Things I am still doing poorly
I've read over and over you don't have to do an hour at a time, it is just as effective if you do 6, 10 min sessions. It's certainly better than none. My previous PCP also told me not to worry about aerobic type exercise because what over weight people need to do is build muscles which means working your muscles. For instance if you use stationary bike turn up the resistance, don't go for speed, go for working the muscles. This is totally contrary to what I learned growing up but he was a super jock type person and also worked with personal trainers daily so I respect his advice. So you can probably squeeze in a few 10 min sessions even if it's walking. Keep up the good work and ditch what don't work!
Hey, that's some great awareness you got going. Best advice I can give you is to measure out what you're going to eat and don't eat more than that. You're still really early out so I'd recommend starting with a 2 oz portion of dense protein. Take small bites. Elina likes to counsel people to take pencil eraser sized bites. That's a great visual for bite size. Eat it really slowly. Count 30 chews, if that will slow you down, or at least get the meat to a mushy texture in your mouth before swallowing. You will probably find that when you slow it way down you will be able to eat much less than when you eat quickly.
You've got the water thing down. Work on the slow eating now. Then choose the next something on which to work.
I've had a really tough time with the slowing down part and learning how to...undereat my sleeve. I still don't have it down, but its a learning process. I am trying to eat things that are more small portion controlled....i.e. making a meatloaf into tiny 1 oz muffin size portions or meatballs (I start with one and then see how I feel) . This is sort of teaching me to slow down, enjoy this little tiny bit of food. It doesn't always work out (like when eating out or wanting something quick and dirty) but careful planning helps.
Let me tell you I am NOT a planner, but this is doable as I just make loads of them at a time and store/freeze portions. I have found I can put just about anything in a little muffin pan!
On the exercise, my personal trainer says all you need is 30 minutes of good resistance training (i.e. squats/lunges, steps with arm raises, push ups, anything engaging both cardio and muscle) so all we do is a 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes of strength mixed with cardio, 5 min cool down. It goes by really quickly and all of it I can/will do on my own once my move is over.
Don't beat yourself up about this process, we are still early sleevers, and this is one HUGE adjustment from a lifetime of obese. Praise yourself for the things you are doing well and with that confidence you will enable the other areas needing a little help to fallow. Good luck!
~Cheers
