[goingglamour]

Hey everyone!

I am having a bit of trouble actually starting this weight loss journey! I have so many reasons i want to do this e.g. health issues, wanting to wear nice clothes, and a few other sillier reasons :P
Still though, i am finding it hard to actually properly start! I think about the reasons for doing it, and how it will be worth it and all of that but then later in the evening i'm like.. need a snack and of course then i think ahh i've blown it..might as well eat more..then i get depressed and then repeat the next day!

How did you all finally kick yourself into gear and do it! There is nothing that i want more than to lose 80lbs so why can't i even start properly?! Sorry if this sounds ranty/sad or whatever lol but i need some advice!

I really want to do this this time, i know it may take a long time and i am ready for that... I dont know why i am stopping myself so early on!?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I have been so inspired by the posts by everyone here!

xxx

[InControl2Day]

Hello fellow shorty!

It took me a LONG time to ready myself to buckle down and lose the weight. I write about it in my blog but long story short, I was sick of my weight holding me back. I was reaching my mid-20s and I had dreams that seemed impossible because of my weight (beautiful bride, healthy pregnancy, healthy mom). I also didn't want to spend the rest of my 20s fat and miserable.

That said, no one can make you do it unless you want to do it yourself. I can't tell you the times my parents have forced me to go on diets and guilt-tripped me into losing weight only for it to come back the minute I was in college.

I would start making a list of reasons WHY you want to lose the weight. Mine was health and vanity reasons.

What plan do you plan on following? I was a calorie counter for about a year to re-learn portion sizes and learning what an 1200 calorie day looks like.

Some people follow other plans with great success. The important thing is to find something sustainable so you don't burn out after the first 20 lbs and give up.

[goingglamour]

Hey :-)
Sometimes i wish i wasn't such a shorty..wouldnt have so much weight to lose before i was 'healthy'!!
I have tried many times to lose weight before i guess for the wrong reasons and each time just put the weight plus more on again! I will make a list, i imagine it will be loooong! I think my weight is definitely holding me back and i dont want it to anymore
I plan on calorie counting...i feel my main problem is eating portions that are probably double the amount i need. I have tried a few diet plans before, most with good results, but then i put it all back on when i try to eat 'normally' again.

Thank you for your advice! You have done amazingly! I love your dress in your avatar!

xx

[lynnie923]

Well my starting point is really sad but none the less its got me started. I was told by two doctors that I have a heart condition and will need open heart surgery in the future. Knowing this I told myself there would be complications if I go in at the weight I was. So back in septemeber or october I decided that I would get this weight off for the surgery and to make a healthier better me. Thats what keeps me motivated and the fact that I have a niece and nephew I want to be able to get on the ground and play with.

Lynn

[flashfacts]

For me, the short answer was, I planned, and then I did.

I had thought about it for a long time, but it was just vague thoughts of 'eating a little better tomorrow' or a 'little less at my next meal'. Well, as you would expect, that didn't happen.

What it actually took was for me to come up with a clear cut plan that I understood (big planning), and then deciding a day and then coming up with meals and a grocery list for that first week (little planning).

My big planning was decided during a little meeting that my gym had. There I decided on calories per day and per meal, as well as a few other details to keep my diet balanced and filling.

Then I went home and started coming up with foods that would fit those requirements. My gym has a few suggestions, I looked in my kitchen to see what the calorie level was on the food I already ate, and I looked online for recipes. With all that information I came up with what I would eat for every meal for the first week, went to the store, and then just did it.

Luckily the plan I started with was a good fit for me, so I didn't need to make a lot of adjustments. But yeah, getting a lot of information and having a detailed plan helped me a lot. It took the question out of what I was going to eat, so I didn't get as tempted to go off course. After a while I got used to it and can now play a little more fast and loose with my diet, but at the beginning having structured plan helped a lot.

