I'm Christine. I can't remember how long I've been here (take a peek at my thingy over there <--- ) I'm 38 years old, married to a very sweet, very fit fellow. We have two kids, 11 and 9. I lost 75 pounds pre-pregnancy (WW), but managed to gain it (and more) back after my second child. :(

Anyway, after seeing photos of me taken on vacation in 2007(?), I decided enough was enough and made a conscious effort to eat better and get more active. I'm not following any plan or even counting calories, which is why the weight is coming off so slowly. I'm okay with that, though, because it IS coming off. I do tend to plateau for long periods of time, though.

My favourite exercise activities are cross-country skiing, Zumba, and my treadmill.

Hi everyone,

I'm 28, grad student, single, live alone and I've been at 3FC since summer '08. I lost weight for the first time the summer of '06, by cutting back on protions and walking. I lost a lot of weight over that summer (I think probably too quickly, I didn't have a scale, but I remember barely eating and feeling completly tortured!). I fell off the wagon that fall, and gained it all back quickly.

Then summer of '08, I lost about 15 lbs, but fell off the wagon again that fall (pattern?).

Then, I came back mid-summer of '09 and have been here ever since, on the wagon, working hard. I started out calorie counting, but struggled with that, so went back to intuitive eating, using the knowledge from calorie counting to make sure I get enough calories. It's slow weight loss, but this is the only time I've managed to stick with it once summer was over, so I feel good about that.

I want to be at a healthy weight by the time I'm thirty. My main problem is binging and eating alone, so my main focus now is to not binge. If I don't do that, I've had a sucessful day. I've been binge-free for 82 days now! I go to the chicks in control forum a lot.

I don't post as much as I'd like, here and there, but I read every day!

I'm Stephy, 22 years old from New York City. I'm glad we're re-introducing ourselves because I had never gotten around to writing a bio before so I'll sneak a mini one in now ;)

I'm currently a full time student, majoring in Childhood Education, and working a not-so-pleasant minimum wage job at a supermarket. My boyfriend and I are currently eating healthier together, he's a great cook so I'm a lucky gal! I have to plan my meals a day ahead because of my schedule, and I constantly track on The Daily Plate. I'm currently taking winter express courses which are two 12 week courses crammed into a 6 week time slot (basically the same amount of work in half the time) and I'm in class from 12 noon until 10pm Mondays and Wednesdays. Next semester I'm taking 18 credits, so I'm trying to instill healthy habits NOW so I can just naturally prepare my meals to bring to school the night before instead of procrastinating and bringing a sodium-ridden frozen meal with me. Every other day of the week I work until midnight surrounded by high fructose corn syrup and friends tempting me with bad foods! I haven't given in yet :P

I started my journey last summer, but veered off track for a few months around October. I gained 10 pounds back, but recently lost it this month so I'm back to my grand total of a 30 pound weight loss. I have a long ways to go, and I probably wouldn't have even made it this far without the support of you chickies :]

My biggest downfall currently is exercise, I -want- to do it but either I can't fit it into my schedule or my back bothers me. I feel really great afterward, so I need to push myself and maybe even make an exercise schedule that I absolutely have to follow.

One last thing- I've heard of "Diet Buddies" before but do any of you have "Exercise Buddies"? To help stick to your plan and for support?

<3

I'm Emily, I'm 23, and I live in Atlanta, GA - my favorite place on earth, after Los Angeles. I'm a freelance writer and odd job taker (I drive around kids, tutor English, etc.), and am generally on the whole "trying to figure out life post college" path.

I've been married for three and a half years now to my high school sweetheart. No kids yet, but we do have a fantastic puppy named Sammy and a troublemaker cat named Zoe.

I've been heavy most of my life and because of that learned to accept myself and love myself the way I was. The number on the scale sometimes got to me, but it never defined me - yeah, I was fat, but I was pretty and smart and all sorts of other things too. But when my husband and I moved back to Atlanta in August after a miserable year in Phoenix, something clicked. I was happy after a year of being depressed and disappointed with myself and my environment, and I started to make positive choices: my apartment had a gym, so I went, I drank one coke instead of three, and I realized that I needed, and wanted, to treat myself better. In September, I bought a scale and started counting calories, and now five months in, I'm down 50 pounds. My biggest goal now is to be healthy enough to have a healthy pregnancy and start TTC.

Hi! :wave:

I'm Knobhdy. Not literally, of course. I have been on 3FC for several years now. I have been going down since last December (2008),:goodscale and so far have lost 26 pounds since then. For most of that time it was very slow loss, though.

