Any overweight teachers wanting a diet buddy?

Hi!  I'm an Australian primary school teacher with three children.  I've been overweight for a long time but refused to get on a scale.  I secretly stepped on my friend's scales this new year and was shocked to see that i was 100 kilograms or 220 pounds!  I am 5' 9" so I really should be under 70 kilograms.  That means i need to lose 30% of my weight.  I have never really dieted before or tried to establish an exercise program.  I have never read to check the calories on food labels until this week!  I plan to lose weight sensibly - about a kilogram per week - and to walk on the beach (I live in Tropical North Queensland beside a beautiful beach) at least every second day. 

I'd love to have some buddies to do online weigh-ins with.  Being a teacher isn't essential - i just thought it might add an additional interest we can talk about - and when one of us is facing added pressure eg reporting time we can empathise and motivate eachother to stay away from caffeine and junk food!

Hello. I'm Whooshi, a 60-year-old high school teacher in New England. My subject is art. I have 2 adult children and 18-mo-old, highly beloved twin grandsons who happen to be half Asian. They all live about 1200 miles away, so I only see them on school vacations. I also have a husband and 4 small dogs to tide me over. I've taught school--not continuously--since 1973, for a total of 25 years, the first six in elementary and middle schools. Food and weight wise, I've never weighed less than 140 since I was 13, have gained and lost 50-70 lbs 5 or 6 times since I was 18, and need to lose 100 lbs now. Luckily, I have no horrible health complications despite my weight history. I can verify with you that my work does trigger bad food choices and binging behavior, certainly in my case. I've lost 10-12 lbs since Jan. 1, but the scale said I added 4 (which I know is water weight) yesterday (I weighed myself at school) and that combined with end of semester grading stresses (hysterical students, writing exams, dealing with special needs teachers, yada yada yada) all prompted me to "celebrate" with chocolate and popcorn to the tune of 1600 unnecessary calories in the last 12 hours. Oh well, water under the bridge! Gotta get back up on that pony at dinner time! And I'd be happy to correspond with you.

Hey Wooshi!  Don't we fall into bad habits as teachers???  I often missed breakfast because I was in such a rush getting there (all 3 kids still at home and not yet able to ever find their socks/homework/lunchbox etc in the morning).  I skulled coffee - it wasn't until this Christmas when visiting my Mum for a few weeks that she suggested i join her for black tea in the mornings, that I realised how much i had been having.  8 cups of coffee a day with a third of a cup of milk and two heaped teaspoons of sugars in each.  That was a lot of calories to be drinking.  It took me about two days to get to the stage that i could drink it black without pulling faces and about a week till I could drink it black and unsweetened.  Now I think it's great and I make up a big bottle of herbal tea each day to to store in the fridge for iced tea.  It helps me keep track of my fluid intake.  I have had terrible oedoema problems with water retention in my feet since my first pregnancy 15 years ago and I've only recently found out that not drinking enough only makes it worse!  I have been eating more healthily and reducing portions since new years but only started calorie counting yesterday.  i don't plan to get back on a set of scales until February 1.  Hopefully I will have lost a few kilograms by then.  I know i would go crazy if I stepped on them daily or even weekly.  I intend to reward myself every month that I have a loss - regardless of how big or little it is.  A massage sounds good.  I also have rewards planned for losing 5kilos, 10, 15 and 20 kilograms.  I've told my hubby that if I lose 20 kg by Christmas I'll buy a new leather lounge suite.  Surprisingly, he didn't offer to buy me cream buns!!!

Have you managed to start exercising?  So far, I've managed to develop good intentions....