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It's great that you're ready to make changes. The OP's have given excellent advice. Just wanted you know that you have it within your power to do this. And you can!
When I made the major change of quitting smoking, it took a program to help me succeed with that. I do hope you seek out a program like OA or another program sponsored by a local hospital...there's a big emotional component connected with our food/cigarette habits..it's not just the food--it's why we do it, too. Getting to the bottom of that really and truly helps you feed your health instead of your mouth and stomach...
Hope you'll report back on your steps. Baby steps, one positive step at a time....ounces add up to pounds....
Start walking a little bit, but make yourself go every day--no exceptions. Work up slowly to walking 45 mins. to an hour a day.
Good advice on the walking but I'd like to make one point. I think it's important to set not only time goals but distance goals as well. The reason being that a person needs to add intensity to their routine. It's easy to walk without exerting oneself. His first few walks at any pace will probably exert him but having that goal whether he reaches it or not will ensure that he constantly exerts himself rather than falling into a rut. Granted, some exercise is better than no exercise but the OP will see better results by always having a plan to add intensity to his routine.
I see people that come to the gym daily and work out for 1 hour or more with little or no results over several months. The reason for this is that their routine lacks intensity. They perform a set and sit for 5 minutes before doing the next set or slowly walk on the treadmill without breaking a sweat and gabbing to their friend beside them. Many of these people complain that their body is not changing and ask me how I got such great results. My answer is always consistency and intensity.
I think it's important to learn this concept early and apply it from day one. Otherwise, many people become discouraged due to poor results and give up. A good way to measure intensity is to invest in a heart monitor and always try to stay within your target heart rate. You can buy one for as low as $30. Here is a site to calculate your target heart rate:
Seems that all of the advice, above is sound. . . it is a struggle, but. . . . you gotta do it, if not for yourself, than for your son!
I will be bold enough to suggest starting with a low carb (Atkins type) diet that allows you to eat as much as you like, meat, eggs, etc., but NO CARBS. . . Drink lots of water, and in a few days, you will find yourself with very diminished hunger pangs, and positive results on the scale. If you can continue this for 2 weeks, you will be well on your way to re-setting your internal thermostat. After 2 weeks, start adding in LOW IMPACT carbs. . . veggies, fruits, whole grains, etc. Start walking. . . as slow as necessary. After you get started, do set some time goals, I suggest walking at a moderate rate until you start to feel "winded", check the time it took to do that, turn around and walk back at a slower pace. When this becomes "easy", increase the time in 5 minute increments. AND. . . understand that "once in a while" you will "fall off the wagon". . . that is not an excuse to abandon either the diet or the exercise program, just forgive yourself for being "human", and get right back on the plan. Best of luck to you.
First of all remember one important thing......if you don't buy it, you can't eat it. As long as you order that sack of fries along with a cheeseburger, all the diets in the world won't help a bit.
Instead of a snack, which you really don't need, just drink some water. It will satisfy that craving of something in your mouth and it will fill your tummy up a little.
I know, you think it's easy for me to say it, but watching what I eat is probably just as hard for me as it is for a lot of people. I'm lazy, I don't exercise, but I don't make excuses when I gain weight. I remember that extra ice cream that I shouldn't have gotten, that pie that I should have left in the store, the soda instead of water that I drank when I went out for lunch. It all adds up and piles up on the waist line.
You can do it! It took a while to put on those pounds. It will take a while to get them off.
I would suggest Weight Watchers for you. It sounds like finances are an issue. So I will tell you it would be about $40.00 a month, but I really think whatever sacrifice that might represent for you would be well worth it. It provides a healthy workable plan, plus the accountability and support that is helpful when trying to diet. It is tough when you have a large amount to lose, but it can be done. One lady in our group of Weight Watchers has lost 200 pounds over a course of 2-3 years. She credits the Lord for helping her and she just kept plugging!
I totally understand where you're coming from. At my top weight, I was almost 300 lbs (and I'm a woman). In the past 6 months I've lost 45 lbs and it really (REALLY) has not been difficult.
The first thing that totally worked (and that people have told me for years to try but I never would do it) was keeping a diary of every single thing I ate and drank (including diet sodas) and figuring out the calories for each thing every day. In my experience, it's much harder to lose weight if you don't really have a handle on exactly what you're eating.
Once you see it there in black and white, it's easier to start making small changes. The first thing I did to change was to switch from having a Wendy's fried chicken sandwich with french fries and coke every day for lunch to a Wendy's grilled chicken sandwich. That saved about 200 calories. After a week, I cut out the french fries and switched it with an apple (Gala apples are one of my favorite foods). It took a LOT longer to cut out the cokes, but after several months I have finally done that.
For the past 6 months I have been tweaking what I eat -- changing out the higher calorie and fat choices for healthier choices. Don't try to do it all at once -- it won't work and you'll just give up and go back to your old habits. Try to make at least one healthy change each week and make it stick.
Next, you HAVE to start moving. I know how hard it is to exercise when you're fat (believe me!). I'm middle-aged, have never exercised before in my life, and have chronic knee, back, and foot problems (as you would expect). But I now work out on my elliptical in my house an hour or more every day. I didn't start out doing that. At first I would be gasping for breath after 15 minutes. But I determined that I'd do it every day and before long I had worked up both in time and intensity. I keep track of each workout too -- noting the time, total steps, and # of calories burned (from the display). This lets me see my constant improvements, which is extremely encouraging.
Even though I still have 100 lbs to lose, I can't begin to describe how much better I feel physically and emotionally after just 6 months. For the previous 3 years I literally thought I would not survive the summer. Every time I went outside I thought I would have a heart attack or stroke. I had horrible palpitations every day. This summer, I haven't even felt the heat. I have more strength and endurance than I had 10 years ago. And I feel more in control of my life. It's a great feeling.
Just know that you CAN do it. It truly is as simple as making small, healthy changes to your diet and exercising regularly. There's no trick. Just do it!
Good luck!
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