I know, at least in my own experience, I have had many "false starts", or attempts at weight loss that I didn't follow through on. Reading over some threads, I've noticed that other people have done the same.

What are you doing DIFFERENTLY this time around to ensure that you WILL lose the weight this time? What are you doing to ensure your success, both in weight loss and in maintenance?

Here's my list:

1. I'm on 3FC now -- having a supportive community helps tons!
2. I have told my family and friends that I have lost nearly 10 pounds, and that I plan to lose 15-20 more. Accountability! It's a little scary now that other people ask me how the weight loss is going, but it really helps keep me on track, because I want to have good things to report.
3. Now that my mom knows, I consult with her about recipes, strategies, etc. (She herself was morbidly obese, lost 132 pounds and is now healthy -- I could learn a few things from her!)
4. I'm doing a weight-lifting program instead of just doing cardio.
5. I'm writing down EVERYTHING I eat, even on days that I binge (which is something I'm still struggling with).
6. I make an effort to eat everything mindfully.

What's your list?

Hey there!

I would say some of the main things I'm doing differently this time around include:
1. Joining 3FC as well! It helps to talk to people out there going through the same struggles as you, and it's a great place for advice!
2. Tracking what I eat (and its calories)
3. Making healthier choices and saying no to unhealthy food options (therefore letting others know I've moved away from that..)
4. Mixing it up with the workouts (instead of sitting on a stationary bike only :P)
5. Setting mini-goals for myself and rewards for when I reach those goals..the rewards are all things I really really want and luckily for me, I have the willpower to stop myself from obtaining those things without reaching my goals!
6. Letting my parents know that I'm going through this so they're supportive

That's all for now, and I hope its enough for me to reach my goal..

Okay, here is my list. It might get a little long.

1. Working with a therapist on my food addiction has been a huge help. It has made me understand why I eat, instead of just unrealistically trying to stop without working through the issues behind it.
2. This community! Having a place to check in every day has been amazing.
3. My PCOS. A health scare does wonders for weight loss, and I am determined to be healthy again.
4. Knowing how to cook this time around. I was barely out of college the first time I tried South Beach, and I hated the food I could eat. Now that I can cook and season and spice things, I am loving it.
5. Accountability. Everyone I know understands that I am doing this, and I give them weekly reports about what I lost. It is like having a personal cheerleading squad at the office!
6. Exercise has become non-negotiable. Which sounds funny, but it's been a huge part of keeping me motivated.

I'm doing the same thing this time that I did last time because it worked. The problem wasn't what I was doing . . . . it was that I stopped doing it!

Calorie count -- write it down until you get good enough at it to do it in your head. I found that this happens fairly quickly and unless it's something I"m not used to eating or something like a casserole it's not too hard to do. Some folks do better always writing it down; I'm lazy in that respect and prefer to keep track in my head.

Exercise 5-6 days/wk -- I never did get out of the habit of exercising but I did get out of the habit of doing intense enough workouts and exercising that 5-6 days/wk. Working on it.

Pay attention to what you are putting in your mouth -- this is thee main reason why I gained back 12 of the 22 lbs I lost. I simply stopped paying attention. What, like I thought I could keep the weight off while I downed bags of Doritos or M&Ms? lol, ah no.

Mentally prep yourself -- ok this is where half my battle is. Getting into the right frame of mind helps me immensely, rather than just piddling along. Making it a priority and doing it. I've been pep talking myself for a few weeks even before starting in ernest on the calorie counting and such. Your frame of mind determines your outlook on everything.

1) EATING MORE, and making changes gradually. My mom's idea of a diet is "binge all weekend and then eat 900-1200 calories a day until desired results are achieved". For me, raised on this, losing weight meant being hungry ALL THE TIME: even if there weren't stomach pangs (and those usually stop), I was cranky, emotional, had no attention span, and absolutely no patience. I couldn't do my job correctly and was a horrible wife. Losing weight was never worth that. This time, I eat a LOT--started at 2200 calories, and even now I am losing comfortably at 1500 calories. I'm still me, not crazy starving woman. It's amazing.

2) Being open-minded. I had a thousand rules about what I did and didn't eat, about what I had to have, about what I couldn't stand. This time, I threw all those out and tried everything.

3) Accepting that this is going to be a pain in the a$$ sometimes. I always wanted to make it easy: eating processed crap because it was already counted out and measured, mainly, and if it got complicated, I tended to make exceptions. But this takes a certain amount of work: planning, preparing, and anticipating. If it's 9:30 at night and I realize I don't have anything good for breakfast, I put my clothes back on and go to the store. I never, ever want to do that, but that sort of extra effort makes a big difference.

