Trying is all anyone can ask of you. You don’t need to start off being perfect – just keep making small changes over time, and that will eventually add up to HUGE changes. Even if you just cut back your pop consumption by two pops per day, over a week that’s about half a pound of fat.

One thing that really helped me to change my eating habits was to do a lot of reading about what different foods (and nonfoods) actually do in my body, and how to increase satiety. I am not an Oprah fan, but Dr.Oz who used to be on there has a book called You: On a Diet, which really explained a lot. It’s easier for me to say “I’m not going to drink a pop because it will cause havoc with my blood sugar, making me feel hungrier later, and it will also leach my bones of calcium, giving me poor bone density later in life” than it is for me to say “NO! POP BAD! NO FUN! DRINK WATER!” I guess it all depends on how your brain works, but it really helped me. Spark people also has a lot of helpful articles.

It will be spring soon. Walking for 30-60 minutes a day with Gracie and doggies would burn a whole lot of calories, if it’s something you’re able to do where you are.

All I can say is – keep ploughing away. You don’t have to be perfect every single day – or even any day – you just need to keep working at it.

Also, one of the best things you can do on the food front right now is just start paying attention go portion control. In the beginning, take your plate of food, divide it into fours then remove 1/4 of the food. You’d be surprised how satisfied you’ll still be with 1/4 less food. Then, EAT MORE OFTEN. Start eating every three hours. Your body works SO much more efficiently when you get food OFTEN. You don’t get as hungry then you don’t end up eating as much. It’s tough at first but once your body gets on the schedule, you’ll start to feel a lot better.

Also, EAT AFTER YOUR WORKOUTS! Within an hour try to take in an equal amount of healthy carbs and protein. You body NEEDS that food to repair itself and if you are really sore, protein, protein, protein. Your muscles will heal a lot faster that way and that first hour after the workout it’s CRITICAL to refuel.

Keep with it Amanda! I KNOW it’s hard, the first week KILLED me, but I promise it gets easier.

Also, tell your mom to STUFF IT!

I’m also very sorry that your mom is poking fun at you. It seems like the people we need support from the most tend to be the most critical of us. I can’t even begin to list the numerous things my mom said to me/about my when I was pre-op and doing everything I had to (including losing weight) in preparation for surgery.
Just keep at it, work through the pain if you can — but don’t overdo things! As you said yourself, you’re overweight and you have excess fat to deal with; you don’t want to overwork your muscles and potentially injure them, or even increase your risk for an asthma (not sure if you’re asthmatic or not) or heart attack!

I’m sorry that people are giving you crap about trying to lose weight and exercise. They should be supportive, not cracking jokes. That’s horrible. Maybe you could tell them how you feel and tell them to back off. Maybe they don’t realize that you are so self conscious about it and they are trying to lighten the mood?