A graduation present to myself

[angie]

Hello everyone!

I just graduated from college, after 3 years of brutal work. Now that it is a new year and the first time I have not had school in 15+ years, I want to start making a difference in my life and better myself.

I weigh 277 pounds. I'm around 5'7". I think my max weight in my lifetime was 288 (I rarely weighed myself prior to 2007 and when I did start weighing myself, that was the highest number I saw on the scale). I had started to exercise more and diet back in spring 2007 because I hit 288 and got really depressed and wanted to change. I lost around 25 pounds, and most of my exercise was DDR. However, my routine slipped over the summer, due to a weird school schedule and some other factors (laziness). Now it is 2008, I'm back up to 277, and I want that to change again. My support before consisted of my roommate, whom I don't live with anymore, and my family is not the best influence. They are very negative about everything, including my weight. So I joined this board in hopes that I could gain some of that support back.

If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them. Because of money issues, I no longer eat out on a regular basis, which I know will help me considerably. When I do eat out, I get a low-fat sub from subway and make sure the ingrediants correspond with the nutrition values they provide. I very rarely drink soda (I stopped drinking that in college thinking it would help me with my weight, but as most girls know, it works a lot better for the boys than us).

I am also trying harder now not to skip meals.

I used to DDR for about an hour each day, but I was wondering on average how much people on here do and what their weight results are. Also, do you do your DDR in the morning, at night, or many times throughout the day? Does anyone know if it makes more or less of a difference for weight loss in the morning? I ask because I've heard that supposedly exercising in the morning boosts your metabolism for the whole day.

Thanks...Sorry for such a long post!

[iamjay]

I just started to DDR in the morning which has been good so far, drink lots of water and watch what you eat. If your able to pass college and stick with it then you should easily be able to change how you eat. Just learn how do to it maybe you'll pass

just don't fail like I did, I should of kept my daily workout routine.

[mischievious]

I assume that since you are out of college, you'll be living on your own. Moving in itself, especially by yourself, even with others can cause a drastic change in your diet. A lot of people tend to turn to fast foods/restaurants when moved in, because it's convenient. But, you can take advantage of this time and start investing in healthier foods, and since you'd be working on a budget because you have to make all these other payments, that could mean you'd be thinking about what you are buying.

Also, if you move in with people, you can ask them to help you out with a better diet.

As for working out in the morning, it could help, but I'd just stick to a good healthy breakfast that would jump start your systems into getting ready for the day. If you can I'd do a fifteen minute jog in place or jumping jacks, and then stretch for 15 minutes after.

I used to DDR up to 5hrs/day, but now I play around 2hr/day -- this isn't all at one time though.
I've lost a total of 131lbs, only of which 10 have comeback. (330/199/209)

Good luck ^^

[DDRMom]

I try to DDR first thing in morning, while drinking a Slim-Fast shake -- just because it puts me in a positive mood and when I get to work I am thinking sharper - I swear it gets the blood going to my brain better.
And then I can relax when I get home.

[~*mandy*~]

I've just recently started trying to better my diet and exercise myself.

YaY for beginners!!!

I don't know about exercising in the morning,
I'm thinking of trying this week just to see how much of a difference it makes.

However, eating a good breakfast I have heard numerous times, as well as read in numerous places is one of the key parts of getting your metabolism going for the day. I usually have a bowl of Raisin Bran, or Oatmeal with a glass of juice. On the days I eat breakfast I am actually hungry by lunch when I don't I'm not always hungry at lunch, however end up eating more for the rest of the day.

[angie]

mischievious said:

I assume that since you are out of college, you'll be living on your own. Moving in itself, especially by yourself, even with others can cause a drastic change in your diet. A lot of people tend to turn to fast foods/restaurants when moved in, because it's convenient. But, you can take advantage of this time and start investing in healthier foods, and since you'd be working on a budget because you have to make all these other payments, that could mean you'd be thinking about what you are buying.

Also, if you move in with people, you can ask them to help you out with a better diet.

As for working out in the morning, it could help, but I'd just stick to a good healthy breakfast that would jump start your systems into getting ready for the day. If you can I'd do a fifteen minute jog in place or jumping jacks, and then stretch for 15 minutes after.

I used to DDR up to 5hrs/day, but now I play around 2hr/day -- this isn't all at one time though.
I've lost a total of 131lbs, only of which 10 have comeback. (330/199/209)

Good luck ^^

Thank you for the kind words. First of all, it's amazing that you used to do DDR for up to 5 hours a day! When I used to exercise, I played around an hour a day because I found that it burned about 500 kcal, but now that I am a little more advanced I can go longer and I go up to 3 hours a day at a time, just depending on my work schedule.

I'm living with my parents for now, so food should not be a problem. My mom buys a lot of junk, but luckily it's not stuff I like, and I can pick out good groceries. I've estimated my RMR on differnet web sites and I've determined from that what my max amount of calories should be per day, etc, so I just try to stay within that 6/7 days of the week. I've read on several web sites that the key to weight loss isn't just diet and exercise, but that you should focus on being more active overall. And I am doing that too!

[angie]

mandym333 said:

I've just recently started trying to better my diet and exercise myself.

YaY for beginners!!!

I don't know about exercising in the morning,
I'm thinking of trying this week just to see how much of a difference it makes.

However, eating a good breakfast I have heard numerous times, as well as read in numerous places is one of the key parts of getting your metabolism going for the day. I usually have a bowl of Raisin Bran, or Oatmeal with a glass of juice. On the days I eat breakfast I am actually hungry by lunch when I don't I'm not always hungry at lunch, however end up eating more for the rest of the day.

Exercising in the morning has only been working out for me on days that I have off for work or don't have to go in until way later. It feels nice to have it out of the way though, so I highly recommend it if you can pull it off. For breakfast, I've been having a yogurt or a fruit toaster strudel. I love cereal, but not for breakfast...that's a lunch meal for me, lol. But I'm the same way as you: Ever since I've been eating breakfast again, I've been actually hungry by the time lunch comes around. Do you think it's because we are getting our metabolisms working and actually burning stuff so that our bodies want more?

At work I have one of those microwavable campbell's soups and dinner is my big meal at home, and when I eat lunch at home it is my bigger meal of the day and dinner is the small one. It's nice to eat when I'm hungry and not just for fun...