I'm joining this thread because recently I discovered I cannot get into most of my jeans. :( I have no idea what I weigh; I do not own a scale. But my hips and stomach are definitely bigger than they were.
I have no idea how to lose weight in a healthy way - so I imagine reading through this thread would be a good place to start.
I was an overweight kid and teen; lost a bunch of weight in high school, mainly through, I'm sorry to say, just plain not eating. Struggled with my weight through college and my 20s - again, when I lost weight, did it through just plain not eating, and also avoiding fats in any form when I did eat. Around age 30 I suddenly grew a metabolism and could pretty much eat whatever I wanted. I was actually pretty underweight for a few years there, though I was eating whatever sounded good and not restricting my food at all. Now I'm in my mid-40s and, well, looks like that's coming to an end - although I feel like I've been eating fairly healthy - vegetarian for around 25 years, eat lots of fruit and veg and try to minimize crap.
So, the last time I was actively trying to lose weight was back in the day where fat was bad. Now apparently fat is good? This seems so counterintuitive and confusing to me.
For the past few weeks I've been trying to cut flour and sugar, as that seems to be the conventional wisdom of what to do now. (Also because Boyfriend is obese and wants to lose weight, and he cannot control himself around white carbs so he's asked me to keep them out of the house.) And I am hungry - no, HANGRY - all. the. time. It's incredibly frustrating. As I said above, I don't own a scale so I've no idea if my efforts are even helping. I sort of don't want to buy a scale, though, because in the past I'd obsess about the number and if I gained a pound I would just not eat for a couple days until it went back down. I really don't want to go back to that.
I'm generally active outside of work - we don't own a car so we get a lot of exercise naturally just getting ourselves from point A to point B. But I don't actually work out. I LOATHE gyms, running, weights thanks to some very punitive gym teachers in high school. I used to take dance classes, which I really enjoyed, but quit to save money. Until recently, we had lunchtime yoga at work, which I LOVED - but it got cut for budget reasons. I'm the sort of person who needs someone standing over me telling me what to do, in order to actually get off the couch and move.
I struggle mightily with meal planning even when not trying to lose weight so I worry that any regimen where I have to carefully measure my food is going to immediately go out the window due to lack of time and mental energy.
So, um, hi? I'm off to read through this thread and see what I can learn.