I rebooted my exercise plan this January, and I am looking forward to getting under the overweight line before my birthday.
Currently I am counting calories, aiming for 1500 - 1600 a day. Exercising to exercise videos 3 days out of every 4, doing push-ups 3 - 4 times a week, and getting at least 2 days of martial arts practice each week. :lifter:

For me it is all about sticking with it and consistency. The more days "on" that I have the more days "on" I will have. The thing that makes me the most hopefully about this round of losing, is that when I slacked off this Spring, Summer and Fall, I did not gain any weight. I kept losing, albeit very slowly. That in and of itself is a victory for me. :yay:

I'm April , I'm 24 living in Maine at the moment (we move a lot) I have two kids ages 8 and 6. I live with my looooooong term boyfriend of 10 years. I'm a stay at home Mom or like I think of it 24hour Zoo coordinator :P
As a kid I've thought as myself as chubby then moved to Cali and started walking everywhere so I wasn’t for a while. Then I moved to Texas with my boyfriend, got pregnant and was stuck doing the domestic thing got bored, ate while I was bored and never really stopped lol. I never really had a grasp on my self image when I was skinny I thought I was fat and when I was fat I was in denial, when I wasn’t in denial I was depressed and overwhelmed about what I had let myself become.
New year, new you seems to be what I'm aspiring to do. I started the year with a better understanding of my problems and a REALISTIC strategy of getting them fixed. I have to keep reminding myself I didn’t get fat in a short period of time and it will take a while to take it off. My means of doing this is calorie counting and exercise. This is it, the time for change is now !! :)

I'm Rachael. I'm 33 and have a husband and a daughter. I'm getting ready to graduate from college and I really feel like this is my year to turn EVERYTHING around. I don't really know what else to say. ha.

I'm Daphine, 45 yrs old and moving forward with life. I live in Atlanta and I'm married to a wonderful, supportive and giving man, that's 12yrs younger than me. Yea, I know, I robbed the cradle. We have a little girl that we adore. I'm expecting to be a HOTTIE when this is over aside from being healthy. I feel very optimistic about my weight loss being permanent this go around because I have a plan for maintaining the weight loss. I set goals to be measured every 45 days for sure but I peek along the way to see how my progress is going.

My biggest challenge has always been getting to a point of being close to goal and too many compliments freak me out and I quit. Then before I know it the weight is back again with friends. I've been getting compliments and support from my husband and 3FC so it won't be so overwhelming for me. I guess it triggered a fear in me and I would gain the weight back because I couldn't face the fear of people liking me after losing the weight. Well now that that's settled I can complete the journey and maintain the loss for 80 more years. Yea that means I will live until I'm 125.

I'm Marge, 45, living in Brooklyn with long-time bf and overly spoiled cat Chloe.

I was heavy since I was a little kid, getting up to over 300 lbs as a young teenager. When I was about 16, I lost 100 lbs doing WW, then over the next twenty years, to synopsize it quickly, I went up and down (down when I'd go back to WW, then later Jenny Craig, then up after I'd quit the diets and go back to devil may care way of overeating). At one point I reached my ultimate high of 330. A few years back, I realized for health reasons I just had to get this under control. I'd already worked with counselors on the emotional/binge eating issues, I had to seriously tackle the bad eating habits and start creating some exercise habits. I pulled out my JC/WW information, started walking, and kept plugging at it, losing slowly, with one year when I basically maintained.

I started going to the gym once I got around 260, and I love it.

I've been dealing with some high stress issues right now, looking for a job, and I've been backsliding some, but I'm working on keeping my head about me and stop reaching for food to make me feel better. Coming to 3FC makes me feel better and helps me focus, reminds me to hang in there and keep chipping away.

I really enjoyed reading this thread, thanks for starting it, Sandi

Hello all, I've really enjoyed meeting you all and reading all your stories.

My name is toastedsmoke and I'm 23 years old. The last year has been pretty eventful for me, last January ('09) I was at my heaviest weight ever of 275 lbs (which shocked me into getting started and ever since my weight has kind of been in the forefront of my mind rather than something I ignore and don't think about). Also, I finished my Masters' degree, had a quarter life crisis when I realized that I was overqualified and under-experienced and that did not a good job hunt make, became a calorie-counting devotee, decided that academia was the life that suited me, applied for PhD programs, and then decided to move for work. Out of the Country. To another continent. Africa, where I proceeded to gain and lose the same 5-10 lbs over the subsequent months as well as lose complete control of what I put in my mouth.

Last year 3fc was really influential in motivating me and encouraging me and inspiring me to be serious about getting healthy. This year, I want to be in onederland by my birthday in June and at goal by Christmas. But to do that I have to get serious. I was a chubby baby, a plump child, and a fat adolescent, but that doesn't mean I have to be an obese adult. I've been off-plan for a couple of months and I'm trying not to let "tomorrowing" get in the way of getting back on. I can't calorie count (my preferred method) that effectively anymore, but I can make wiser decisions about what and how much goes into my mouth, as well as actually use my gym membership and exercise dvds.

