay away from corn and peas as much as you can. They're loaded with carbohydrates.

I generally have cereal for breakfast. Something like raisin bran w/skim milk. Sometimes I have oatmeal. Sometimes a couple of scrambled eggs. I usually go to exercise in the morning after breakfast so it's not a problem for me to have these carbohydrates. You also need to make sure you get enough fiber in your diet every day so cereal helps with that too.

There are some favorite frozen items that I like too. I like the Boca burger cheese burgers. There's only 100 calories per patty. Also, Voila makes some low carb frozen meals like chicken and garlic sauce and beef and broccoli. They have about 120 calories per serving and there are about 2 ½ servings per package. I have no guilt eating the whole package. LOL

Let me also add that I do not starve myself. Ever. It ain't right! I love my food too much.

2) Be accountable. If I eat something that I know I shouldn't have I don't beat myself up. I don't even say that tomorrow is a new day. I say, "my next meal is a new meal." There's always time to start over. My favorite indulgence is Dove dark chocolate pieces. I might have two or three at a time and it's plenty. It's my favorite so I don't feel like I'm eating something fat free, sugar free, flavor free. Plus, it's an antioxidant so I'm getting health benefits from it.

Peertrainer has helped me so much with accountability. It is so easy for me to keep a window on my computer opened to Peertrainer all the time and quickly type in what I've been doing for the day. Plus, I can read what my group members are doing and bounce things off them. It helps me so much to know that my group members are reading my posts and commenting on them.
It's very motivating.

3) I try to get my major carb items in early in the day. I usually have Kashi go lean crunch as my cereal for breakfast these days. I like how it has fiber and lots of protein. I sometimes a sandwich for lunch. I like to use low carb wheat wraps for lunch too. Then I try to keep it to lean meat and vegetables for dinner. Not that I don't ever eat pasta for dinner or have some brown rice but it really does work.

4) Don't eat after 7:00 at night. This works well for me because I'm usually in bed by 10:30 every night. I know for people who stay up later it's better to stop eating 2-3 hours before bed. This really works too.

5) Keep the food simple. Honestly, I don't even try to make elaborate recipes. For me, the simpler, the better. If I have to put too much effort into a recipe or have to go shopping for too many special ingredients, it gets overwhelming for me. A bowl of cereal, a sandwich, some soup, fresh fruit, steamed vegetables, baked, grilled or sautéed meats work for me.
This helps with grocery shopping too. I like to make baked chicken parmesan with a chicken breast, Barilla baking sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top. No bread crumbs. It's good!

6) Limit the alcohol. Believe me, I like my beer and wine. But not every day. Some nights I have a glass of wine while cooking dinner. Sometimes I completely overindulge in beer while out with friends. But not every weekend. Maybe once of month if not every couple of months. They're empty calories and if you drink often it can really affect your progress.

7) Exercise. Even if you have to start slow you need to get up and move. I started out taking water aerobic classes because I couldn't take the pounding on my joints at the weight I was at. I also took walks in my neighborhood with my dog. It really helps having a dog to walk because they help you keep moving and they love you so much after their walk! After a few months of the water classes I had lost weight and built up my strength and confidence in myself and started trying other classes offered at my gym.
I'm now doing strength training, step classes, free weight classes, stability ball classes, ab classes and swimming, amd I've started taking Pilates classes. I like to get in about 5 good work outs per week. I'm telling you, this works! Mix it up.

8) Sleep. I sleep 8-9 hours a night. Your body needs to rest. If you start exercising your body will need it. If you do strength training your body will need to rest for the entire next day before you strength train again. You will sleep better too if you're exercising.

9) Avoid eating out. I know this can be hard for some people. I didn't have a problem with it especially knowing I have a kitchen stocked with healthy foods. When I do go out I am very consciencous of what I order. I do on occasion order a filet mignon with a baked potato. This is rare but it does happen. I don't deny myself foods that I'm craving because it just makes it worse. I just eat till I'm satisfied and stop. If I go to a buffet I only go through one time. I eat a healthy soup before my meal. It helps fill you before you eat too much of a main entrée.

10) Goals. I keep my goals in check. While I do like to think of the future (next summer) and how I will look and feel, I take baby steps. My first goal was the first 10 pounds lost. Then the 20 pound mark. Then (this is my most important one so far) I reached the weight that I was when I first went to the dr. when I was pregnant. It meant that I finally took off all the baby weight. It took five years, but I did it! My next goal is to get below 200 which will also be my 50 pound mark. This will be especially sweet. I've lost 3 pant sizes :)

11) Weighing. I weigh myself on Wednesdays. I call it Wednesday weigh day. Something about the W's helps remind me. Sometimes I do go crazy weighing myself the other days of the week but only count what I have achieved on weigh day.

I make myself aware of what I'm eating throughout the day. If you make good choices it will all come together. I have good snacks in between meals to keep me going and keep my metabolism working for me. A handful of dry roasted nuts is good as are fruits, low fat yogurt and cheese. Occasionally I like to have veggie crisps chips.
They're crunchy and sometimes I just need that. I'll also have homemade popcorn. I don't buy the microwave stuff. Too much added.

My blood pressure at my last checkup was 116/68. My doctor couldn't believe it. He was so proud of me. He looked at my weight loss and said, "did you really do this?" I proudly said, "YES!!" Let me also add that I do not have a thyroid gland. It was removed 10 years ago due to cancer. So, while I know that problems with the thyroid can cause some problems, I also know that with a doctor keeping track of your levels you can feel good and lose weight. Maybe it will take longer than other people but you have to do it for yourself. I figured nobody was going to do this for me. If I really want this bad enough I have to do it for myself. I don't want to die from being fat and unhealthy. This is something that I can control. I know that fad diets can work, but a good, common sense approach will be better in the long run.

One of my Peertrainer group members (Bradway) has a mantra, "If you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep getting what you've been getting."
This has stuck with

Sunday, January 29, 2006, 5:18 PM

Are you in a group with other moms? This really helped me because I felt like they really understood what I was going through with my post baby weight. Especially when you're around snacks all of the time. I ended up joining a gym and had my husband commit to watching our toddler while I worked out. No matter what! I'm pregnant again so I'm not really in a group, I kind of hang around but my moms group helped me soooo much.

Monday, January 30, 2006, 9:50 AM

Hello!!!

I recently joined because I have recently had a baby and I am trying to get the weight to come off. So far I don't have too much advice to give because I am in the same boat as you. I am definately here to help you and even if you want to talk about mom stuff I'm here. The only advice I can give at the moment is to try to incorporate exercise into your daily routine (if you have one). After my baby takes her first nap and eats lunch we'll go for a walk around the block. If you work then maybe after dinner you can walk around the block. Sometimes doing this regularly will help. If your husband is still around try to get him to be supportive. Support at home helps a lot!!!

Monday, January 30, 2006, 2:11 PM

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