New member saying hi and a few questions Topic

Garrett 05/12/13
Hi all

My name is Garrett and this is my first day using Mynetdiary (I signed up ages ago but never used it) I'm 46 and I've become a big boy (5 ft 9 and 236 lbs) I have worried about my weight for some time but it wasn't until a week ago when a friend took a photo of me which really shocked me about how overweight I looked. I actually now have the picture as my computer screen wallpaper because if I dident I would not be writing this - I would simply put it off with another excuse of which I have many. I actually don't believe I can do this (I'm looking to go down to 175lbs) - that may sound like a defeatist attitude but I am saying this so I can confront it. I was just looking at some of the success stories and I thought "Wow some of those guys were as big as me" This is also why I am making all my data public which I hope will further motivate me to keep up the program.

So I had a few questions I was hoping someone might answer


By joining this team do I have to do?

I am quite goal orientated - are there any team weight losing goals/targets motivate me further?

Do I have to weight all my food like weight watchers? This may sound a little whiny but I don't want to be standing weighing my food every time I want to eat? Can I do spoonfuls e.g. I just had a salad today with some pickled red cabbage which I spooned into the bowl - would that work if I used the spoon as the measure?

Do you plan out your meals the day before and if so how much time does it take?

cheers, Garrett

Garrett 05/12/13
By joining this team do I have to do? =
By joining this team do I have to do anything?

Kell 05/27/13 replied to Garrett
Hi Garrett. First of all I want to say congratulations on your decision to put yourself and your health first! It's not easy and it's a life change. What you call your defeatist attitude really is just that. You can do this although it won't be easy. The more you say you can the more you will believe it. The process is very much a mental process. You learned your habits over all the years of your life so don't expect to learn and change everything at once. Baby steps! First work on your way of thinking. Knowledge is power! Consider google your best friend, you can learn anything about nutrition online . Commitment is the hard part but with each small step you will begin to feel better and look at yourself in a more positive light.it has taken me ten years to get where I am today and now it's just my normalcy to track everything I eat and exercise every day if possible. I know now that it makes such a difference in how I feel as well as how I see myself. As far as weighing and measuring your food, as you use your mynetdiary app you will learn that most healthy foods and some that are not so healthy will already be in the system so it will tell you calories per eg. Tbsp,tsp,100g etc.... So for now I will wish you all the best and once again congratulations on what may be your life saving decision to get healthy!

Jeyrry 06/02/13
Hi Garrett - Congratulations on getting started. I'm lucky, I didn't have a lot of weight to lose, but I started this because I was worried about my nutrition and family early heart disease and some first signs. I wasn't sure if I could change my eating and exercise habits. I plan my meals and exercise a day ahead of time. For me that has helped a lot with resisting the urge to eat the things I shouldn't. Sometimes it's very fast if the meals will be similar to things I've eaten recently. Other times it takes me an hour to plan them and look up the information. I bought an inexpensive digital kitchen scale and just weigh most things and then adjust what I entered the day before based on the actual weights--that's fast too. Eating out is a little slower to look stuff up and estimate serving sizes, but I've cut way back on that because the food is usually way less nutritious and I'm trying to get out of the eating out habit. Good luck!

Garrett 06/11/13
@ U2737316 & Jeyrry - Hey guys many thanks for the great replies and sorry I have not replied sooner (I don't think there are auto alerts for forum replies) Anyway..... I am still on track and tomorrow will be my 1 month anniversary on Mynetdiary and I have updated my diary every day. The hardest part is the routine which has been tough (i.e. updating every day) and also not going to the pub and resisting silly excuses to "reward" myself with junk food however I haven't caved and am 6 lbs lighter as a result and that's proper weight - you can see it in my face. Its still early days and the little voices are still saying have a beer or eat a cake. I really, really hope they go away!

Jeyrry 06/30/13
Hey that's great! I've found that some of those cravings do start to go away. I still enjoy rewarding myself from time to time, but even the things I consider rewards seem to have gotten smaller, or less unhealthy. The other thing that happened after a couple of months is that I've found that if I do have a day when I cheat, or a business trip when the numbers aren't so good, it's much easier to get back on the right path again (I'm pretty careful not to go too many days off track).

New member saying hi and a few questions