Hi
I'm Colleen I have lost 42 pounds since August 4, 2006 and have been off my diet since October. I was just kind of doing it on my own and I did really well until I slipped then it just went down hill from there. I have been lurking here for a few months and have been thinking that this is just what I need to get some encouragement to get back up on the diet horse. I had lost 46 pounds but have gained back 4 pounds since I slipped and have been really struggling since then. I would really like to get down to 130 but in the short term I would like to just get past the 200 pound mark hopefully by Dec 31 so I can start the new year off right but I will really just be happy with finally sticking to my diet again.
I feel really bad physically when I overeat and emotionally worse. I need to do this for myself and my kids. I want to feel good and have energy again. I am only 5 feet tall and I can't carry all of this weight. My doctor has just told me that I have rheumatoid arthritis so I can't walk anymore atleast until it gets warmer here....uuuuuuggggghhhh
Hi and welcome. Great to see someone else from Oklahoma here. Give yourself a big pat on the back for keeping off 42 lbs. That is fantastic. This site has been incredibly supportive and encouraging for me and I know it can be for you too. It's great that you want to get the scale moving down again and be back on your way to a healthier you.
Welcome! I'm struggling to get under 200 lbs. also. I've been about 10-15 lbs. away for nearly SIX MONTHS! I've had a lot of emotional issues, too, which have gotten me off track. I'm OK now and getting motivated to reach ONEderland ASAP!
Losing weight I have found is about so much more than just picking the right foods or the right exercise. It's also a lot more than having a PLAN. There are so many things that can get a person off track along the way! Besides emotional issues there are husbands with fast metabolisms that can eat A LOT more than we can and not gain. There are yummy foods that just TASTE GOOD! There is the fast pace of motherhood that makes life a blur most of the time. There's also this stupid thing called "priorities" that means that we hardly EVER even THINK of putting ourselves first.
I found that in order to even be remotely successful at weight loss I needed to be a bit selfish. That was tough, but I finally realized that if I wasn't going to take care of myself, nobody else was!
Don't worry about a gain of four pounds! That's NOTHING compared to all the weight you have LOST! It also is no reason to feel badly about yourself. Weight will fluctuate 2-4 pounds easily. The important thing is that you have "been off your diet" and not gained much at all! That means that your body has gotten used to being that weight and is maintaining it pretty easily.
My recent stategy is on a thread called "My New Strategy" and after one day is working well. I got motivated to do my step aerobics with Gilad (LOVE that guy!) this morning and finally figured out the "turn step" also. I had a small portion of pasta and a big salad with just a bit of balsamic vinigrette for lunch. We have a party to go to in an hour, so I was happy with myself to eat BEFORE I went to the party. This way I can have some diet pop and spend my time TALKING instead of being STARVED and eating all the goodies!
You will find that you will feel better when you lose a few more pounds and your arthritis will feel less achy. I also have arthritis and find that losing weight and MOVING MORE plus Arthritis Strengh Tylenol (!) seems to be the ticket!
Good luck on your journey! I'm right there with ya on the way to ONEderland!
Hi and welcome. Great to see someone else from Oklahoma here.
I'm in B/A. Where are you? It is good to see some else from Oklahoma I was starting to think that there was only skinny people here! I see now that you are one of those skinny people now congrads to you!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheryl14
Welcome! I'm struggling to get under 200 lbs. also. I've been about 10-15 lbs. away for nearly SIX MONTHS! I've had a lot of emotional issues, too, which have gotten me off track. I'm OK now and getting motivated to reach ONEderland ASAP
I get worried, upset, hurried anything emotional really sets me off to just "fix" it with food.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheryl14
I found that in order to even be remotely successful at weight loss I needed to be a bit selfish. That was tough, but I finally realized that if I wasn't going to take care of myself, nobody else was!
This is where a good part of my problem comes in I just can't seem to find time to exercise when I was walking I had to get up at 5:15am and be back by 6:15am to wake up my kids for school so I was always worried about not getting back on time and could have walked more but went home so I wouldn't be late.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheryl14
You will find that you will feel better when you lose a few more pounds and your arthritis will feel less achy. I also have arthritis and find that losing weight and MOVING MORE plus Arthritis Strengh Tylenol (!) seems to be the ticket!!
Now that sounds good just not sure how to do it being stuck in the house until the warmer weather hits. I can't keep up with the videos and get fusterated really quickly with them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheryl14
Good luck on your journey! I'm right there with ya on the way to ONEderland!
I am really really want to be there before new years! So sticking to my calorie count is really important right now.
Thanks this is great if you have any suggestions please give them to me.
Hello and welcome, Colleen!! Congratulations on being off your diet for so long and not gaining more of it back! That is a huge accomplishment!!! I think it's great to set short term goals, but are you sure that 22 pounds is a healthy goal for less than a month? At least for the first few months of a diet, I lost faster (like you losing 46 pounds in a couple of months), but then it leveled off to about 8-10 pounds a month if I was lucky and that was with daily exercise. Anyway, I don't want to discourage you, but would hate to see you be disappointed for losing about half that by 12/31, which is something to be super proud of during the holiday eating season!
Anyway, please stick around you are MOST welcome here!!!
I've been really motivated by my new jeans that I bought PURPOSELY a bit snug. I never did this before because I always was thinking negatively..."Get them a little bigger so they will fit for awhile" translated into "Buy them bigger so there STILL will be room for an extra slice or two of every good food out there".
This time I am thinking POSITIVELY. Also today I tried on all my jeans and pants and folded up the loose ones to give to The Salvation Army. I am NOT going to sabotage my efforts by having them to draw on "in a pinch" because that's what kept me in the same place for so long!
