I realized something recently- I still really have no idea why I was doing what I was doing before (eating terribly, letting myself stay at around 300 pounds).
Since this summer, I've had a number of turns for the better- I'm getting straight A+'s now (not that different from before, but still), I'm losing weight steadily, and I quit smoking about a month ago.

Nothing really changed in my life, if anything its gotten more stressful (money's tighter and that always makes my boyfriend and I argue more, and I have a much higher work load with my senior thesis).

I'm thinking that part of it is that I stopped hating myself so much, thinking that I couldn't lose weight or stop smoking or whatever. But I know I really need to spend time thinking about it.

So, for those of you who have been in similar situations, have finally had success in weight loss after yo-yoing or whatever, or success in other things, what's your story?

One thing that changed for me starting in about February this year is that I began getting more sleep, due to mostly giving up a hobby that was consuming a lot of time and keeping me up late at night. Once I started getting more sleep, I started feeling like I could change things. And then I did start to change things, including changing my diet beginning in May.

I believe getting enough high-quality sleep is pretty fundamental to our emotional and physical capacity to get stuff done, and in particular it's essential to weight loss.

Wow. I said the same thing. Why didn't I try to lose weight (for real) before. I'm just glad I've done it and gotten most of it out of the way. I really have no stories...just a lot of excuses. I'm just glad those days are over.

I don't know what made me flip... One day I just decided, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. And since then I have been doing so well even I'm astonished at myself. As for smoking, I figure one thing at a time for now.

On the Today show they've done a series on weight loss and the expert said most who lose have an "ah ha" moment... where it just clicks and they make the changes. So looks like you are having your "ah ha" time!

Better sooner than later!!

When I started losing steadily last year, it was one of the most stressful times of my life. Nothing around me was manageable and I felt like my life was spinning out of control faster than I could breathe.

I think for me, one of the things that happened is that managing my weight and my eating - my body- was the one thing that I could control at that time. So the more stressful my life got, the more I was able to manage myself ... and give myself something to hang on to.

.