Stress causes you to hold onto weight. It is a throw back to our caveman days. You had to have fat stores to have the energy to run away from saber toothed tigers. If you are stressed your body thinks maybe you are in an area with a high saber toothed tiger population and holds onto the weight so you can run. It also holds onto the weight if you don't eat enough, because it thinks there is a famine and it tries to "protect" you by holding onto the weight. Those are 2 simplistic explanations as to why we hold onto the weight. Everyday is a new fresh start. We all get into that frame of mind at one point or another. I reread the post I share with other people that are just starting out or need refocusing when I need to refocus myself. Maybe something on this will help you. The good thing is it is a new day! Today you start fresh. Today is your first day! Welcome to WW! Here are some basic tips TRACK every lick, bite, and taste. The program does not work if you don't track. You can lie to the tracker but your body knows what it ate. MEASURE breakout the measuring spoons, cups and the food scale. Don't eyeball it you will be wrong. EXERCISE find something you love. You won't do if you hate it. I personally like walking, dancing when the weather says don't walk, and cardio-drumming. I do cardio-drumming from YouTube videos. Nothing is more satisfying than hitting things with sticks. If you need to start easy try marching in front of the TV during commercials and then build yourself up to a whole show. MEAL PREP I always keep a big bin of chopped onions, a big bin of chopped bell peppers, and a big bin of chunks of cooked chicken breast. I also have staples like cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, pasta, laughing cow triangle cheese, olive oil farro, tzatziki sauce, garlic, eggs, apples, oranges, bananas, berries, whatever is in season. This way when I am hungry I have healthy choices. Breakfast omlette throw together garlic, onions, peppers, eggs and then fold it over a cut up wedge of laughing cow cheese. For lunch a very easy tzatziki chicken. Chicken, bell pepper, onions, cucumber, tomatoes. Toss it with tzatziki sauce. You can put it on a pita, eat it without the pita, or what I like to do is RIP up half a pita and mix it in after the tzatziki is mixed in. For dinner maybe a salad with the spinach, onions, peppers, chicken. Etc. Maybe pasta or rice with anything on the list. The most important tip is KINDNESS be as nice to yourself as you are to others. When you are giving your self negative back talk, ask yourself if that is how you would speak to a friend and give yourself a break. I almost forgot. zero points does not mean zero calories. For instance, a banana is zero points but if you over banana you are gonna get yourself into trouble. EAT you need to eat within 10 below and 5 above your points level. If consistently under eat your body thinks there is a famine and holds on to every ounce of weight it can until the famine is over. Under eating and over exercising is a bad combo. If you stick to 5 below and 5 above it works better. for me at least. You are not alone in this. A lot of us join with that "last resort" mentality. But don't think that way. Take a nice before picture with a big smile because today is the day your life changed for the better. You are gonna get healthy, you are gonna be fit. You are gonna breathe better. You just need to give it some time. This is a slow process but it is a process that works. I'm excited for you taking this big step towards a healthier life. You might want to sit down and write yourself a love letter stating why you joined WW and what your long term goals are, how you will accomplish them (small term goals) and what you will be able to accomplish when you get there! I personally would like to be able to get up off the floor without having to hoist myself up on the couch like I am climbing Mount Everest. That is one of the things future me will be able to do. Last tip. don't hang out in the kitchen. Eat there, cook there, clean the dishes. But if it isn't kitchen related get out of there it is too tempting. Also do not compare your journey to anyone else's. We are all different. We all have different metabolisms. So mind your own journey and don't worry that someone else lost more that week. It won't help your progress.
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