My name is Valerie I live in Jasper Alabama and I have been a member here since 2006 I have tried many times throughout the years to lose the weight and have gotten to within one or two pounds of getting into the 100s then I sabotauge myself and gain the weight back. I guess I am scared of getting into the 100s and then going back up into the 200s. This time I am going at things differently I am not trying any crazy diets I am just eating "real" food and watching portion sizes. It has been about a month and I am already feeling better so I believe this is my time.

Hi everyone, great thread! I love reading everybody else's stories. It always amazes me how much we all have in common, even when on the surface our lives are so different. That's one of the things I love about 3FCs.

So, I'm 34 and live in NW England with my husband of almost 8 years and 3 cats. I'm a writer and teacher, passionate about local and family history. We moved to this part of the country for work more than five years ago, and we're far from both of our families (well, as far as you can be in England, which is about as far as my friends in the US would drive to the mall ;) ). I get to travel a lot for work, which is wonderful, but also challenging when it comes to making good choices. I've always been heavy, but was a sporty teenager, which kept it at bay (although I do recall going through a SlimFast phase at around 15, which ended abruptly when a flask of milkshake exploded all over my schoolbag in the middle of a class...). Through college, grad school and now real life, I've just gradually gained more and more weight. I was here about 7 or 8 years ago (on a different board), and when I decided to get serious again, this was the first place I came. I'm so glad I did!

Hi everyone, I am 59 years of age, widowed 5 years and (somewhat) unattatched at the moment. I have a thirty year old daughter. I have been an artist all my life... mostly as a singer, song writer, actor, milliner,and soap maker. I enjoy,gardening, studying about herbs for skin care and health, nutrition,and alterative healing.
I started putting weight on at the age of 6. My weight has gone up and down...but mostly up, for as long as I can remember. It has been a learning curve, but I think I'm finally getting a grip. I have decided that this weight is no longer acceptable to me, and I plan on reaching my goal of 140 lbs by Yuletide next year. I can't believe what a great source of hope and support, and inspiration I have found here at 3fc.

Hello! I am a single mother to an almost 17 year old girl, a full time college student studying psychology and behavioral medicine, working in a research lab, applying for graduate school, facing the GRE® (Graduate Record Examinations®) and focusing on my health and wellness.

I work part time as a massage therapist. I follow a mostly plant-based diet (I give in to dairy on occasion but nothing else, otherwise I could claim the status of "Vegan" ). I work out at the YMCA and am always looking for other San Diego people to connect with. :carrot:

I've recently recommitted to losing weight, getting fit and healthier to improve my overall happiness and well-being.

I want to lose over 100 pounds. I'm focusing on making actual positive lifestyle changes and creating (or reinstating) positive habits. Therefore, i'm not so intent on an actual number. I do think being under 200 pounds and a size 14 or 12 would feel so amazing though! For now, I'm hoping for that and to reevaluate at that point. ;)

3FC is helping me with focus and accountability. I am looking for ways to make it happen in my real life too, seeking out buddies, classes, activities and so on which can support my health and an active lifestyle.

I've been blessed to not have the negative physical conditions which often accompany being 300+ pounds; I have excellent blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. My goal is to continue to exercise, eat healthy, nutritious plant-based food and further decrease my risk of serious illness in the future.

I hope to get to know many of you better! :carrot:

Hi, I am Judy from Alberta. I am 50, happily married for almost 25 years, and we have two grown sons, a dog and a cat. I work as an Accounting Technician. It is boring, but pays the bills. I like traveling, camping, reading, surfing the internet, and some reality TV (and Lost!).

I have been overweight since childhood. I've lost weight successfully a few times. Most recently in 2000/2001 I lost 65 pounds on Weight Watchers and was doing really well at keeping it off for a few years until I injured my ankle & foot which put exercising on hold for quite a while. I got on a pity party, and the rest is history. I gained it all back plus about 15 extra pounds. I felt like CRAP! So, fast forward to April 2009.

I halfheartedly started to try counting points again and lost a few pounds. That summer I turned 50. It hit home that I was wasting my life being fat. If I didn't smarten up my whole life was going to pass me by while I was fat. And feeling crappy. I didn't want to return to WW for yet another attempt so I just started counting calories. And I got involved in 3FC, which has made so much difference. I still struggle with getting back into regular exercise. I can't believe I have lost nearly 50 pounds. :carrot: I don't count calories most of the time now. I guess I am kind of doing it intuitively. Whenever I need to buckle down though, I do start counting again.