[MadamePJ]

Hello All!

I'm new here. I found this site on the other day and of course the Title caught my attention ... lol ... I come from an obese family and I myself have been struggling with my weight since I was in middle school. I am now approaching the end of my college career. And I just can not go on this way anymore. My mother underwent Gastric Bypass on Jan of last year and has lost a total of 201 pounds since. But I can not see myself taking measures of that sort so I have decided to really search and focus on a plan that will help me obtain my goal of 150 lbs and maintain a healthy more satisfying lifestyle. I hope to learn and communicate with great people on this site as I start the Journey.

My Reasons For Losing Weight

To avoid diseases in my family
To fit into fashionable clothing
To join my college Tennis Team (I love Tennis!!!)
To gain self confidence
To be proud of of my body, and not ashamed
To become a better and more active member of my Sorority. Delta Sigma Theta!!!
To encourage my sister and other members of my family to lose weight

[ZedAus]

Good luck on your journey Madame. I'm sure you can do this without the surgery. I 'kinda' considered surgery... briefly... a couple of times, but never really seriously. I'm really not into pain and I wanted to try to have more control myself. Mind you, I still have NO idea what originally prompted me to actually go ahead and take this fantastic step to a new lifestyle. I just decided 2 years ago that I had to do something or I wouldn't be around to spend the MANY more years that I had planned to be with my new hubby. That was 175lbs ago and I know that I will lose the last 25 some time in the next few months.

It sounds as though you have reached the right mind frame for this, which is the first step in the right direction. The first thing I did was decide to bring no more junk food into the house. Once the junk was out of the cupboards and fridge, that was it! I still had treats outside of home, when they had special morning teas at the school where I teach, or when we went shopping. I don't even have those now, I'm just so used to not eating rubbish. My treats now are dried fruit, nuts, yoghurt, diet jello, low-fat icecream and fresh fruit and vegies.

People keep asking me if it was really hard to do this, but I truly don't think it has been. I had told myself that it wasn't an option, and I kept repeating this to myself when we went out or when we were shopping. "It's not an option Zelma" over and over again. Sometimes I think I even said things out loud when we were shopping, such as "You can't have that Zelma" as we passed the chocolates. I hope not too many people heard.

I have been lucky enough to become good friends with a mother of a student in my 2004 class. She is a dietician and has given me some fantastic advice. You may want to look at talking to a dietician, as she has helped me immensely.

Once again, good luck with this. I'm sure you can do it. Let me know if there is anything more I can tell you, although I've probably blabbed on enough already.

I'm posting a couple of pics of me which may show you that it CAN be done. I'm posting these all over the place, as I've only just recently actually SEEN where I've come from. I'm still kinda amazed by it all. The first pic is a 'before' and the second is a 'current', taken at Christmas. I'm hoping to be able to post an 'after' in a few months.

Take care,

Zelma

[MadamePJ]

Thank you for your kind words and encouragement Zelma ... You look amazing! Congratulations on your weight loss success ... I really do believe and know that it can be done ... by me this time!!!

[ejb180]

Madame,

First off welcome. I know together we can all get to our goals. If you need to reach out you can PM me or yahoo im me. I lost some weight in college I remember it was diffucult at times, but I kept doing every little thing I could. Going to the cafes between classes with friends - I would grab water or a black coffee instead of snacks. I huffed it up steps in every building. Learned to work out between some classes (since I lived off campus always had to bum a friend's shower at their dorm room). I wish you luck and I am sure you can keep it off; I did not make all the right choices after college, after getting married and having a child. So I gained it back plus some. But I now know years later that it is about choices and I am going back to my past choices and I know I can do it.

Good luck and take care,
E

[the slim me]

Just wanted to jump in and say good luck to you! Every one in my family is heavy too. I decided a long time ago that isn't the way I wanted to spend my life. I can't say it's been easy, i'm 58 and still struggeling. But i'm struggeling to maintain a size 6 and to be healthy, keep my blood pressue and colesterol down. The rest of the family says I didn't get their genes!!! But, I don't eat the way they do and I exercise. I could weigh 200 easily, if I didn't decide that I wasn't going to! So, yes, you can do it. Don't think that surgery is an easy way out. I'm an RN and i've seen a few that didn't do too well! It's a last resort thing.