Mom that needs to get herself in shape!

Calorie deficit is what you need to lose weight. As they say, you can’t outrun your fork. I’d track all of your food in an app like MyFitnessPal to help you stay on top of what you’re eating. Try to stick to fresh, unprocessed foods, lots of good lean protein and healthy carbs. Contrary to popular belief, your body needs carbs to function properly, so you don’t want to cut them out completely. At the gym, focus on weight training as building muscle will help lean you out and tighten everything up. Don’t worry about becoming “bulky”...you’d need to eat an insane amount of food/protein to look like a body builder.

View Quoted Comment Thank you I was doing so well for a while, lol, then the holidays hit.

View Quoted Comment Give yourself some grace! We’re human and life is too short to not enjoy yourself! Just get yourself back on track now that holiday season is over. If you’re having trouble, start small and work your way up. Maybe it’s by increasing your water intake every day, or adding an extra serving of veggies to your meals each day. Sometimes it’s easier to start by adding something than taking something away.

I dis a calorie deficit for awhile and lost 10 pounds. I recently plateaued and started intermittent fasting. I have heard amazing things about it so it is worth a shot! I would look into that and continue to stay active. Also, make sure you are staying in your fat burning zone when working out. This zone is easier to reach than you think!

For dieting, I highly recommend WW and going to meetings. It is so helpful and will keep you accountable.

For working out, you need to figure out what you like (or at least don't hate).

-Try some different classes at your gym.

-Experimenter with 15 minutes on different cardio machines.

-Try different types of weight lifting: Dumbbell, Kettlebell, resistances bands, weight machines, body weight exercises.

What works for me is:

-15 minutes of cardio (I hate cardio, but I know its important wot warm up my body).

- 3 reps of an upper body push weight exercises (example overhead press) w/ abs in-between sets

- 3 reps of an lower body push weight exercises (example squats) w/ abs (example 30 crunches) in-between sets

- 3 reps of an upper body pull weight (example curls) exercises w/ abs in-between sets

- 3 reps of an lower body pull weight exercises (example dead-lift) w/ abs in-between sets

-5 minutes of stretching

You can google for all sorts of push/pull exercise. By organizing it this way, I help get all my different body parts.

It is important to find something you don't dread!

Also a Weight Watchers fan! I do the online only membership, their app is amazing. Tracking points is so much easier for me to manage than calories. I’m down 21 pounds in 10 weeks, and I started during the holidays lol. Highly recommend, if you do online only, it’s $20 a month.

Some gyms offer complimentary fitness consultations - I'd check to see if you can meet with a personal trainer or wellness coach at no cost. My undergrad degree is in health and exercise science and work as an athletic director and teach PE and fitness classes - these questions are really difficult to answer over the internet and there really isn't a one size fits all approach. I definitely recommend meeting face-to-face with a fitness professional to discuss your goals, your current lifestyle habits, and the activities you enjoy doing so you can come out with a wellness plan that works best for you.

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I agree with Alex, except 30 minutes of sweaty cardio

I don't know whether it will be useful for you but I had about 6 months to get myself in shape and I did the following:

1. Started writing down the amount of calories I was consuming. I also calculated the necessary amount of calories and tried to stick to it

2. Tried to eat healthier: i.e. more proteins and vegetables, less fried and baked stuff

3. Stayed away from all the liquid calories and liquid sugar (I mean fizzy drinks and milkshakes which I adore)

4. Followed Jillian Michaels's program "30 days shred" (you can download it or watch the videos online) or 5 months. In fact it was supposed to last for 1 month but once finished it was repeated several times by me

5. Made myself a wall calendar with a help of special calendar maker program . It had different motivation phrases like "You can do it!", "Yesterday you said Tomorrow" etc. and also I highlighted 3 days in each week with blue color, that meant I had to have some additional activity on these days (I did swimming in the local pool, running when it was warm outside or just walking a lot)

6. Used the step tracker on my phone, just found some app that does it and used it. This helped me a lot to increase the level of my daily activity.

7. A funny one: I quit elevators and was taking stairs instead. In fact I still do because it is good. At first I was struggling to make it to the 5th floor where my office is but in a week it all started to be much easier.

I can't say I became a fitness-guru after that but I got myself in shape. What else I got to say is the fact that start is always the hardest point but you just have to stay encouraged and look for motivation. I'm not very good at finding it, that is why I needed a reminders that I can do it, that it is my time to shine, etc. I hope something from my list will work for you, too!