Good luck with your journey Christi - I'll be reading.

Good luck! Go unprocessed with everything you will be amazed at how much difference it makes.

My theory: its a hell of a lot better for me to eat wheat thins at work than it is to buy a 2oz bag of cheezitz and a dr pepper.

See, and I think that's good. That was my whole thing from the start. Start small, start replacing bad foods with better foods and pretty soon you'll be replacing them with the best foods!

Go Christi!

go go go go go!

im gonna get my ass kicked by so many people for getting off track again. especially katie.

*arms crossed foot tapping...eyebrows raised*

I still believe in you!

well...motivate me then. i dont have an oz of motivation in me right now

Motivation comes from deep inside chrisi you got to make it work for you. Carpe diem, sieze the day, no regrets!

agreed. There's a point you're going to have to take the bull by the horns and find the motivation, even when it wants to hide! We can spur you on, but we can't find that for you

i got some advice today from someone who claims to be a fitness expert. take a look through it and let me know what you guys think.

Make sure your blood pressure is ok and your sugar it would hurt to speak with your Dr and tell them you are starting a program to get in better shape.
Perhaps the most difficult part of dieting is the word it has such a negative connotation,
And it’s really not what we need to do. What we need to do to be successful is create a new life style because the one we have is not working. With all that said in our lifestyle change we need to incorporate exercise or calorie burning and heart activity.
Start you day off with a quality protein shake about 8 oz of water blended with the 2scoops of protein, 1 cup of frozen or fresh strawberries, 1 cup of fresh or frozen blue berries, 1tsp of balsamic vinegar, 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil, ½ banana. Mid morning you can have a protein bar(the protein bar should have both the grams of carbohydrates and the protein close to being the same as possible, south beach living is about the only one left in the supermarkets) or 1 slice of whole wheat toast with honey and cinnamon mixed as a paste as jelly for bread. Lunch a piece of chicken Brest or fish broiled the size of your hand not including your fingers if you didn’t have the bread at snack time you can have it now. Supper or dinner you can eat all the salad you want, with your favorite dressing but only about 1 tsp but nothing after 7pm drink about 64 oz of water through the day, you can also have another shake with just the 1 scoop of the protein and strawberries and blue berries you can also add 1 some honey if you need it sweeter.
You can also have the same type of snake in the afternoon as you had in the morning.
The best type of exercising is cross training if you are young under 40 you can get by with an hour a day. If you are over 40 than you will need to 1 ½ hrs plus. You will also need to do a cardio workout during your exercise. If you get direct TV than I recommend Body Sculpt by Giland or you can buy his DVD. Than work out on a treadmill or Nordic trac enough to burn off about 500 cal per day. Your total caloric intake should be around 1500 to 1800 for the day if you are a woman biased on the diet I gave you if you, if you don’t exercise as I recommend you will gain weight and you will fail again. You may need to add a weight lifter protein to your shake to raise your total calories per day. This program will loose about 1 to 2 lbs per week. Weight only once per week on the same day each week about the same time same scale. It will take time but it will be worth it.
Good luck I wish you the best. Set a short range goal both in weight loss and excercise than but set a wieght you want to get to for your over all goal. Chances are by the time you have reached your goals you have created a healthy life style for yourself.

It sounds like whoever wrote that does not have English as their primary language. To me the diet is too reliant on shakes/protein bars for your protein, and it doesn't look like there's enough protein in it anyhow. That said, if it were me I'd opt for lifting and interval based cardio rather than what that "expert" claims.

Um. In the first sentence of that was "what we need to do to be successful is to create a new lifestyle"...but then that person goes on to explain a very rigid, and frankly weird eating routine that hardly anyone would be able to stick to or be successful at!

The point is that you need to find a healthy eating "lifestyle" that fits YOU and one that YOU can stick with. This is not going to be the same thing as someone else. We all have different tastes, strengths and weaknesses. You already know where your strengths and weaknesses are with eating and exercising. The key for you Christi is to find a change of lifestyle that YOU can follow and not feel restricted. Something that will be lifelong. In that sense it is not "dieting", its simply "eating better" and making healthier choices.

Ultimately this kind of change is hard to do all at once. you need to have some good will power for that type of change. We both know this isn't your strength! SO instead of beating yourself up about that fact, just celebrate the baby steps of victory as you start changing you lifestyle SLOWLY. One thing at a time. Before long you will prefer healthier food over junk because of the way it makes you feel. You will prefer exercising to sleeping in, because of how it makes you feel. You will thrive on these things but it won't happen overnight. Allow yourself the slow change approach-not this cold turkey all-or-nothing thinking. Its the patience you must develop to be successful in the long run. Take Stingo as the champion example of this.

Thanks sparrow - what you said is all true.

Christi - instead of making these grand, elaborate plans. Just commit yourself to doing one thing, but make that commitment unbreakable. That could be anything - a walk, eating healthy protein at each meal. Just something that doesn't take a lot of thought.

I've revised my goals.
I have two SIMPLE goals now.
1.eat better
2.do 30 minutes of physical activity 3 days/week.

I bought fruits, and veggies, as well as some 100 calorie packs. I'll have these instead of mindlessly eating an entire bag of salsa verde doritos in one day.
I bought diet soda. That's another thing that I MINDLESSLY drink. I won't catch it until I'm half way through a bottle of cherry coke, then I'm like "oh crap. I'm not supposed to drink this".
I also bought a 32 oz water bottle. I'm going to fill it, and drink the entire thing every time I eat.

I was watching tyra the other day, and she had the "curves challenge". Five ordinary women, who wanted to lose weight were involoved. They started eating better, and exercising for 30 minutes 3 days per week. At the end of the five week challenge, they went on the show, and weighed in. The most anyone lost was ten lbs, but they looked like they lost 25.

I'm trying not to think about those size four jeans, or that bikini that I will be in someday. It seems to distract me sometimes, and I just think to myself "thats so far away", and then I get discouraged. So, the weightloss goal is simple...
10 lbs in five weeks. reasonable right?
I'm also going to take measurements. Thats what really counts.