How long is this @$#% road
 

Okay I have been on and off here for 2 years now. I am still fat well actually I am fatter. I have great intentions at first I post a few times, join a few challenges, and post on my blog....but then I stop coming, stop blogging and never check in on the challenges. WELL NO MORE !!!!

I am fat I am unhappy and I want to change! Blah blah I say that every time so what makes this different. I don't know I am just praying I stick with it this time.

Commitments to myself:
1. No Cokes
2. Count points
3. And come here every day!

I started on 6/27/10 officially THIS time and I am down 5 pounds.
I am strong, I am strong, I am strong!
How many times do I have to say it to make it true?

Just ranting

It will take as long as you never give up...likely a lifetime because you will get to goal and have to maintain the loss. HAPPY TRAILS!! Hang around I'll be here, mostly on the calorie counting threads.

angiemo3, welcome and good luck! Your story is so familiar to me. I joined 3FC in 2006 and did the same thing you are doing, lost a few , gained a few, did nothing at all for awhile, went on all kinds of diets for a few days and had lost nothing. Exactly one year later "something clicked" and I got serious and have now been at goal for 18 months. You can do it too!!

Ummm praying to stick with it won't do it, I'm afraid. You can pray from today till tomorrow, you've got to actually DO IT. You've got to work for it. And it sounds as if you're good and ready to do just that. You don't have to be fat if you don't want to. You DO have the ability to lose the weight, we all do.

Give yourself this wonderful gift. Once you get into it, pushing past the initial temporary discomfort of learning new habits, you will discover that this way of life is no hardship, no burden. The discomfort and burden comes from STAYING overweight.

One more thing I'd add to your list. Plan. Plan and then plan some more. Map out your food schedule in advance. Know where each and every snack/meal is coming from AHEAD OF TIME. This has been the key for me. "Failing to plan IS planning to fail".

Push yourself. Raise your standards. Require more from yourself. Reach. Stretch. Grow. Prosper. Discover who you were meant to be. Get excited. Because you can transform your life in ways you can't even imagine.

I look forward to hearing of your progress. :)

Sticking with it does work, even if you screw up sometimes. Have to keep going. It ook me almost 3 years but I am getting there... down 80 pounds now. Stay with it!

Personally, I borrowed a line from one of the stop smoking campaigns - "Never quit quitting". And for some reason after more than 20 years of "trying" to lose I figured out the right combination for me and am doing it.

Hello!

I love that you are making a commitment. I took that one step further and stuck a timeline on it so it didn't seem so overwhelming. I wanted to see where I'd be in one year's time if I stopped giving up. I was in the same pattern you are. So I gave myself one year's time of being on plan every single day without any excuses, including the scale. And this has been the most successful I have EVER been! Nearly eight months in, I have lost 60 pounds. Now you know at the end of that year, I'm going to be feeling pretty good and will also be pretty firmly entrenched in some new habits. Already I can tell you, I have this in the bag, no problem. This journey has finally become easy. ;)

I joined 3fatchicks in 2008 at 255lbs, and I am still not at goal. I lost 35lbs going from 255 to 220 and this year I went back up to 250lbs. Although I am not at goal Ive been working out consistantly for the past year come 7/17 and let me tell you I feel so much better about myself PERIOD! And I have not given up. I actually just started losing again. My problem has always been diet and not so much exercise. Diet is the most important thing imo and this is why I count calories and I do not buy tempting foods. I am one of those people who cannot just have ONE snack or cookie etc....lol but you get my point.

At the end of the day you have to take it one day at a time. And even though I havent made goal I feel closer because I have the physical fitness part under my belt. As long as you never give up and keep going you WILL make goal.

This road is the rest of my life, and I'm walking it exactly one moment at a time. Perhaps that sounds terrible, but what's the alternative? To keep medicating myself with sugar and get fatter and fatter, only to eventually develop diabetes and heart disease, then die miserable and regretful? That's not the life I want, so I create the life I want...one moment at a time.

Thanks ladies for you advice and support, I needed to hear that. You are all an inspiration and I look forward to hearing more about your progress as well.

I've done a good amount of yo-yoing in my time, but i decided this time that enough is enough. It's not enough for me to think about the changes that I want to make, I have to BE those changes and just do them.

I no longer look at losing weight as a short term commitment. This is for the rest of my life -- the changes that I'm making now will continue for the rest of my life, and honestly, knowing that this time there is NO going back has really pushed me to stay focused.

I have had my moments of being discouraged, they come and they go, but I remind myself that in a year, I'm going to look in the mirror and see the woman I've wanted to see for a long time.

One day [hopefully today], after all the stops, failures, discouragement will be the first day of the rest of your life. Stick with it even when it's hard and you don't want to keep going, make a commitment to yourself for six months and stick to it. Sign a contract with yourself, and for me, setting up a reward system with myself has been very helpful.

Plus, even though I just started posting here it's easy to see how supportive everyone here is, and how much that can contribute to us meeting our goals and then maintaining that weight for the rest of our lives.

Just keep telling yourself, the 'diet' and changes aren't just for today, tomorrow and the next day - they are for the rest of your life. :)

I think Eliana has it right: this road is about a year long, if you stick to it. You may not be at goal at the end of a year, but you will be in a totally new body, and once you are there, it's really a different journey.

The road is the rest of my life. I have to restrict myself one way or another---either I restrict the amount and types of food I eat or I restrict what I am able to do physically.

Welcome again!! :)

It is posts like yours that are the reason I come to this board in the first place. I am so glad you are here, no matter how many times you have been here. This is where you need to be! I'll steal a slogan from the most popular recovery group in the world: take it one day at a time. If you can't manage not being able to eat what you used to or having to exercise for the day, take it by the hour. It may sound ridiculous, but it works. Soon, you'll be updating us on all of your progress! Keep coming back here, stay accountable to yourself and your actions, believe you can do it and then (to steal another famous slogan) JUST DO IT!