Big Challenge

Frequent

Right, I have been a frequent poster on boards but I just cannot bear this under my usual username.

Here is where I am.

I am a 25 year old female. I have been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, coupled with a hormonal imbalance. This diagnosis is a relief because for the last five years I have been gaining weight dramatically and having serious problems shifting it. (Don't get me wrong - I was munching on the biscuits and crisps on a daily basis, too.) I am now on medication which has some kind of normalising effect on my metabolism, but I now have to undo the damage done.

I am 5'11" tall and wear between a size 18-22. I'm apple shaped, with weight round the middle - I still have a slender face/hands/etc. which is often the case. However I weigh a whopping 17 stone and 8 pounds (I am so embarassed about this). My long-term goal weight is 11 stone.

So I have made some drastic changes. Here is what I have been doing, for a week now.

I eat porridge with skim milk and a spoonful of half flax/half pumpkin seeds and a piece of fruit in the morning. For lunch I have some perhaps vegetable soup, grilled chicken breast and some salad. For dinner I have a lot of vegetarian foods and some meat/fish, wholegrain pasta or brown rice. I have two snacks a day - each is a piece of fruit and some seeds. All the above are small portions.

I'm walking for exercise, sometimes swimming. I find any weight bearing exercise very hard on my feet.

I have to say, I am hungry, and frequently miserable on this regime. (I have emotional issues with food as many women do.) I am looking for tips, advice, encouragement, even success stories from others who've had a lot to lose. I am looking at this for the big picture - health and vitality and getting my figure back. But I do need some help from people who might understand.

Dragan

Frequent wrote:

figure back. But I do need some help from people who might understand.

This is often the hardest bit to find. For a struggle that can be so personnal, the help of others can have a massive impact.

First of all, i can honestly say this is one of the best "first" posts i have seen. You the problem, your not lying to yourself that on top of the medical issues you were eating poorly and you have made the changes.

One thing i will suggest is do not undereat, which i feel you may be doing. Use fitday.com to work out how many calories you are eating day. Undereating will shut down your metabolism.

Your food choices are good, but eat more often. Have some little healthy snacks in between your main meals to stave off hunger and keep you metabolism humming.

I will be back with more in just a little bit!!!

g'em

Dragan wrote:

First of all, i can honestly say this is one of the best "first" posts i have seen. You the problem, your not lying to yourself that on top of the medical issues you were eating poorly and you have made the changes.

I wholeheartedly agree with Dragan on this- it's so refreshing to hear your balanced outlook on the task ahead, and I appluad your emphasis on keeping the big picture in mind. Well done for being brave enough to say what the problem is- PCOS is a lot more common than a lot of women realise and I'm sure there are probably some around who could give you first hand experience of it.

The problem with being overweight and suffering from PCOS at the same time is that you will porbably have increased insulin resistance, putting you at a much higher risk of developing diabetes, so the weight loss is a serious and necessary issue. It'll also help your periods to regularise, encourage more ovulatory cycles and stabilise your hormones (I'm sure you know this already).

As for the weight loss, because of the insulin issue, I know that a lot of PCOS sufferers are encouraged to follow a low GL diet, which will help regulate carb intake in your diet, and the foods you do eat won't cause a quick rise and fall in blood sugar levels and will therefore help to prevent elevated insulin levels. The great thing about GL (glyceimic load) dietary habits is that it's not a 'diet' as such, it's just a way of eating healthy wholefoods. As Dragan also pointed out, be careful not to undereat, which is actually one of the worst ways to lose weight- you're body will react by holding onto as much fat as possible as a way to maintain itself. Instead you want to reduce your calories by a small amount - as your weight drops, your calories will drop too.

It's going to be tough, and there will be times wehn you fall off the wagon. But be patient and you will get there. Keeping a food diary is an excellent way to keep track of things, and you can record your progress. It's also a good way to figure out what your emotional triggers are. Actually here's a few things that have helped me:

- keeping a food diary (after a while you won't need to, you'll automatically and instinctively know what the healthy choices are and what situations to avoid that could trigger a crap eating session)
- exercise regulalry (sounds obvious but so important, as you get fitter from walking you can try higher intensity aerobic exercise, or even better do weights to jack up your metabolism and really see results)
- keep junk out of the house. If it's there, I eat it. Simple as!!
- Eat wholefoods as much as possible, and steer well clear of anything processed. And I really do mean anything. All those 'low-fat' snack bars and diet meals are a complete waste of money and full of nastiness!!
- try and eat protein with every meal- it helps you stay fuller for longer and youre less likely to snack.
- don't be afraid of fats. avocadoes, small portions of nuts, sesame, walnut, flax and olive oils are brilliant, and the right fats will help you lose fat.

