Today is my weigh in day, and when I got on the scale I was down 3.5lbs this past week, which I am obviously really happy about and last week I was down 4lbs, which I am obviously really happy about.

I started this journey back in January. Initially my calorie intake was too low (1200), and I stalled out very quickly, which caused me to fall off the wagon. Then in February, we battled crazy bacterial infections in my house (between my 2 girls there was tonsillitis 4x, scarlet fever and impetigo), so I went off plan then too, and really, just picked up the gauntlet again about 3 weeks ago. Somehow, all those times I was off plan, I managed to not gain any weight back (I had lost a total of 12 lbs). But this morning, after seeing all the work that's gone into the last 20lbs loss, the enormity of my weight loss goal just really kicked me today.

Don't get me wrong, I am pleased with my 20lb loss, I am just realizing that I have only lost 1/7 of my ultimate intended weight loss...OH MAN! I have a loooooong way to go.

Patience is not one of my strong points, and anyone who knows me would agree with that statement. While part of me thinks "If I just cut calories more, and work out harder, it will happen faster" most of my brain knows that's not logical, and frankly, not really something I am interested in doing. I am not a work out until you throw up kind of person.

I have mini-goals spaced every 30-35lbs or so, am working towards my first one, at 265lbs, but other than that, how to you put your head into a good space and become resigned with the fact that this is going to take a while, and realize that is OK!

You didn't put on the weight overnight, so it's certainly not going to come off that way, either. Best thing to do is what you are doing, set smaller goals for yourself. Before you know it, you'll be at your goal

I'm really impatient, too

I manage by being a daily weigher, checking out 3FC a few times per day, and watching the biggest loser every week. I really need to be thinking about weight-loss often in order to stay on plan. I'm also much better with daily weighing because I have no patience weighing in only once per week!

You need to read my goal story in my signature. It explains in better detail what I'm about to say.

Patience is not my thing. I did the "If I just cut calories more, and work out harder, it will happen faster" thing and guess what. It didn't work! I had a tendency to make weight loss too hard by doing exactly that and always there came a day where I realized I was putting a whole lot in for not a whole lot coming off. See, "less" and "more" doesn't actually make the weight come off faster. You'd think it would...but it doesn't.

What I did was make a one year commitment to myself. For one year I decided to stay on plan no matter what. That, in a nutshell, is all it took. I no longer needed patience because it didn't matter. For one year I was eating on plan foods and I was getting in at least my minimum routine at the gym.

I remind myself....what is the alternative? I can pout about my slow weight loss and about how unfair it is and do nothing. Or, I can accept my body for what it is and deal with it. If I keep plugging along, eventually I'll arrive at the same place as those who lose quickly. No, I don't like it. But, I don't like being fat, either.

By not setting goals.

Or by having a general goal, easy to meet.

I said to myself, "I'm so heavy, I'm edging out of the 250s. At this point, anything that I lose is going to help my health. So my goal is going to simply be 'less.' When I stand on the scale every Friday, my weight has to be lower than the previous week. I don't care how much lower, but it has to be lower & keep going lower until ... oh, I don't know when. But at this point, I just need to reverse this trend of getting bigger gradually & turn it into getting smaller."

Putting much less pressure on myself worked. And I started making all kinds of gradual modifications to make that number go lower. Success led to success & it gradually picked up momentum.

This is NOT generally how I do things -- I am very deadline-driven, very much an overachiever at work -- and my previous failure to lose weight was due to my being unable to reach my very high standards for myself.

I learned a lot from this, not just for weight loss, but as a general strategy for my life & for long-term projects.

I'm all about goals that don't involve the scale.

Maybe that's an exercise goal (30 pushups in a row? A mile in a faster pace than what you can do today? A certain number of days of exercise in a row or a number of minutes of exercise in a week/month? A new endeavor, like yoga or swimming?).

