I'm new here, but I'm not new to this issue. I have been struggling with this since my first son was born almost 17 years ago.

Things are getting very serious for me now. For one thing, I'm watching my mother eat herself to death & get bigger & bigger everyday. I don't want to end up there, and I'm well on my way.

I'm turning here for support & motivation. Right now I'm looking for good tips for the first couple weeks to really give me that boost I need.

Any suggestions??

HEllo Free!! im a fairly new member here as well, and im just now restarting ..again... two small tings that have worked for me in the past, to get through the first few weeks... is ifnd the most horrid pic of ourself u can (we all have em lol) and keep it with u in your purse,take a lil peak at it when u need to... it shocks u back in to a very motivated state! also, writting down what u eat... its small w=but helpful, cuz when u see it all in writing... its a big push to eat better and less.

lots of luck!

Thanx BBM~
I need all the motivaters I can get. I actually had my husband take some not-so-lovely before pix of me this summer. I have to dig them out. I'm doing okay this morning. Well, not really.

I ate a mini Reese's peanut butter cup & two cups of coffee, full of Cream & Sugar.

My sense of healthy & what's good for me is really out of whack. It's almost as if my body has forgotten what it means to eat healthy, and sometimes I think I'm not even capable of losing weight anymore. Like I had my chance when I was younger & blew it. I lost 100 lbs. before. Maybe that was my only shot. I sure hope not.

Thanx again~!

Get the Reeses OUT of the house. Stock it with apples and bananas and such. Get your sugar from natural fruits. Remove the bag of sugar and replace it with a sugar substitute if you really must have it, but try your coffee without any sweetner if possible.

Go out and buy yourself a really nice and expensive outfit a size or two too small and hang it in plain view until the day you can wear it. If you feel the urge to eat at odd hours, get up and go shopping, or to the gym, or anything. But stay away from the kitchen. And make exercise a part of your daily routine.

We never have just one shot at losing weight. If we did, I'd still be over 200 pounds. Cause I've been on more diets than I can count, and none of them kept the weight off for more than a few months.

Excellent Advice!
Thank you & congrats on your weight loss! That's fantastic!

You do have a good chance. In fact, the more experience you have losing, the better chance you have because of all you have learned from past lessons. From what I have seen, it is rare to lose and keep it off the very first time. The odds are with you.

I too hang too small clothes around the house, except cheapie me gets 'em from the local thrift store.

My latest motivator is to put two 2 and a half gallon plastic bottles of water on a stool in the middle of the kitchen. Each 1 gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, so each of these larger water bottles full weighs 20 pounds. One in each hand weighs 40 pounds total. This is very impressive when you want to eat when not hungry, and you pick up those 40 pounds and imagine that its on your own body. You can empty a pint for each pound you lose.

In the beginning, I would not have been physically able to even lift all I had to lose, yet I was dragging it around with me every minute of every day.

Jan, h250/s215/c204/g?170?