4) Realizing that "putting something first" does NOT mean "putting something first after everything else". I'd say my diet was a priority, but it really wasn't: if I was invited out to dinner with co-workers, I'd think "I don't want to be the weird freak who doesn't eat" I'd feel obligated to go to a school play, but it would interfere with my exercise plans, and so I'd go to the play so as to not disappoint my students. We'd be have company over and they'd bring cookies and I wouldn't want them to feel rejected if I didn't eat any.

This isn't to say that other people's feelings aren't important, but the fact of the matter is that these are pretty mild feelings on their part (mild disappointment or confusion, if they even noticed) and pretty major consequences on my part (constant self-loathing and early death, eventually).

Similar to other's experiences here.

<--------- See that join date over there? Since 2001 I've been coming to this community and joining groups, jumping in feet first, getting burned out, slinking away (and staying away) in shame that I can't stick to it.

I have been fat my entire life, not just my adult life, but since infancy. So I have no past perfect to compare myself to. I just have this wishful dream in my head of what being thin will look like, feel like, be like.

Reading other's stories, the goal stories, the struggles that everyone faces, really helps me to know I'm not alone. It is OKAY to have a bad day, or binge, as long as you don't let it derail you forever.

I have learned to dust myself off after I eat something off plan, and say I'm not waiting til tomorrow to get back on track, I'm getting back on track right now.

I also learned about my body, slowly since last November, that I need to eat a LOT more than I was eating, volume wise, and reduce the calories drastically. I was typically eating 5000 calories a day, just 2 meals and one snack. Liquid calories anyone?

Doing all this learning about myself has been painful, and painfully SLOW, but this is the right way for me. Small changes, baby steps if you will, until those become habits, then a few more small changes.

If I'm going to have a sustainable for LIFE lifestyle, I can't start on day one and expect things to flow along smoothly, I needed to examine the whys and the hows first. Learn, learn, learn. You'll figure it out!

Well,I've joined 3FC, I'm doing Weight Watchers, and I'm mixing up my exercise routines.

Joining 3FC was this biggest thing for me. Not only does it make me accountable, but it also lets me see that everyone else has some similar struggles.

My past attempts to lose weight always included "Can't have this, can't have that" and would go ape sh*t on it after a while of denying myself. Now, I allow myself to have basically anything I really find worth the extra workout. Most crap food I really don't want now anyway. I ate pizza yesterday. Does that happen often? No. But it does happen and I don't kick myself stupid for it. I knew I didn't want to do WW again or calorie counting because it's not something I could maintain with the counting for a long time.

The other thing is exercise. I don't let myself excuse out of it. I have my designated nights and I go. None of this "But I'm sooo tired. I'll just go to sleep now and go tomorrow" crap I use to give myself. I've missed one day in the last 8 weeks because I was truly too sick to go.

---Thinking about maintenance behaviors while in weight-loss mode

---Finding middle ground between on and off plan. Off plan used to mean a lot of binging and "giving up" on days. Now I have many in betweens where I am not perfect but no where near old behaviors either.

---Redefining how I think of "special" days/events, just made a lengthy post on this in my thread, but it's been key for me.

NUMBER ONE: I am seeing a shrink. I have had two sessions with my Dr. so far and I can tell that this is going really make the difference this time.

Two: I am realizing it is more about the little changes. Like exercising for 20 mins, 3 times a week is better than nothing - instead of my past attitude of feeling like I had to do 1 hour, 6 times a week or else I would never see results.

Three: Focusing on the positive rather than the negative. Instead of focusing on what I should NOT be eating, I am focusing on what I SHOULD be eating: so I focus on eating my veggies everyday and on drinking more water, rather than on beating myself up for having dessert on Easter.

Agreed with all above, just wanted to add:

- Not thinking I have to lose SO fast. I use to get discouraged if I didn't lose 5 llbs. a week. Obviously that was not healthy, or sustainable. Now I'm happy with anything but a gain

1. I watch what I eat, count calories. I never use to do that. I would just eat whatever and whenever.
2. I exercise. 5 days a week. If it's "low" or "high" whatever, I just exercise. I never did that either. I remember I use to like do one day of exercise and the next day I just stopped because I was "too tired". Well no more, I exercise at least five days a week.
3. I'm on 3FC. Before I was alone, and now I have this website full of hundreds and hundreds of people who are and have been where I am now. And we're all in it together.
5. I'm motivated. Before it was never for me I use to just want to lose weight for other people for all the people who were calling me fat and not happy with the way I was. Well look where that got me? Now I'm doing this for my own benefit.

The only major difference is seeing maintenance, not just rapid weight loss as "success," and refusing to see small losses or even small gains as failure or premonitions of failure.

I don't only get to celebrate each new loss, the maintained weight loss is worth acknowledgment too.