Sometimes it's a "days on plan" goal - X days in a row, OP during weekends, etc.

I make these goals pretty attainable, meaning I can work toward them in a shorter period of time. Then, no matter what my scale is doing, I can work toward those goals. This was helpful when losing, but is even more helpful at maintenance, because even if my goal is the rather boring "keep the scale around the same", I'm still working toward goals on a daily and weekly basis which keep it exciting.

I know how you feel- I am impatient as well and it's caused me some downfalls. I try to not weigh in more than once a week so that I don't get discouraged- I go by how my clothes feel more. Right now my size 14s right out of the dryer fit fine soooo that lets me know I'm still doing good

I am very impatient and want things done ASAP. But my body cannot lose weight that fast. And I don't want to starve myself to lose it quickly either.

So I just have to put my weight loss into a long term goal situation.
I take it one day at a time, and this has been working for me.

But it is still so very slooow and frustrating.

......

I think another thing to consider is that when you lose all the weight, your plan won't change all that much. So it really doesn't matter how long it takes you because you plan will look pretty much the same after you lose the weight too. I only lost 1 lb this week. Considering my current weight that seems pretty ridiculous to me. However, when I look back at the past week, I stayed on plan every day and was as active as I could be, so I will take it, smile and move on.

Like most of the other posters I look at this as a long term change
so the short term results aren't the goal, theyre just part of a process that needs to last for the rest of my life. Also, the alternative of either dying from a weight related illness (or even becoming incapacitated from one) or having to have weightloss surgery to become healthy again scare the pants off me. I indulge my OCD nature by planning planning tracking and measuring. The amazing thing I've found is that if I just do what the plan says, the weight comes off exactly as the plan predicts. Maybe not week for week, but over each 6-week interval that I've specified. I don't know why this is so amazing to me, but it is, and it makes me think the really long term goal of healthy weight is doable, even if I'm still 130 pounds away today. Good luck!

I am the most impatient person I know, but I have been successful despite this. From the get-go I was not number focused, but rather time and event focused (in truth, right now I am counting down to being 'overweight' in 4 pounds and it is going SO SLOW - I totally regret getting myself into a headspace where the number is important). This is not to say that I didn't have number based mini goals - they were just SO secondary to the process as to be non-events.

Like Eliana above, I told myself "I will do this for one year and then be done with it". I was able to stick to my 1-year plan easily and lost a lot of weight in that first year. I also had several events and trips during that year, so my mini goals centered around "how awesome am I going to look when I go to X event"... never a number, alway open ended.

My 1 year mark has come and past, and I decided to go another year. I have 3 number based goals now, and I feel like everything is going slower because of it as I mentioned above. On the other hand, I also am working on some exercise goals which are keeping me going pretty strong when the scale is being discouraging.

On bad days? I stomp my feet and punch and whine and pout.
On good days? I say, "I am doing the best I can and that's all I can ask of myself."

I think it's wise to remember that you didn't gain it overnight so you won't lose it overnight BUT in general, that doesn't help me because I feel like I didn't TRY to gain the weight so it wasn't a conscious thing.

Now I feel like I try so hard that the weight loss fairy should come down and haul away 25 pounds each week. But alas, she doesn't exist or she does but her name is Lipo.

I'm impatient too, and sometimes it just plain sucks. No bones about it. You work your butt off, say no to a thousand treats, really TRY, and boom, still have 100 pounds to lose. Some days I'd say WHAT'S THE POINT??

Then other days I'd see a ticker that said "a year from now, you'll be glad you started today" and stuff like that, made me feel better. Just think, that's TWENTY pounds you never have to deal with again, gone!

some days it's one foot in front of the other and tell the world to BITE ME lol and other days it's easier!

I constantly have to remind myself that time is going to pass either way, so I may as well lose weight slowly along the way. It has taken me 4 years of being on and off plan to lose the weight I have so far, so I've definitely had to gain some patience as I've gone along.