Ok, so I'm very unhealthy. I'm almost 17, 5' 11'', almost 300 lbs, but am very strong. I know I can still make a change for the better and that's why I'm here. I need help making good diet restrictions, exercise recommendations, and vitamin/mineral suggestions. I am always tired, and my lower back hurts. I don't eat too much junk food, and just stopped drinking soda. I work next to a specialty pharmacy that just opened and a farmers market. Anything will be helpful. Thanks
Hello!
I'll be happy to share my issues and give some advice.
New Years last year I realized I needed to lose weight. Due to other health problems that I've dealt with my whole life - and having kids - the idea of exercising seemed impossible. My lower back, left hip and left leg hurt a lot - when I way saying down, sitting up - it was worse when I walked and absolutely agonizing when I exercised.
I was exhausted - 0 energy. I was also depressed, which just made all those other things worse.
The more depressed I got, the more exhausted I was and the more exhausted I was the more my body hurt and the more that hurt the less sleep I got - it was a downward spiral.
So - the first thing I did was to decide "I'm going to start working out and losing weight" - I decided that and thought about it a lot before I started doing *anything* about it. Change takes time - mentally.
Then I decided that the first thing I needed to do was ween myself off of junk food, fast food, soda and my sin: homemade toffee.
Instead of stopping these things immediately (as they do on those big-looser type shows) I slowly cut back. (I've been on sudden-change diets before and they fail because your body doesn't adjust - if you go too fast you can just depress yourself when you feel deprived of joy and fun. . . and that's when food look the tastiest and your will is the weakest.)
So I got rid of fast food first - and made it rewarding. Every time I successfully fought the urge to go to McD's or BK - I put the money I would have spent in a jar. . . I hate to say ti added up incredibly FAST.
Seeing the money from my resistance add UP before my eyes was very encouraging - that money could be spent on other things! (NON food stuff) - or put towards more important things like the BILLS that are always late
Ok - but I was still eating unhealthy other foods. After a month of no fast-food I felt good about myself and confident enough to move onto the next weening: junk food.
This was harder - junk food is everywhere and easier to buy and eat than fast food. . . but I did the same thing - a $1.00 into the jar for every candy bar. $3.00 for every bag of chips or package of cookies not bought.
After a few weeks of no candy bars and bags of chips and cookies I found it easier to say "no" to food I shouldn't eat. . . foods hung on my mind far less often than before. Sometimes I didn't even think about what I wasn't eating.
So 2.5 months after starting my feeble diet I decided to let go of soda.
Fastfood and junkfood out - soda going.
Well, needless to say I did indeed still want to snack during the day - so I chose healthy options: bananas, apples, oranges ($3.00 for a lb of apples or $3.00 for a bag of chips? - easy choice! - the apples!).
Once I started to eat more fruit I actually started to feel a little better every day - I was more positive because I was obviously accomplishing something. I slept a little better and I had actually lost a few lbs - no serious weight loss yet though. . . but I was on the right track.
Letting go of soda was MUCH harder than the other things. But because I had successfully let go of fast food and junk food I knew that I could get rid of soda, too. . . and I did - took 3 weeks for cravings to go away. Still $1.50 into the jar each time I had to fight the craving.
Now - my big thing, here, was having an alternative to soda - I'm not and never have been a fan of flavorless anything such as water - so a good alternative that was cheaper than soda was flavored water or those 0 calorie lightly carbonated sodas.
Then, after over 3 months of diet-alterations - I decided it was time to start working out. . . still, at this point, it seemed ridiculous - my pain was still quite there.
I bought an exercise bike and a kettle bell and one kettle bell workout video 'cause I had no idea what to do with the thing - but I did already own free-weights and obviously that didn't appeal to me because I still have them packed in a box in the attic.
So the exercise bike sat there in the box for a while.
Eventually I put it together.
5 months after I started changing my diet I finally got on the damn thing and managed to bike an amazing .5 mile before being too exhausted, out of breath and worn out to continue - and in a lot of pain.
:shrug: It was a start, anyway!
I read up, then, on exercise-approaches and decided that starting off on the bike wasn't going to work for me because of my back. . . and one big suggestion for back/leg pain was to *stretch* a lot and do light-exercises.
So for another month - 3x's a week - I had a stretch session - touch my toes (which I sure as hell couldn't do), stretch my legs - sit and reach . . . all that classic stuff.
That was very helpful, actually - my muscles and tendons became a bit more flexible - my back still hurt but not quite as much - my legs weren't as bad, either.
So then I decided that I could try the bike again. . .and I did .5 miles in 5 minutes.
And I did it again a few days later - eventually I was doing .5 miles in 10 minutes 3x's a week. This is slow biking but speed isn't' the issue at first - it's your lungs, your heart, your muscles - all these things need to come up to strength and endurance *with you*
Then I went a little faster - and for a little longer.
Not quite 2 months later I had increased my time and distance to 5 miles in 40 minutes - huge difference in a short amount of time! And during this time I started my kettle bell video - 10 minutes the first week - 15 minutes the next, etc etc etc. . . slowly gaining ability, endurance and strength.
Now, once I was really working out routinely and increasing my strength and time in each session I started to really lose the weight. . . I had been off of my routine junk and soda for 7 months or so and was feeling MUCH better - physically - my pain was almost gone. Mentally - I was confident. Emotionally - I was stable. I was sleeping better - I was much healthier and happier.
I've teetered around on my diet and exercise a bit - gained a few lbs back - but I'm back on it routinely and have already lost that gained-back weight and still going.
Now I can actually bike 10miles in 45 minutes on my stationary bike - and can do the entire kettle bell video . . . and now that's it's summer I'm adding push-mowing the lawn (1.25 acres) to the list.
So - If I can do it - anyone can do it!
Key point: you didn't gain it all at once, it won't go away all at once. . . and take it slow so you can succeed!!