[ilidawn]

It's hard to the get in the true mindset to make it happen (I'm actually struggling at the moment with it too). I think InControl2Day has a great idea there to make a list of reasons. I used to have this little notebook where I doodled and wrote reasons why I wanted to lose weight and quotes that inspired me and back when I made sure to look at it when I had cravings it helped sooo much. I think I really need to do it again and maybe it would help you too

[goingglamour]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I am definitely going to make my list and plan plan plan!!!! I want to incoporate lots of exercise as well as calorie counting so i think I will be timetabling that in to! you are all so inspirational to me and i hope i will be able to change my weight soon :-)
Thank you again, you have all been so helpful xx

[MrsD2008]

It took me a lonnnnggg time too!

I was really interested in WW, but instead went to TOPS. It was fun, but I didn't lose a lot...maybe 5 lbs. Then I lost 16 lbs on my own. Then a friend mentioned WW and that gave me a kick to go. I have lost 23 lbs on WW and I LOVE it!! I feel like I have a HUGE support group of people all around me. It's amazing. So, in short, what I needed was a plan (like others said) and mine happened to be WW.

Good luck to you!

[librarygirl111]

For the longest time, I'd come to these message boards and think that I would be able to just "pick it up". However, I never really did. I'd come to these boards, see what's going on, giggle at people who do weekly weigh-ins, and then go on my merry way, drink beer, eat food, and probably party too much.

I recently had a miscarriage and it has drastically transformed my life. I realized that I don't have the time, now, to try and become the parent in the next two years. I can't keep saying "one day ill stop partying".

I wasn't ready for a child, and it upsets me to think that this opportunity was taken away from me, but I also see it as an opportunity to better me in every way that I have.

I have set goals to finish the Chicago Marathon in 2012. I plan on doing the Disneyland half marathon this september. I'm going to do some triathlons this summer too.

There came a point in my life, and it just flippped like a switch, that I realized that now is the time for me to change.

It's sad to realize how alll the things you want are right there, you just have to grab them. When you understand that, it becomes easy what you need to do to get there.

I realized all the things I wanted to do before I finally have children, and this has driven me into overdrive.

I want to run a marathon before I have kids. I want to be healthy and not worried about gaining a bunch of weight during my pregnancy. Instead, I want to be excited to get big.

When I got pregnant this last time, my body wasn't the way I wanted it to be. My job wasn't where I wanted it to be. The friends around me weren't the friends I wanted when I started to have children (they all party too hard).

I wanted to become family ready. I wanted to be a sexy hot mama with my wonderful husband and the ability that I can do anything.

I put it into perspective this way: Which can be harder---running a marathon or having kids?

LOL, I think having kids is probably harder, and that's what motivates me to run a marathon---the strength, will and determination to be a good parent.

I hope you find your spark---sometimes you find them in good things, and sometimes in bad things.

Now, I am 152 pounds. I weighed 167 after my miscarriage. So, I've lost about 15 pounds already----and nothing is stopping me----because there is only me saying "you can do it" at the finish line. There is something in me that won't stop running, won't stop eating healthy, won't smoke a joint, and won't drink more than 1 beer every few weeks.

I hope you find that inspiration too.

[librarygirl111]

oh yeah,

now i weigh myself on daily weigh in message boards!

[krampus]

I spent several years thinking "I'd like to lose some weight" before actually starting. It took a shocking post-BBQ weekend weigh-in and a stranger telling me I'd gained weight to kick me into being so disgusted with myself that I actually began to eat less and move more.

Once I started it seemed easy to keep it up, since I was being rewarded with my clothes getting loose and seeing progressively smaller numbers on the scale.

[indiblue]

For me there are two issues at play. One is vanity: I want to lose weight to look smaller and leaner. The second is health: I want to eat and exercise really well to treat my body with love and kindness.

I know I am technically dieting but I don't see it that way. I see it as eating healthier and exercising and transforming my body into something stronger and better.I no longer want to gorge myself in pizza or skip workouts unnecessarily. I want to nourish myself.

Somewhere along the way it stopped being "I need motivation to do something I don't really want to do" and instead "I really want to eat right and exercise!" I love eating healthy foods and I love working out because I love the idea of what I'm doing to my body and where it's going to take me. I still eat pizza and ice cream, I still have lazy days. I view these as a reasonable component of my lifestyle. For me it became a transition of moving away from the dichotomy of "I'm motivated versus get me the **** out of here" and towards a center of "This is a happy and wonderful place to be!"