I could o on but there's loads of info in the stickies, including a shopping list to give you a hand with making the right food choices every week. Lot of little steps will add up to huge progress so take it one bit at a time. Good luck and keep us posted on how you get on

FootFax

Wow. You have made the first step....and believe me thats HUGE.....

Frequent wrote:

I'm walking for exercise, sometimes swimming. I find any weight bearing exercise very hard on my feet.

The others here like Dragan will help with the exercise and diet stuff. PM me so we can sort out you feet so you can add variety to you exercise when the time comes.

Remember, Napolean was wrong. An army marches on its feet not its stomach.

Frequent wrote:

Inspiration.........

Try these.....

My Journey from Couch Potato to Triathlete - TriBlog
Fat Girl to Triathlete

Great but these rock........

500 pound man's Triathlon Challenge here and watch this

This guy can cycle......

bilbo79

1st off there has been some good advice given here-basically the key to losing weight is simple! burn more calories than you eat-you are guaranteed to lose weight this way-as dragan pointed out this is not always a good thing.
the thing is to lose body fat the same needs to be applied but in a more sensible way!-everybody has certain protein needs-this should not drop no matter what your goal is-when cutting calories cut out the processed sugar foods such as biscuits sweets and cakes, then cut out saturated fats like chipper food or fats from most processed foods. you will not lose lean muscle mass if you keep the protein up and exercise so your body wants to hold onto its muscle mass. done right only body fat will drop.. Good luck

Transform

Finally someone who is posting on what they are already doing!!

Delighted for you and if you need any help at all please feel free to PM me anytime.

Everything you are doing is excellent - keep on keeping on and remind yourself of how much better, confident, healthy you are already and how these feeling will increase as you will drop weight and get to the weight you deserve to be

Frequent

Thanks so much for your input, I am taking it all on board, and checking out those success stories too. I will keep you posted on my progress. Any more input and encouragement would be appreciated.

thehamo

Hey Frequent,

Delighted to hear that you are taking this on. Speaking from experience, it will be the best thing you will ever do! I lost over 6 stone in weight (19 down to 13 stone) and I have never felt better in all my life. It seriously amazing how much of a difference fat loss makes to your life.

Its a bit of a clichet but the amounty of energy that you will have because you are not lugging around all the excess fat is unbelievable!

Everything in terms of methods for loosing weight has been pretty much covered already but I will give you some hints and tips that helped me,

Firstly, with regards to food, it is important to keep your mealas intersting, there is nothing worse than eating the same boaring foods all day just because they are healthy. Try cooking new foods, soups, stir fries with olive oil to keep out saturated fats, lean meets like chicken and turkey, oily fish (all of which are packed full of protein!) As well you mentioned eating porridge for breakfast. IF there is one thing that its a diet killer its eating porrige day in day out. Granted it is good for you but its also boaring as hell. Try to alternate with your breakfast, eat wholegrain cereals, try smoothies etc,. It will make a world of difference.

With excercise, the thing about it is, if you dont push your self you wont loose the weight. Its all about amount of time that you excercise and the intensity not about how far you walked. To have a successful work upot you have to get the heart working. You should consult a fitness instructor (or your doctor) to find out your maximum heart rate. in order to burn fat you should be working at around 70-80% of your maximum heart rate. I know this is getting a bit technical, but i really do advise to consult with a personal trainer, because you wont shift the weight if you dont know the biology of how it happens. It is also important to alternate your workouts. If you keep walking for one hour everyday at the same pacae your body will become acustomed to it and you will not shift the fat. This is known as a plateu. You have to constantly change the intensity of your workout, the more fat you burn, the more excercise you will have to do to get rid of "stubborn fat". It doesnt have to be a major difference, even one more walk a week, or an extra 15 minutes on to your normal walk or faster pace etc. But it has to be done.

I will leave you to read this anyway, im writing a bit of an essay here but, I really hope it goes well for you because i was in the same boat and i love to see people succeed in the way i did!

Frequent

thehamo, sincere thanks for the encouragements.

Tomorrow is weigh-and-measure-day, so I will update and let you know how the first week has panned out.

