I've refused to weigh myself for some years now because I know what it would do to my already low self esteem, but have been feeling uncomfortable and wishing I could lose some weight; also there's a lot of diabetes in my family. My biggest hurdle is eating at night. It's like a sedative to take the edge off the anxiety that gets worse then, so I've had the habit of using food to calm down so I can sleep. Decided I have to stop doing that, and that would make the biggest difference. It's small lifestyle choices we can stick to that make more of a difference than goals that are too big and we give up on them within a week. I actually did this a few years ago for a few months and people were telling me I looked thinner, but I went back to eating at night after a trauma that upset everything for a while.
So about a month ago I decided no food after supper, and to make supper a smaller meal than lunch. I've been sticking to it, though every evening is still a struggle. The feelings I was using food to numb keep coming and I have to find something else to do with them. It's been affecting my sleep some, and keeping me up later at night, which makes me wake up later in the morning.
Then I figured I needed more exercise, and read about the 10,000 step plan, where you take 10,000 steps a day and it's good for all kinds of things including losing weight. It takes about 10 minutes at a brisk pace to walk a thousand steps, so it's a fair amount of walking. I haven't invested in a pedometer, but did some elementary calculations and decided to go for a walk after each meal. I started trying to do 30 minutes three times a day and it felt like a bit much, so I've cut back and will gradually work up.
The next thing I feel would help is cutting back on sweets and baked goods, but that's going to be harder. One thing at a time though, right?
