[Starting Over Again]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading your CORE posts for a few days ... what a wonderful, supportive group you are! Vickie was already kind enough to welcome me so I hope you all won't mind if I continue to follow your efforts. I've never done WW via the meetings route ... at least not since my 20's .... many, many years ago when all you could eat was tuna and other horrible things! I'm making an attempt to follow CORE but it's a hit and miss thing since I'm not sure I want to fork out the bucks for the on-line program again. Mostly I'm piecing together a meal plan based on the recipes I've collected from here and by adapting some of your menus.

Just a little about me ... soon to be 46, married with one 13-year-old daughter. Like Vickie, I've been overweight my entire life (except for a few brief moments following birth! ). I was very close to having WLS when I decided to give WW a try during the summer of 2002. It was slow but steady and I managed to lose from 287 to 190 in a year by participating in the WW on-line program. I hit a stall for many months but didn't regain anything. Well, when I quit smoking in May, 2004, I lost all eating restraint and I'm back up to 277 as of this moment. That is so distressing to me and I almost feel too overwhelmed to even try again. It was so tough to lose those pounds the first time and now to have to do it all over again because of my own stupidity. So, I keep having a daily "gut check" talk with myself ... I've had to abandon my smaller clothes and buy some more plus-size clothes (since I gave all my old ones away, blithely certain I would never need them again!). All my bodily aches and pains have returned with a vengeance so I know the extra weight isn't good for how I feel, either physically or mentally. I know I've GOT to lose the weight ... I just can't seem to stay focused on any short-term or long-range plans on HOW to lose the weight.

Forgive me for rambling on so long ... this is the first time I've put my frustrations down so thanks for listening to me vent. I hope y'all don't mind if I use you as my role models ... I know that none of us are perfect but somehow, I've fallen back into that horrible dieting mindset that I've "blown it" if I eat something that's not healthy so why not just continue to eat like a madwoman? I'm got to retrain myself to think differently and I think I can do it with your help!

So thanks again and good luck to all of us!

Deborah

[Froufy]

Hi Deborah - as you know the more the merrier - would love to have you here!

I can relate to the "overwhelming" part of losing weight - up until recently I was at the "why bother" stage...and had just given up. Of course those aches and pains that we all have were becoming more and more obvious...and my blood pressure was borderline high....so I finally decided I needed to do something about my health if nothing else! It does help to make small goals - I try not to think about the TOTAL amount of weight I need to lose - but just working on first 10%.

Hang in there you did it once - YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN! We are all here to help each other achieve our goals!

Froufie

[jenne1017]

Congrats on quitting smoking! What an accomplishment!

I quit 3 years ago come this July and it's been the best thing. But I did gain weight. A lot of it. I was up to 251 in March 2003 when I started to take control and lose some weight. It's been coming off slowly. But I stalled and am now going to try WW. I've never done it before.

But it's so great that you quit!!! Very proud of you!!!

[Katpo]

Hi and welcome!! You will really enjoy it here -- jump right in and don't be shy at all.

And you should be very proud of yourself for giving up smoking! Don't overlook that victory! I feel honored that you were able to pour your feelings out to us. It's a hard thing to admit that we've lost control of ourselves. I know I've been there in the past with other ... um, shall we just say "vices"?? that nearly sidelined me and I had to get pretty low before I realized I needed to change things.

Please stick around and make yourself at home. We're all basically new too, since Core is a relatively new concept, and we're all still learning not only the program itself, but what works for us individually.

[mals1]

Welcome to the Core Board! Its nice to meet you.

[Vickie]

Deborah, please don't give up. I've still got 127 pounds to lose. I'll be here for a long time because I'm not giving up this time. We'll help each other. Take it a meal at a time, a day at a time. If you screw up a meal get right back on at the next meal. The girls will tell you that I LIVE to change my "chick". Five pounds at a time. Forget how much you have to lose or it will be too overwhelming. I'm just shooting for my 25 pound chick. It's good that you vented. Saying it out loud or writing it down means you are really ready to start. We'll do what we can to help.

[Starting Over Again]

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I've been hard at work all day ... finding Core recipes. I'm going to plan some menus for the rest of the week and might actually try my hand at some of these cornmeal recipes. I'm not much of a cook so we'll see what we see!

Have a great rest of the day everybody!



Deborah

[Vickie]

Deborah, check out www.barbosdietkitchen.com. Search on Core and you'll find hundreds of great recipes. I love to cook and have found several good ones there. I can recommend some if you like. Definitely check out the Smothered Barley Chicken. It's very filling comfort food, makes alot and freezes very well. I don't use the cinnamon or mint but I add extra garlic. Yum.

[Starting Over Again]

Hi Vickie,

I printed off a good many recipes from there as well as some I found at DWLZ.com. I would love any recommendations for any recipes you've tried that aren't too exotic. My pantry doesn't carry a wide variety of spices and such! I've been a little disappointed in some of the things I've tried from the WW site ... they were so much work and tasted pretty horrible when all was said and done. When I was dabbling with South Beach a few months back, I did try some of their bean dessert recipes ... surprisingly, they weren't half bad! Who would have thunk it? I made couscous last night and wasn't too impressed ... what do you do to give it some flavor? I hate to spend 200 calories (I know we don't watch the calories but I had to peek when I was making it!) for a cup of mealy stuff like that!

Deborah