Dang…We’re Getting Fat!

I can totally relate to this. I was heavy before marriage, but was husband was average weight. After we got married, we acted like food was the enemy and we needed to defeat it. Needless to say we have packed on the pounds and are in dire need to get it off. Yes, we want to look good but most importantly feel good. We are in our late twenties and it is so depressing to see people our age dying in large quantities. We want to get healthy and be around to have a family and live a long time. These are just a few of the things that we do that seem to work, but we are a work in progress and like to also feed off the suggestions and tips of others.

- My husband and I love to cook! So we both go online and do research on healthy meals that are still packed with flavor. We get the ingredients for meals for the week and make it a habit to stick to eating those meals. Foodnetwork.com is a great site because it also includes videos for those not kitchen savvy.
- We have a mini home gym, which includes an elliptical, bike, weights, resistance bands, and exercise mat. This seems to work for us because we don’t have an excuse not to exercise because it’s right there in the house. Whenever we get time, despite the schedule it is fully accessible. We also have a Wii and there are a lot of wonderful titles that provides fitness routines, recipes, and more.
- Where I live is extremely cold in the fall and winter, so spring and summer provides great opportunities for us. We love to go to the park for walking, tennis, basketball, baseball. This also gives us a time for conversation which in turn strengthens our relationship.

There are obviously more ideas that you can look at, as are we. We don’t have any children so we do have the flexibility to do it this way. The most important thing is to find what works best for you, because overall that will create the most success.

I have had to come to the conclusion that my husband is not going to be my workout buddy. He doesn’t care about getting fat- (which I could probably write a whole post about-lol) so because of that he ends up being a bad influence when it comes to fitness. While I would like for us to be able to stay fit together, it really isn’t his thing. I have to look to someone who is either as equally obsessed with their weight/health as I am or more to stay motivated so I just work out with my friends or my sister most of the time.

I agree that starting to modify your diet is the first step. I’ve educated myself on the variety of different foods (beyond the soul food diet of my childhood) available to eat. We’ve eliminated about 85-90% of processed foods from our diet. And I’ve been trying to eat what’s in season. Look in the Food section of your newspaper, pick up a few food based magazines and try something new!

Ah Harriet, I started reading this post hoping you had a suggestion for me, lol. I am similar to you in that I don’t want to workout alone and it normally only lasts for about 2 weeks for me too. My husband has suggested that we start running together, so we’ll give that try when the weather breaks. But when I was working out (the last time) I was using our digitable cable work out channel. It offered lots of options, so I could do a different workout everyday, that was fun and something my hubby and I could do together.

I just realized that I never gave an actual idea. I have lost about 15 lbs in the past few months almost solely through portion control. I work out a little and make sure to eat as healthy as possible, but most of my weight loss I can attribute to making sure I’m eating the right portions. I work out most of the time only 10 to 20 mins a day just to make sure I’m doing something, and I use the digital cable workouts also. I recently joined a running club which I’m hoping will help me with the last few.