By the way, I discovered I was undereating slightly, so I have allowed myself an extra serving of fruit a day and a slight increase in my wholewheat rice/pasta/bread with my evening meal. I feel happier and more satisfied.

g'em

hey Frequent, best of luck with the weigh in and measurements. I'm not surprised you were undereating tbh, but can I jsut suggest that a really good way to up your calories is to actually increase your lean protein- an extra piece of chicken, or some nuts, or a small tin of tuna? Protein will also leave you nicely satiated, is more difficult for your body to break down so you stay fuller longer, and it won't play havok with your insulin levels. Just my €0.02

Frequent

I have taken your advice on board, g'em. I sure am getting sick of cottage cheese, natural yoghurt and skim milk though...:) Nuts and chicken sound better.

So this morning was d-day.

I have lost 7.6lbs and 7.25 inches (totalled from bust, waist, hips and thighs). It was a very hard week but I am feeling motivated to continue and thankfully my appetite has reduced. Hallelujah!

TerrorFirmer

You have your nutrition and exercise down pretty well but another important thing to consider is the use of pictures. Alongside fitting into smaller clothes and having the scale readout finally receeding, they are invaluable for motivation when you actually see the difference. Its hard to see it day by day, but believe me, no matter how much weight the scales tell you you've lost, nothing says it happier then a 'day 1' before and an after picture.

MicraBoy

Hi Frequent,

Best of luck with your endeavours. Would you consider starting a fitness log in the sub forum to track your progress and keep us up to date?

g'em

Frequent wrote:

I have lost 7.6lbs and 7.25 inches (totalled from bust, waist, hips and thighs). It was a very hard week but I am feeling motivated to continue and thankfully my appetite has reduced. Hallelujah!

That's fantastic news congratulations!!

As Havok said, results are a great motivator and taking photos really is a great way of keeping track. Bear in mind as well that the weight loss may not be quite as prominent week to week, but progress, no matter how small is still progress. Keep up all the hard work

Frequent

Cheers g'em.

MicraBoy wrote:

Hi Frequent,

Best of luck with your endeavours. Would you consider starting a fitness log in the sub forum to track your progress and keep us up to date?

Would that be ok, even if I am not a fitness freak? I don't want to spam the boards with my "I walked for 15 minutes and I managed not to eat that cake in the office."

TerrorFirmer

Frequent wrote:

Cheers g'em.
Would that be ok, even if I am not a fitness freak? I don't want to spam the boards with my "I walked for 15 minutes and I managed not to eat that cake in the office."

It's primary purpose is to help you. an alternative could just be a basic notebook you can write into at home to document your daily intake and exercise etc, but the bonus of it being freely available online means it might motivate you a bit extra to ensure you don't fall down at any stage for us all to see.

Dragan

Frequent wrote:

Would that be ok, even if I am not a fitness freak? I don't want to spam the boards with my "I walked for 15 minutes and I managed not to eat that cake in the office."

First of all Frequent well done! You have made some good ground already!

With regard to the log i say keep it!!! It will be there to remind you of all the good things you have done on those days that can be a little harder than most!

Plus i always enjoy reading other peoples journals and get some good inspiration from that.

Frequent

I have gone and started a log. Watch this space!

iregk

Only getting to read this now as I have been away with work. I don't have anything to add other than whats been said already but I agree with Dragan and have to say that its a fantastic first post and your honesty is truely refreshing.

Best of luck with everything and everyone here will be able to support you all the way.

Frequent

Thank you!

ShoneyE

How refreshing to see a healthy attitude towards diet and exercise, last summer I was so obsessed with my weight (5ft 8" and weighed 12stone) that I went on a massive crash diet for three months and cut out all carbs, it got to the stage where dinner was a hard boiled egg, four slices of cucumber and a tomato, but I was ecstatic I weighed only 10 stone!! Alas as a result of my stupidity I grew an intollarance for the only foods I was eating - grapes, apples, brocolli. I developed a form of IBS and have spent the last year trying to slowly introduce different foods all over again, but God help me if I eat something that doesn't agree with me! Its affected my whole life,stopping me going out at night if I have accidently eaten the wrong thing for dinner!
I have been trying to find whole wheat wraps but can only seem to find the tortilla ones they sell in the supermarket, does anyone know where to get them or the spinach or tomato flavoured ones that you get in sandwhich bars?

daveirl

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