Why did you decide to change your eating habits???
 

Another GTKY question. Just curious what has pushed you this time to start the weight loss journey? What keeps you motivated? Also anyone want to share their excuses for NOT starting sooner?

Mine sadly was vanity, I miss looking good. Next is how fat I look on my horses and my riding ability is in the toliet carrying this much weight.

I'm not sure I really have a motivation. I'm not excited yet about the weight loss cuz I really can't see it. My mom is being support which helps me keep going. This website is pretty much all I got, and hoping here is where I'll find my strenght and motivation to keep moving forward.

Excuses: My biggest excuse was if you don't like the way I look quit looking. I fooled myself into thinking I didn't care when people looked at me like I was a fat cow. I tried to make myself I'm big and beautiful, but it never caught on. My other excuse was why should I go through life misserable worrying about every little thing I put in my mouth. I like to eat, it makes me happy, i have no current medical problems related to what I eat so why shouldn't I eat. That thinking got me 20 more pounds last year.

My story is not really grand or eye opening or inspirational. ;) I'm either trying to lose weight and feeling good about myself or I've given up and feel horrible about myself. I've done this many times before, I always make it too difficult and unsustainable. The difference this time is that what I am doing is completely sustainable. I'm not denying myself anything at all. And when the exercise gets to be too much, and at the rate I go it probably will, I know I can just back off, not stop entirely. There is middle ground between all out and nothing.

As for what made me change my eating habits, that's simple. The last time I did this I was on South Beach, which worked, but slowly. And ultimately it was too drastic a change from my normal tendencies so I quit. Three years later my cousin showed up on my doorstep having lost 100 lbs! I was ready then and there to join WW because I thought that's what she'd done. She told me simply counted calories and I started the next morning.

There's never been a "moment" for me. My head has never been in the sand. I've tried to accept myself wherever I am, but it has never worked. It's taken me a while to figure out what works for me. I'm still not convinced I've found it. I hit the same magic 30 lbs I hit before and once again my body is saying, nope, not gonna budge. But this time I'm giving it a year, no matter what.

I've never been a binge eater, I don't eat ridiculously high calories. I've never had any real hard factors for why I pack on the pounds. I have PCOS, and though I can see the eye rolls now, that makes it more difficult to lose weight.

Eliana, I'm not trying to kill myself this time around either. When I first started I did a drastic change and sunk into depression, which is usually followed by massive aniety attacks. I'm trying to be realistic. I quit eating fast food, however I'm not telling myself i can NEVER have it. It's just going to have to be just moderation. And I'm doing the WW points system and if I eat out, I have to take the hit on the points and I will have to accept that when I eat out. Lunch is my worse part. I used to eat out every single day for lunch, and sometimes dinner. Mostly fast food. I've eaten at subway a few times in the last 4 weeks, and had one misserable grilled chicken sandwhich I'll never waste my ponits on again from Wendys. Today I'm considering eating out at my favorite resturant. I used to get a Gyro Sandwhich, with Ranch dressing, LARGE fries with Ranch Dressing, and Salad with Ranch dressing. This time I'm getting a Gyro Salad with light dressing. It's still going to be a high calorie meal, but it's only a fraction of what I used to eat.

Because I can never stop trying.

My excuses: I'm fine already, if I get smaller no one man will be able to handle me. I don't have any health problems so I'm good. (Thank God I still don't have any health problems). Lastly, "It's too much trouble to be looking at labels to see what's in the food." This one had to be the dumbest because I need to know what I'm consuming.

I had a moment of clarity on Christmas Day at my parents house. I realized I was the only fat person among my mother's children. Everyone is thin and have been all their lives. So it was time to take life by the horns and tackle this demon. I also realized I wasn't able to play with my daughter like I wanted to because I couldn't bend over. I couldn't do a pole dance or bedroom acrobatics for my hubby. Then last but certainly not least, I know when I get to that size 10 my body will be fierce, I can wear what I want, and go to any store I want. I got the big head already.

What keeps me motivated, the things I will be able to do and the things that used to stop me will no longer exist. I'm looking forward to seeing my family reaction at the family reunion. :gossip::gossip:

:dancer::dancer: I'm dancing thinking about it. :flame::flame: Smokin Hot - I'm deciding on my theme song right now - May be "This is Why I'm Hot - NIMS", "FIRE - Ohio Players", I don't know but I will have something playing in my head while I walk in a room!!



I have listened to both songs and for sure it has to be FIRE by the Ohio Players!!