Our weather is very cold here, so I have been relying on DVDs. I like Gilad's Step Aerobics, Turbo Jam, and Leslie Sansone's 4 mile Super Challenge. I also love that I can do them anytime, and I really keep some weird hours!
I used to walk for years, but I found that my body was getting too used to the pace. I needed to really step it up to burn more fat. The exercise DVDs that I use get me really sweating!!!
I've been watching my portion sizes, too. I have been SHOCKED to realize that the amounts I have been eating have been MANY times more than ONE serving! Yikes!!! No wonder I wasn't losing weight!
I journal, too. I write down all the good things that I do and praise my successes. I reward myself with NON-food "prizes" like new clothes, CDs, make-up etc.
Thanks CLCSC I know that it is alot to shoot for and am thinking about changing it to 12 pounds that does seem more reasonable. I hate that it takes sooooo long to take it off.....
Cheryl I have to loss about 5-10 pounds to fit in to the jeans I bought before I gained back those ugly 4 pounds I got them fitting snug then gained 4 pounds and now snug is too tight...oh well thats motivation! I can't seem to keep up with the videos I have been toying with the idea of getting a stationary bike but will not have the money until after Christmas. Portion sizes are a big thing with me I had found a web site that shows what the size is supposed to be and how much arger it is now...wow
Last edited by DramaQueenLucy; 12-03-2006 at 02:14 PM.
Hi Lucy!!! I'm so happy to meet another 5 footer!!! We are a rare bunch, no? Vertically challenged is not fun. I've always said if I were a half a foot taller, I wouldn't be so darn overweight, all right overweight, but just not as much. But that's my lot and I've got to deal with it. And I also have arthritis. And I also want to do this for myself and my 3 kids. We have much in common. Oh yeah, exercise, not really my forte' either. My daughter needs the computer now so I miss get off, I'd certainly like to "talk" to you some more but it'll have to be another time.
Let me just say a congratulations on the 42 pounds - awesome. And also I am so glad that you're here, I think we can really help each other. Looking forward to getting to know you better.
All right she's really pestering me now, I mean she does need it for studying.
Okay she let me back on for a sec. We have got to, got to, got to remember that this weight did not come on overnight. For me it's been about 21 years, I'm 43 now, started packing on the weight after marriage. So for me it took a couple of decades to put the weight on, it's just impossible for it to come off so quickly. Remember we are in this for the long haul not just a quick fix. And I don't know about anybody else but for me the time is actually flying, I mean just yesterday it was the summer and then I turned around and it was Labor Day and now its...........almost Christmas. So yeah, time is flying and before you know it we could be at the weight that we want to and NEED to be. Remember we're all in this together and WE CAN DO IT!!! We just need a little patience and and a lot of determination!!! I'm up for it, I really am, come on WE CAN DO IT!!!
Colleen, I live in a small town just outside of Ft. Smith. Near Poteau. Thanks for calling me "skinny". I'm really not. Could definitely still need some work on flattening the tummy. I'm trying to maintain for a full yr. then may try to lose a little more or decide that I'm happy where I'm at. Maintenance is hard for me and I tend to lose or gain more than maintain. I'm still a work in progress.
With me I have lost only what I gained in the last 3 years other then that I haven't seen ONEderland since 2000 and even then I was over weight just not like this. Before 2000 when I was in my twenties I was always around 165 pounds. I know that it took many years and 2 pregnancie to put it on but it just seems so much harder to take it off. Time does go by pretty fast when I had fallin off my diet I thought it was only for a few weeks yeah well if a few was 7 then I guess so...
Another thing that I added this time around was lifting weights. I have always been pretty strong...mom and I used to move furniture around from one room to another even when I was a kid, and my husband has been in one band or another since we met FORTY-FIVE years ago (we were 10), and I have been a roadie ever since. Those PA speakers can be pretty heavy...
Anyway, I added weights to my plan, and I have noticed that by increasing my muscle mass even ever so slightly that my metabolism increased. I can eat more without gaining weight. That is a BIG plus for me because I really CAN down quite a bit!
I like my Iron Yoga DVD with Anthony Carillo. He really helps you to develop good technique, and the weights (3-5 lb.) add challenge as well as increase muscle AND build balance.
As I think of other things I'll let you know. I never do the same thing for very long. I like to mix it up to keep myself interested. I also like to read up on the latest research and make up my own plan. I don't follow a set plan written in any book or in any program very well! I like the eclectic approach!
We will lose these stubborn pounds! Yes! Yes! Yes!
I like my Iron Yoga DVD with Anthony Carillo. He really helps you to develop good technique, and the weights (3-5 lb.) add challenge as well as increase muscle AND build balance.
As I think of other things I'll let you know. I never do the same thing for very long. I like to mix it up to keep myself interested. I also like to read up on the latest research and make up my own plan. I don't follow a set plan written in any book or in any program very well! I like the eclectic approach!
We will lose these stubborn pounds! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Cheryl
Is Iron Yoga very hard I can't keep up with the videos I have and they are for beginners...uuuuugggghhhh
I haven't really been on a set plan but what I have been doing is working so if it's not broken don't try to fix it.
Colleen -- WELCOME! I'm glad to see you changed your goal for the month, but please please don't be upset if you don't lose it all by the end of the month. Even when we do everything right the scale doesn't always move as quickly as we would like. Sometimes the scale just does not move. And then consider that this is a tricky month for many of us (family gatherings and other social events) which not only can impact the food, but exercising!
All to say that setting timetables for goals can be problematic if we don't meet those goals!
One thing that helps me reign in my eating is that I write down everything I eat.
New here need encouragement
Also today I tried on all my jeans and pants and folded up the loose ones to give to The Salvation Army. I am NOT going to sabotage my efforts by having them to draw on "in a pinch" because that's what kept me in the same place for so long!
