Thanks so much everyone, your encouragement means a lot!!!
Sometimes it's easy for me to forget that I once weighed 360+, especially since it's been about 5 years since I've lost the weight. Looking back at old photos makes me cringe; not because I was so big, but because I remember how miserable I was at the time. And now I try to think about how much better I'll feel once I get more weight off. And it's comforting to know that I managed to lose weight before, so why not again? I already know what worked for me so I'll just have to stick with that and adjust as I go.
I think I have a lot more in favor this time. Although I'm really the only one responsible for what I eat and do, back then I had a couple of people in my life that were good at sabotaging me. Especially an ex that wasn't ready to make any changes to eat healthier and wasn't ready for me to make any changes either. He'd actually get angry at me for not wanting to binge on fast food with him, and I can't tell you how many arguments we had over food!
The final straw was him trying to talk me into eating something he *knew* I'd had bad reactions to (throwing up) and he actually pouted and blamed me for not being able to enjoy it himself.
Now I'm with someone that's being much more supportive. He understands this is something I need to do for me, that feeling healthier will make me happier, but at the same time insists that he'll love me no matter what size I am. He's also agreed to eat a little healthier himself and does not pressure me in any way on what I should eat.
Anyway, I've heard a lot about how people make ten percent goals so I did a little math and have broken down different points in my life; where I've been and where I plan on going based on losing ten percent of my weight from each previous goal:
- 360 (My highest weight ever and obviously the starting point, which is where I was at sometime in 2004.)
- 324 (This is about where I stopped consciously dieting, fall of 2004. Had a few false starts but never got back into the groove again like I have now.)
- 292 (No clue when I hit this, but was probably in early 2005. I continued to slowly lose weight without trying from my 320's to my super-long plateau of 285. Guess I got in the habit of eating enough calories to sustain that weight.)
- 263 (This is my first mini-goal now, and I'm not horribly far from it!)
- 237 (Ooh, second goal! And it's less than what I weighed throughout most of high school.)
- 214 (This is close to the lowest I ever got as an adult, which happened twice. Once when I was 19, and again in my early 20's. It will be heaven to make it there again and be out of plus-sized clothes!)
- 193 (If I remember right, according to my BMI I'll no longer be considered obese at this point!)
- 174 (When was I at this weight last, 7th grade?!)
- 157 (My official long-term goal is 150, but I'm willing to adjust that depending on how I feel as it's approached.)
- 142 (I totally wonder how I'd look and feel at this weight!)
Somehow breaking it down into smaller chunks like this makes this all seem much more attainable.
And thanks for the comments on my ticker! I was so excited when I was finally here long enough to have a signature, and I was super-excited last night that I was able to nudge Dory over a little to the right.