Wow! Nice weight loss for just two weeks! That's awesome! Keep it up!

As for me, I'm still moving along nicely. I have taken this entire week off from exercise (9/3 - 9/9) because I went 9 weeks hardcore (Insanity) and I needed a recovery week for my body. As you all can see from my signature info, I only weigh once every 100 days because in the past, EVERY SINGLE TIME, I had become de-motivated by the scale numbers and ended up quitting way too soon. I've gotten to the end of 10 weeks this time because the scale was not in my life LOL! But, that's just me of course lol. I REALLY REALLY want to make it to 1 year and lose HALF MY BODY WEIGHT!

Really feeling like I am in an easy rhythm lately. Down 2.4 pounds this week. And it has been painless. I have incorporated some IF principles, so I don't feel obligated to eat when I am not hungry, or even every time I get hungry. So I always have calories for unexpected treats. I rarely eat them, but I am never white-knuckling. I am sure I will need to white-knuckle again from time to time, but it's exhausting, and nice to avoid when I can.

Also fighting an urge to be discouraged over something stupid. My swearing-in ceremony is 9/21 (assuming I passed the bar exam), and I want to be down 50 pounds since I last saw my law school class at graduation in May. This was never a goal. In fact, I have specifically avoided time-oriented goals. And it doesn't matter. And at this point, it won't happen. So I don't know why I am obsessing about it. Oh, weight loss. Even when we're on good terms, you mess with my mind.

I am in. I started August 1 by basically eating less than before and try to get in some exercise although that is difficult due to a recent health problem. (see my other thread) I may not do it fast this time but I hope to see 6 to 10 pounds gone a month. My goals are set to 10%. The first one being about 30 pounds. I try to each more plant based foods and protein each day. (9 days of hospital food threw me off balance for a few days.) 13 pounds so far. I would like to see 4 more by the end of Sept.

Better late than never right. My journey started July 27. I am not sure why but I picked tomorrow to start eating healthy. I think a few days before I saw candid pictures of myself in my daughters yearbook from school. SHOCKER. I knew I needed to do something. Another shocker was when I got on a scale and saw how much I weighed.

SO my year Commitment will be from July 27, 2012 to July 27, 2013. I will continue eating healthy after that but I don't think I will ever go back to eating a whole family size twizzler bag by myself . I see what that did to me. That plus sitting on my *** got me to 265lbs.

I am stubborn when I need to be and I will be stubborn about staying on my Plan.

Congratulations - you have made a very wise decision. I made my first one-year commitment on July 18, 2011 and I am convinced that doing so was a key factor in my staying on track for so long. When I did occasionally fall off track, I remembered my personal commitment.

I remember one time in particular, on the first Monday in January this year. I had gotten back from vacation the week before and had not done so well on vacation or in the remainder of the week I returned. On that Monday, my alarm woke me up at 4 am so I could head to the gym. I didn't want to go and thought about just going back to sleep. But I reminded myself that I had made a one-year commitment, so I got my butt out of bed and went to the gym - and had one of my best workouts.

On July 18, 2012, I re-committed for one more year. So I'm right there with ya, working on my two year commitment. Almost 14 months in!

I've also started a One Year Commitment and it will be from Labor Day 2012 to Labor Day 2013. I'm doing Weight Watchers but on my own, I find I prefer to do it that way. Good luck to everyone!

Lisha! So glad to see you here!

Coffeelover - welcome. I, too, don't really like the whole 'group weight loss' thing. Glad to have you join us.

KittyKat - what an inspiration you are. I hope to be able to duplicate your post next year, explaining to someone else how this helped me stay on track.

I had a no-loss week for only the second time since I started-though I have had multiple low-loss weeks. Going to tighten up and adjust strategy a bit, but I passed the bar exam! Will forever be a great week in my memory, and I may not even remember that it corresponded with a no-loss week. Cuz life is about way more than the scale. And the whole point of this commitment, at least for me, is to find a way to integrate weight loss with life.

Congratulations LaurieDawn, what an accomplishment!!

I've often noticed that low-loss or no-loss weeks are followed by big whooshes. I'm sure that's the case with your, well, even if not, who cares? You passed the BAR!!

WOW! CONGRATS LAURIE!! That is soooooooo awesome!!!! Yeah who cares about the low-loss week! The bar? This week goes down in Laurie-History! lol! Great job!!!

Maybe i'm trying to do too many things at once with dieting exercising and trying to cut ALL bad things out of my diet. Its like I want to change everything at once, and when I cant do that, I go back to binge eating.

I don't understand! I WANT to lose weight. I WANT to look at myself and be happy with what I see.

Can someone help me, maybe put me in the right direction as to where to start? I love veggies and fruit but they never fill me up. I just cant seem to get full of of the veggies/fruits. Should I work on one thing at a time...Like reducing sugar intake, or fast food? And when do I add another goal on, like once I reduce my sugar, should I start cutting out breads??? Im just so confused.

Please help!!!

Thanks, Louise and Angie! I agree. Bar passage trumps all! (But I would love a whoosh next week!)

Proaxis21,there is no 'right' way to do this. Some people do better changing everything at once. Others prefer to change one thing at a time. I would recommend reading through goal thread to seen how other people have been successful. Personally, I did multiple changes at once. And am now tweaking. It's allow about figuring out what works for you.

Proaxis - It sounds like making too many changes all at once might be a bit overwhelming for you, so maybe you should take your advice and cut out one thing at a time. Like Laurie said, some do go cold turkey all at once with everything but some don't. The key is finding out what works best for YOU.

Me personally, I started by calorie counting. I decided how many calories I would eat in a day, and I built my meal plans around that. I also decided that for me, I could not go cold turkey with desserts...so.....I had a VERY small dessert EVERY DAY at dinner time and doing that has not interfered with my weight loss or health in any way. I am still losing successfully. Also, I decided I would start an exercise program (I chose Insanity) and my plan was to just do MY best and continue to progess at my own pace.

Are you a vegetarian? If not, maybe add more lean protein because protein tends to keep you full longer. I'm the same way with fruits/veggies...they never fill me up.

Whatever changes you decide to make, make sure they are realistic for you so that you can continue them long term.

I started by really analyzing the reasons I have been overweight for the last 15 years (I'm 47, btw) and focused on correcting those things rather than than going head-first into some complicated plan. In the end, I knew I needed to focus on portion control, adding some structure to my eating, cooking at home more, and moving more. Over the summer I started working on these sort of one at a time, then on Labor Day, I pulled out my old Weight Watchers materials and started doing that, with some tweaks. Normally, I'm the type that pics the latest diet (usually a strict one) and does some kind of bootcamp fitness-wise that exhausts me and fill me with dread, but this time I'm being kinder to myself and making it more of a long-term lifestyle change. Well, at least that the plan, I only started the WW earlier this month! Overal though I don't recommend the 'all at once' approach if it's going to lead to all or nothing, binging, etc. That's what used to happen to me when I tried to do too much at once.

angieand2girls - where you from in Michigan? I'm here too - metro Detroit area.

Ok, I have read this post a few times and keep thinking. I didn't make it a whole year before but I plan to now. I will make a whole year commitment. My commitment started on 9/10/12. My commitment is I will do my absolute and level best to eat and act in ways that are HEALTHY for me. I won't be perfect. I will stall. I will have slip ups but I WILL get right back on track and forgive myself so I can continue on my healthy lifestyle. That is my commitment to myself! (Oh and I will blog about it all too hehe)

Hey Coffee! I guess I would be considered metro Detroit too! I live in Novi. How about you?