Hi waders
You need to do as Columbo suggests. It's very difficult to offer any constructive and meaningful advice to you individually in the absence of any comparative information. I mean, how large are the shakes? Do they have any other components besides protein? If they're full of carbohydrates too, then you'll probably be drinking as much in calories as you'd get in your usual breakfast, not good.
The first thing you need to do is evaluate your caloric intake. When you've established your average daily intake you need to reduce it by 500/700kcals per day. Making sure you start this reduction by eliminating "bad foods" like saturated fats, table sugar, salt, crisps and sweets, alcohol (most but not all alcohol), and full-fat cheeses, milk. These are all relatively low cost and convenient changes to get you started. As you get into your new lifestyle you can restrict more calories as you go along to break through any plateaus.
Secondly, introduce more nutritious foods in to your diet: salad, vegetables, monosaturated and polyunsaturated oils, like olive oil. Eat more oats, fibrous food, and white meats and fish. Believe it or not, fish oils and olive oil actually benefit heart and bone health, and assist in the burning of adipose and visceral fat tissue from the gut, thighs, and ass. They also help increase energy and mental focus and concentration. All excellent advantages when you get to...
number three: Exercise! If you're not used to exercising and the fitness lifestyle, fitting this into your regular schedule and sticking with it can be the most irritating obstacle. However, science has proven that when all is said and done, that even if you're diet is perfect you aren't going to reap the total benefits of a weight-loss strategy without adequate exercise.
What's important here is to remember that you don't have start training for a marathon or kill yourself in a gym every day of the week. Start slow and build your way up in intensity and duration of exercise.
Begin by doing basic exercise like fast walking for 45 minutes a day, 3 or 4 times a week. You can do this anytime of the day, so you can fit it in without it ruining your schedule. Increase this - after a few weeks - to an hour or so and four or five times a week. With the above reduction in bad calories you should notice a couple of pounds coming off every week; possibly more.
The thing is, you must be consistent and look at your decision to lose weight as a new lifelstyle direction and not a diet and exercise fad. You'll be more much more successful if you get a picture of where you'd like to be, or what you'd like to achieve in the next year. don't say: I need to lose 10Ibs a week and be 15 stone by July. Say: I'm going to change my eating habits and increase my health by regular exercise, and I'd like to see me looking better in jeans and at the beach in the summer. Don't get fixated by numbers and percentages on scales. Look at the big picture. Changing just a few aspects of your diet and activity will bring much more rewards than just what you see on a scale.
Consider as you go along...
How do I feel?
Do I feel better and have more energy than last month?
Am I almost into a smaller jean size?
Do I feel more confident?
Am I able to do more exercise than I did last month?
I'm going to start jogging now I can fast walk for 90 minutes.
I'm having to tighten my belt more than last month.
I'm going to start introducing a bit of weight training in to my routine now I feel settled and into it.
Look at the whole healthy aspect of a good diet and exercise. You don't need to be obsessive to get results, but you do need to persist...even when it gets tough, and it does sometimes.
Oh...one last thing. If you ever get ill or life gets in the way and you shelve the exercise and diet for three weeks (it does happen) then never say "I'v failed!" and quit.
Get back on the horse and start riding again. You've relapsed...it's not over! You haven't failed, you've just had a set-back.
Just decide to start again and be more persistent this time around. We're all human and sometimes we feel down, get negative, or lose heart. So what? You've had a bad time but now it's over, you can concentrateand focus again. Just like with alcoholics, smokers, OCD'ers, learning to drive or anything else; we all have blips and set backs.
Get that diet record up here, and a bit about your age, health, exercise and lifestyle habits.
Best of luck and regards,
Craig
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