HELP!

This is my first time to this site and not sure how things work. I am going to have surgery sometime in the next couple of months. Right now I am suppose to diet and exercise. If I could diet and exercise I wouldn't need surgery would I? It is very frustrating. I work 8 to 10 hours a day, and am sore and tired when I come home, and hungry! I live in Oregon where it rains all the time....or most of it. The only place here in this small town is Curves and I do not have exercise equipment. How do I get going on loosing and moving. I am at a BMI of 43, and it is hard to move, let alone exercise.

I spend hours reading at the Lab Band site and now here. I don't find any post about how to get started. Didn't anyone else have a hard time....was anyone else very over weight and their body sore and hurts all the time like me? I worry about getting banded and then what. I don't have energy now to exercise will I have energy after?

Please help me out here someone...I can't be the only person like this...am I?? :biggrin:

People have posted some really great suggestions - here is mine to get started.

Take a couple of weeks, buy a $0.49 little notebook and write down everything you eat (including quantities). Make a commitment to yourself that you will write it down, no matter what it is you eat. You don't have to show it to anyone and you are only lying to yourself if you don't write it down. You can choose to add the calories or fat or weight watchers points or not (doesn't really matter at this point).

After 2 weeks, look at what you ate and then think about how you could make small changes that would either reduce the quantity of what you ate or make it healthier, but will satisfy you. For example: two bologna sandwichs on white bread with mayo and butter and an apple. What could you do to make this healthier? Change the bolgna to turkey, use whole wheat bread, use mustard instead of the other condiments. Maybe you could reduce from 2 to one sandwich and add a salad or veggies or yogurt or another piece of fruit. You have added fibre and reduced your calories and fat with little or no effort.

I know when I first started writing things down, I absolutely hated it, but it sure did make me aware of what I was putting in my mouth. I was totally shocked about the what I was eating and the quantities of what I would eat (especially in the evenings at home). Because I had to write it down, I started to think more about whether I was really hungry or just bored or emotional. If I was really hungry I ate something, if not I tried to find something to do to distract myself or got something to drink. This really helped me get started. I still write everything down.

I passively (or actively depending on how you want to look at it) resisted doing any real exercise until 2 months after banding. I now also exercise 4-5 times per week for at least 1 hour each session. 3 days a week I combine sprint circut (Curves like activity) for 30 minutes and also sandwich that with 40-50 minutes of cardio (eliptical and treadmill). The other 1-2 days, I do at least 60 minutes of cardio. If I stretch it 65-70 minutes of cardio I am managing to go 4 miles at one time!! I am so much fitter and stronger now, and I started with a BMI of 55.:biggrin2: