After working my butt off four years ago and losing 25 lbs I have messed up and gained it all back:( I can't believe I let it happen... Things are different now, back then I was just a 17 year old high school student who just spent the summer off of school losing weight and exercising 2-3 hours a day (25 in 4 months). Now I'm 21, getting married to the greatest man in the world, and working two jobs(one which is full time).

I would love to be 145 lbs again but I guess the older you get the harder it gets sometimes huh? I would love to exercise again for at least an hour if not more a night, but some weeks I'm working at least 3 days/evenings until 9pm with the next morning being back at work at 8 or 9 am. Guess I'm trying to figure out how to fit exercising in my day. ok ok I know I should stay up all night and exercise *yeah right I hardly see boyfriend that way it is* lol

I did start exercising back in November but fell off the wagon due to the yummy Christmas foods. So thats my story. I miss my engery I can tell I use to be able to walk up stairs and be fine now I walk up stairs and just about fall over and have to start again.

Would anyone have any pointers for me? I know drinking water helps a alot and I'm trying to drink alot but it's hard.

Old at 21? LOLOLOL! Sorry, but I'm exactly twice your age.

No short cuts that I can think of, except for making sure that you rest between days of hard workouts. You should not work out hard more than 4-5 days a week, and you should rest when you feel tired.

Don't go so fast that you injure yourself.

Don't get caught in a dull workout routine that is easy to quit. Schedule it to change every couple of weeks to keep in interesting. I hike, bike, aerobic dance/tae bo, etc. Anything to mix it up.

Work hard, and schedule times to workout. Good luck.

CFJ

After working my butt off four years ago and losing 25 lbs I have messed up and gained it all back:( I can't believe I let it happen... Things are different now, back then I was just a 17 year old high school student who just spent the summer off of school losing weight and exercising 2-3 hours a day (25 in 4 months). Now I'm 21, getting married to the greatest man in the world, and working two jobs(one which is full time).

I would love to be 145 lbs again but I guess the older you get the harder it gets sometimes huh? I would love to exercise again for at least an hour if not more a night, but some weeks I'm working at least 3 days/evenings until 9pm with the next morning being back at work at 8 or 9 am. Guess I'm trying to figure out how to fit exercising in my day. ok ok I know I should stay up all night and exercise *yeah right I hardly see boyfriend that way it is* lol

I did start exercising back in November but fell off the wagon due to the yummy Christmas foods. So thats my story. I miss my engery I can tell I use to be able to walk up stairs and be fine now I walk up stairs and just about fall over and have to start again.

Would anyone have any pointers for me? I know drinking water helps a alot and I'm trying to drink alot but it's hard.Well, Wonder Woman ('girl' hardly seems appropriate),

Working two jobs (or even one and a half, but I'll bet you're also doing a if not the major share of the housekeeping, too) is plenty of activity for anyone. Forget the daily exercise, focus on relaxation and stretching routines, and perhaps a couple of weekend aerobic workouts.


Lacking energy?

1. Proper sleep is critical -- are you getting enough quality sleep? Somewhere between seven and nine hours of sound, undisturbed sleep, works best for most of us.

2. Food is your fuel. And, you can get more energy from healthy vegetarian fare than by gulping down eggs and steak and other convenience foods.

Stick with healthy foods, heavy on the vegetables (especially lettuces, but don't let regular salad dressings add to your waistline) and light on the serious calorie items. Not just for the increased vitamin content over 'convenience' foods, but for all the more subtle things like riboflavins, etc. that help turn your body into an efficient, high energy machine.

rD

ps. As you surely know, diets and even sticking with just plain healthy eating, are a 24/7 business. An hour's slip, sets you back a week. Several such slips every week, can add 30 to 50 pounds a year if you're not careful.

Yes 21 old lol Today is my day off and I feel like I'm 75 lol Well it's not really my day off guess I have to work at my other job 1-9 tonite. Here's a question... At one of my jobs I do a lot of heavy lifting (ex: lifting 40 to 60 pound 5 gallon pails, stocking 50 pound bags of sheet rock and working with lumber), would that I guess cause me to have gained more weight because the fact since I been doing that I have gained some muscle? I was wondering that the other day at work. Another thing is it possible because sometimes my job is very stressful (please if you go shopping don't yell at us retail workers lol) Sometimes with the customers and the managers combined I think thats why I eat more. I'm trying not to make excuses but it sounds right, there are days when I come home after a long day of customers and managers trying to cut my head off I think I seem to eat more.

As in the house work my boyfriend does a lot of it too. He knows I'm busy so he helps out, i can't take all the credit there. I know I need to eat right but my boyfriend cooks too darn good lol I'm trying to eat right. We talked it over and we said this summer we are going to do alot of biking riding try to get some time in fourwheeler riding and do some camping. Oh and planning the wedding thats stressful enough lol

So as it boils down i think alot as to do with stress I need to find an outlet instead of eating

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So as it boils down i think alot as to do with stress I need to find an outlet instead of eatingWG,

Which is surely the cause of most people's weight problems. And, substitution of one activity or way of coping for another, is a far easier approach to 'breaking' a stress coping habit that's not been working for you, as 'breaking' leads to an absence (and on some level, we feel a need to fill the 'void', typically by restoring the missing habit), while 'changing' leads to filling that void with an alternate activity.

Handling stress poorly (hey! if customers could serve themselves, you'd be out of a job. You're filling a much valued role, though few customers have the manners to acknowledge that), raises your cortisol hormone levels. This leads directly to more rapid aging (cardiovascular disease) through increased fat retention.

In my own case, high cortisol levels cause excess lipids (fats) in my bloodstream (what alerted me to this was that, once, my blood donation was rejected, as they couldn't do routine screening tests, with so much fat in my blood). My problem remains because mostly I'm still learning how to cope well with unrelenting stress. The lipid numbers did take a notable drop, once I started fitting some meditation time into my day. (I used to just manage with treadmill routines, short naps, as well as distractions such as working on crossword puzzle books.)

rD