Posts by undo117

Hi everyone!

Good entries, so encouraging.

Sabineyvr, do what feels right FOR YOU! Everyone is different and you have to figure out for yourself how to lose and exercise too. If you're going to crash and burn, by all means allow yourself more calories. My own experience has been losing it slowly (50 lbs) and getting more exercise than I've ever had in my life! And, I've kept if off much longer than I have ever in my life. (I bet we all are career dieters!)

At this point in time, however, I am trying the South Beach diet. I have been very tired most of these first days, so no exercise. I'm going to see how it goes, but if it looks as if I don't have the energy for my morning 3-mile walks, then I will have to modify the diet (maybe go straight to Phase 3!!) I feel that getting good amounts of exercise has been key to my being able to keep off the lbs so I will make whatever adjustments necessary to do that.

I vote for "100+ lbs Losing2gether Sucess(fully?) Club". Great idea go4gold.

I have had 4 diet cokes this afternoon and I'm cleaning the garage (remodeling tomorrow). I hate to be relying on caffeine for energy, tho'.

Tomorrow!

Welcome Saintly Mama!

I've been reading this water thread and feeling guilty. I remember the water mantra from Weight Watchers and try to get in plenty, but I don't count and probably get less than the 64 oz. daily now. I recently moved from the Great Lakes region to San Diego area and realized that I have to (and want to) drink a lot more out here. I also have read in a couple of places that studies are showing that one doesn't need quite so much water as was thought, so I drink when I'm thirsty, when I'm hungary, and when I'm nervous. I just splurged on Pellagrino to take the place of the wine I have been drinking at night.

But, the enemy lurks everywhere! I'm in a warm-up phase for the South Beach diet (trying to lose that belly fat) and so am watching the sugar (a very good idea for me anyway, I have hypoglycemic spells). This morning I had a V-8 and, when I logged it in, saw the caution about the amount of sugars in it. Then I checked the can...11 grams in 8 ounces. Yikes! I knew it was high in sodium but was totally caught unaware by the sugar grams. Thank goodness for CC, but the lesson to me is check and recheck labels.

Everyone sounds so upbeat and it is a pleasure to read entries for this forum. I think this is the 5th day for me and I've had some significant changes: (1) I have lost weight (I weigh daily, but don't count the loss until my official weigh-in day - Monday); (2) I am experiencing a very significant increase in motivation as illustrated by me trying an actually prescribed diet...and the motivation is for me, not because of a guy or event, which in the past has been the usual motivation. I have to say, though, that 38 of the last 50 lbs I lost was for me because I had so much trouble with ankle pain and getting exhausted easily) (12 for the guy I loved and lost...thank heaven again); (3) I seem to be able to give up my evening wine, which was almost medicinal because I was drinking out of boredom and stress. I need to develop a variety of evening activities to keep out of this habit.

Good luck everyone, keep your spirits up. We are doing the right thing!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to newcomers newer 'n me! This is just such a terrific group. Thanks to mollymouser, go4gold, and others who respond to so many contributors. My spirit is with EVERYONE! I read all the replies but just don't have the time to respond to the many that touch my heart.

There is one thing that I've seen that really touches me: the expression that we can't be "normal" or "fit in" unless we get to a certain weight. It also seems as if this kind of emotional discomfort leads to binges and other unhealthy eating. I spent 40 years thinking like that and it did me more harm than any amount of excess weight ever did. And I struggle against that kind of negative self-thought everyday. I will never have that battle won, I don't think, but I'm more positive about my [fat] self than I was yesterday, last week, last year, and last century. The irony is, the more I accept myself, the easier it is to lose weight and, more importantly, keep it off. I've belonged to 12-step groups, been in therapy, taken anti-depressants, taken counseling courses, and read self-help books until my eyes were crossed. ALL of it helped. One book that I'm reading now is "Winning After Losing," by Stacey Halprin. It's copyrighted 2007 and I found it in hardback. If you're watching your budget as well as your weight, your local library should be able to get it for you, if you have the interest. Stacey went from 500 lbs to 190 and is keeping it off. This book's main focus is how you think about yourself and how you NEED to think about yourself if you're going to lose weight and keep it off. I have gotten so much inspiration from this book. It took me 3 years to lose 50 pounds, but the success for me is that very very seldom do I look to food for comfort (binge) and that (so far, knock on the block of wood that is my head) I have been able to keep the 5, 10, 25 pound increments off during the 3 years. I feel so much better about myself, not because I lost the weight, but because I've been getting my head screwed on more appropriately than it was before. Now I'm trying to slug out 67 pounds in a year, because the excess weight is affecting my joints and I'm getting too old for them to recover easily from the stress of having this fat bod' to move around.

One of my issues is that I was sexually molested by an older half brother in my pre-teen years. We all have issues, greater or less than that. It's not the DAMAGE that happened to me, it's how I thought about myself that got all caught up in my "weight problem." It could have been as simple as having a berating parent. Of course, not all instances of serious overweight are due to emotional issues. But, I think avoiding toxic jobs, relationships, family members, self-thought can go a long way for us to be more comfortable with the skin we're in.

Not so many messages are as serious as this is and, if it is inappropriate, please forgive me. I am a much happier person today than I ever have been and, if sharing my journey helps even one person, I will be glad I shared.

Thanks for being here.

I'm not sure I'm doing this right, but here goes

 1. Today I weighed 207. And, today, 9-8-07, is the day I joined this website.

2. The most I've weighed is 257 and I've gotten up there twice. I've lost 50 lbs in the last three years and (yeah for me) have kept them off.

3. My goal weight is 140, but depending on how it goes (keeping the weight off is the important thing), I may revise that goal to 150. Over the span of my life (I'm 60 now and weighed 214 at age 14), I've lost 600 pounds. Thus and again, the most important thing in my weight loss is to keep it off.

The hardest thing for me now is to stay motivated both in food management and in exercising. I hope by reading what everyone else is doing I will work on improving my program. I have not lost any weight in the last 4 months.