I ordered some of that Sensa stuff online - "the sprinkle diet" where you sprinkle these crystals on your food and the Sensa is supposed to help you feel full sooner, so you eat less and lose some weight even if you don't change what food you are eating. I'm typically very skeptical about any of this stuff, but hey, I found a promo code on line, it wasn't all that expensive and I figured, why not give it a try. It's not an appetite suppressant, it is just supposed to make you more satisfied, sooner. I thought that the act of using the crystals would make me be a little bit more conscious about what I was eating, and it didn't seem like that could hurt.

I ended up using the Sensa stuff for only about a week. But for whatever reasons, I was ready to take this journey, and it helped me kickstart things. For the first month, I was just focused on making better choices - I wasn't actually calorie counting. After a month, I remembered my old Fitday account and started to track my food on there.

I've just started my 4th month of this, and while I'm sure there were times in the past where I've successfully stuck to a diet for longer than this, I really can't remember the last time I lasted more than a few weeks. And this time, I really am trying to remember this isn't a "diet" - this is the way I am choosing to live my life, and plan to do so forever. And I'm not really having that much of a problem staying on plan. Sure, I've had a day here and there, but even those days were not crazy out of control. I just journalled my food, and kept going the next day. I do feel like the weight is coming off a bit more slowly than it might have in the past when I was younger. Oh, well. I'm not going anywhere, so it will come off when it comes off.

I Don't Want to Die
 

My mother was a beautiful, confident overweight woman when I was a kid. I remember her saying "I might lose weight if I wasn't so cute." I grew up with the same confidence. I know that I am a beautiful person inside and out. I have never been normal weight so I don't know what I will look like when I am done but this was not my issue.

I just don't want to die. I know that eventually I will but, I am not helping push myself in that direction. I don't want to have a stroke, diabetes or a heart condition. I don't want a knee replacement or a lark.

Now, I am in my 30's with no underlying health condition with the knowledge that 300lbs is not compatible with life. I am avoiding fast food and planning to work in an exercise routine just because I want to be a healthy 60year old one day.

There is nothing wrong with vanity as a motivation--there are other positive side effects too :)

Self-Preservation
 

My new healthier lifestyle was a direct result of my diabetes diagnosis (type 2). My doc did not pull any punches as he rattled off ALL the negatives about my blood test that revealed a whole truckload of health concerns. I know I'm gonna buy the farm one day, but it doesn't have to be today.

3 things did it for me:

A conversation with my father that made me realize that no matter what else I had accomplished, what even people who loved me saw was the fat.

The economy had me worried about having to buy my own health insurance when my job is eliminated. At the BMI I started out, would have been difficult to make the inflated insurance rate on unemployment.

A desire to get naked with a man again. When I gained 100 lbs in one year (age 30-31), it was frankly a bit of a relief to no longer deal with male attention. But as I approached age 50, dang it, it had been way too long!

I was diagnosed a type 2 diabetic. I already had PCOS and should have gotten it under control before the diabetes, but here I am. That was July and I haven't given up yet. I always gave up before, mostly because I was a spoiled, lazy brat.
My motivations are that I kinda like this life thing and I'd like to keep doing it and I'd like to keep doing it with all my parts in place. I also want to have a baby, and that means getting healthy first.
I have had so many excuses. I used my PCOS as an excuse. I used the fact that my husband likes bigger women. I used my anemia. I used money issues. I used whatever I could think of.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired. And yes, I'd like to look good in clothes again, be able to wear high heels again, not lose my breath if I have to run for a bus like I did the other night.

I couldn't walk down to the beach with my kids on vacation. I had to be driven to the handicapped access and even then I could not go down to the beach, it was still to much for me. I had just turned 38 and I was pretty much incapacitated by my weight.

I've never been one to be sad or unhappy about being fat. I never beat myself up over it, never felt bad about myself. I am a happy, confident person who happened to be fat. For me, it was health related all around. My dad's father died @ 42 of a heartattack, as did his great-granddad. My dad is 71 and healthy as a horse because he chops wood and hikes and eats good food. I wanted to be 71 some day, so I thought I'd better get off my a$$ and help myself!

I wasn't particularly miserable at my HW either but I was aware I was not able to do physical things easily (like stairs, hills etc) and this was brought home to me when I was faced with a very steep hill in Lisbon, Portugal. My adult daughters were with me and I really slowed them down. Plus I have family history of diabetes and I didn't want to be the next one!!

So, I started changing one habit at a time and that is the story of my very very slow but not uncomfortable weight loss.