Hi! I found this site back in 1999. I weighed about 285 then, and it doesn't help one little bit to think that if I'd only lost ONE POUND A MONTH I'd be 72 pounds lighter instead of 13 pounds heavier. Since 1999, I've weighed as low as 269 (2000) and as high as 298 (two weeks ago). So I have more than 100 pounds to lose. (I'm taking them ten pounds at a time.)
I used to cook, but for about the past 15 years I've had such a horrendous schedule -- lots of deadlines, working from project to project, which means working 12 to 16 hour days and collapsing on the weeks in between -- that I've fallen into horrendous eating habits: grabbing snacks from the vending machine in the basement, living on cokes and candy bars, etc. Cooking to me is frying a steak, or making a tunafish sandwich. I also had gotten so used to the 1200 calorie a day diet (I lost weight on WW years ago and can do the old exchange program in my sleep) that I plan the old WW day, still have 12 points a day to play with, and I do. I live in a small apartment, and exercise is walking around in it or going down to the lobby to check the mail, or walk to the corner to get a bus.
I have a light, relatively predictable schedule until September, and I AM DETERMINED to stick to an eating plan. I'm doing WW because, among my many sins, I bounce back and forth among plans, and with WW, you can pretty much fit any combination of foods, as long as you stay within points.
I've been heavy since I was 13, although not nearly as heavy as I thought then. I weighed 160 when I graduated from high school; I'm 5'8". I weighed about 175 when I graduated from college, gained another 20 my first year of working, bounced back and forth within a 30-pound range for years, then achieved my current magnificent proportions by gaining 5 or 6 pounds a year for the past 15 years.
In 1999 when I first came to 3FC, and the half-dozen or so times I've come back, full of enthusiasm and good intentions, the one thing I lacked was commitment. I have that now. I have to do this. I know I will not lose five pounds a day, much less a week, and that's okay. I know that I will not lose at a steady, predictable rate; that I will have a bad day now and then, but that does not give me permission to look for a new, better plan to start the next Monday so that for the next five days I won't have to worry about dieting. I will have to change habits, I will have to plan; I will have to examine what I'm doing every week and see what works and what does not.
Sorry this is so long! I've been reading this forum for several weeks, and am looking forward to getting to know all of you.
Stick around and share your journey.