Brief overview of Brittni :)

I am 24 years old and have gained nearly 100 lbs in less than 5 years. I used to be very active and had a pretty serious eating disorder. Once I graduated high school I went from excercising every day for several hours  and vomiting after every meal to virtually nothing at all. After a bad relationship I developed an unhealthy relationship with food (ie: eating when I wasn't hungry, eating too much, eating for fun...) I realized that this relationship was literally turning me into someone I'm not. So FINALLY after the breakup and unhealthy binge drinking party phase I am ready to get my life back. I'm hoping to make some friends here so that I am more tempted to stick around. I just want to be the confident and happy person I was before and I know that this extra weight is holding me back.

Best wishes,

Brittni

You, know, so many of us have the same basic story. It's not the details so much as it is the addictive use of food to scratch some kind of itch. I hope you do well on this journey. Success is less about losing weight as it is about losing the desire and motivation to binge. I have lost 88 lbs, but the real gift has been a sense of being in recovery from eating so damn much, and from all the shame based reasons for doing so. If you need support you've got it on this site. There are so many of us who have recently been where you are and have emerged not on the other side, but in a place of recovery and continued health.

I won't ever be over my eating disorder, but I can learn to live with it by not indulging it.

Good luck!

Mike

Thanks Mike! I really never thought that I would let myself get to this point. Especially with all of the hang-ups I had with weight gain before. I was obssesive about it, then I just didn't care and now I am obsessive about it again! But this time I am changing for the better and doing it in a healthy way... Hopefully I can stick with it! Thanks for the support :)

It's funny, the same obsessive compulsive disorder that got me so huge was responsible for getting me to where I am today. The trick I need to learn is to get it to help me maintain. It's like a switch went off in December and I was all about losing. When I was gaining I just didn't think about how big I was getting. I went months between weighing myself and was in total denial.... even when I started buying XXL shirts that were too tight.

Finally my wife told me to get healthy. We have two boys and my self abuse was a bad, bad example to them.

It's only been 6 months and I've lost 88 pounds, but I consider that the easy part. I've lost before but never managed to keep it off; therefore, the hard thing is maintenance, not loss or gain. My greatest challenge is here, and I am totally kicking ass so far.

Anyway...long post! Are you an elliptical user too? I love love love mine and can't wait to hop on it after the boys are in bed. I tend to do 45 mins a day on it at 80-85% max heart rate. It's my favourite way to burn 

Original Post by freakybunny:

It's funny, the same obsessive compulsive disorder that got me so huge was responsible for getting me to where I am today. The trick I need to learn is to get it to help me maintain. It's like a switch went off in December and I was all about losing. When I was gaining I just didn't think about how big I was getting. I went months between weighing myself and was in total denial.... even when I started buying XXL shirts that were too tight.

Finally my wife told me to get healthy. We have two boys and my self abuse was a bad, bad example to them.

It's only been 6 months and I've lost 88 pounds, but I consider that the easy part. I've lost before but never managed to keep it off; therefore, the hard thing is maintenance, not loss or gain. My greatest challenge is here, and I am totally kicking ass so far.

Anyway...long post! Are you an elliptical user too? I love love love mine and can't wait to hop on it after the boys are in bed. I tend to do 45 mins a day on it at 80-85% max heart rate. It's my favourite way to burn 

 Yo Mike, this is my first post.  Sorry to hijack this thread Brittni...but Mikes story closely resembles mine, so I thought I would say hi and tell you great job!!  Keep kicking Ass!!

I turned 50 in Dec 08 and I was horribly overweight.  I decided to do something about it and joined NutriSystem.  I have lost 95 pounds up to today.  I have been off NS for over a month now.  Hitting the Gym and of course the Eliptical 5-6 days a week.  I have bad knees and a bad back, so the Eliptical was my only choice to get the important cardio I needed.  My weight loss is slowing down a bit now that I get closer to goal, about 1-2 pounds per week max.  But you are so right about maintenance, the losing was easy enough, keeping it off is the hardest, because we have to stay focused every day for the rest of our lives.  Must learn to not get complacent with ourselves and keep on working hard.

BTW Brittni, sounds like you are serious enough to get started, just stay focused and stick to your plan, don't deviated for atleast a month.  Feel free to ask for help anytime you feel weak.

Ron

I lost the cord to my elliptical! I'm actually moving it in my house today. I'm really excited! I'm terrible about being self motivated to work out because I get bored easily. It has nothing to do with me not being able to do it. If I don't have someone to talk to or something to watch I am a mess! I was doing really well and ended up losing about 10 lbs last month walking with a friend, but my friend is trying to walk in order to maintain her size 0 frame so you can see where it's not a priority to her! I was doing okay at walking my dog in the mornings, but I'm not good about getting up early and my dog is NOT a good walking buddy. I'm hoping that the elliptical and a TV or radio will do the trick!

And for me, I'm just really good at hiding the weight. People don't really realize that I've put so much on! Obviously I've gained some... I only weighed 104 lbs. about three years before I got to this weight! But I am tired of the stress that comes with the charade. I just want to go in and pick something up off the rack and know that I will look fine instead of worrying about hiding 50+ extra lbs! And I don't even want to go into the situations when I CAN'T hide it... epic embarrassment!