Can I just admit that I'm completely embarrassed to be posting here right now? Don't get me wrong - I LOVE this forum. I love it so much that I always end up writing this exact post and then deleting it in shame. Not that I'm ashamed to be posting on 3FC, but because if I would have been serious four years ago - FOUR YEARS AGO - I would be posting in the maintainers section by now. I'd be posting my "after" pictures. And sadly, I'm now 10 pounds heavier than I was the last time I almost posted this and I'm sitting in my room, almost in tears because I feel like I'm once again starting a journey that has no end in sight.

To make a long story short, I'm married now and my husband is deployed to afghanistan... I made a promise to myself that he would NOT come home to who he left behind... I would be healthier! More fit! Skinnier! I have 7.5 months to do something drastic... to make life changes. BUt if I can't do it in four years, what makes me think I can in seven months?!

Can a girl just get a virtual hug right now?

Better late than never! Welcome Back!

I also felt this way when finding my old schedules that included exercising or being reminded of being unstable with eating right and exercising - not putting into action what i quit doing years ago.

Good News: Today is a new day!

I hope to see less of you soon!

I TOTALLY hear where you are comiong from! I actually lost 50 pounds and then gained 80 and felt completely hopeless... But I truelly believe in the quote that "a year form now, you will wish you started today". Don't think about the big picture so much, just take it day by day. Don't anticipate that your husband will come home to your most perfect version of you (because if you achieve anything less than perfection, you will feel disappointed), just try your best. Even if you lose 1 pouns a week, 71/2 months from now you will feel a billion time better than you do now.

Really take it day by day.

On July 1st, just 3 months ago, I weighed in at 217, and three months later I'm down 30 pounds. But the truth is, that having set my goal on the 1st, by July 2nd, and 3rd, I was already depressed about how badly I was failing! Then I realized that to get results I actually had to do something. So I Started slow, walking and beginnig a running program (starting VERY slow). Sometimes I would get carried away thinking I have to do more, lose faster, but then I would get overwhealmed and not feel like doing anything...

The journey isn't perfect, and no matter how you imagine this time being different, you will come to hard days, and/or weeks, but I think if you focus on the managable things that you can do, you'll do great.

This time is different because you have the experience of how you feel after four years without any progress, and you now better. Even if you had lost 20 pounds each year, then this year you would be 80 pounds lighter! Just keep reminding yourself, that progress is progress, big or small, and take baby steps...

(Sorry for the length of the post, but I'm REALLY cheering for you!!!! You CAN do this!!!)

Hang in there!

Remember, this is a lifestyle not a diet. It's more about getting healthy, staying active and making good choices than it should be about the number on the scale.

<3

Well you shouldn't be ashamed! There are plenty of people who have started out on a great foot only to have one thing after the other in life come along the way and hinder their progress. There is no shame in stepping up and taking charge of your life again, only pride should exist.

So congrats on coming back! I am on my weight loss journey needing to lose 100 lbs in total. I had lost almost 90 and put back on half of the weight before I realized what was happening. Life gets in the way sometimes and we just have to find a way around it. So I'm here to relose what I had gained plus finish reaching my goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Just keep your head up and have patience, great change doesn't happen overnight but it does day by day.

Also I noticed your husband is deployed, what branch is he? My husband is military as well As far as making changes in 7 months, you CAN make a ton of life changes in that time period, but don't set such high expectations in such a short period of time and end up putting too much pressure on yourself. Right now is the perfect time to focus on you and making all the life changes you need to. Your husband is going to be proud of you when he comes back home, whether you are 80 lbs lighter or 10 lbs lighter. So don't put that time limit on yourself to lose so much in such a small time period, just focus on making those changes and the rest will fall into place.

HI!! My husband is deployed too. Last year while he was gone I started this journey and lost 50 lbs in 4 months. Then I took a looong maintenance break and started again when he left on August 1. I've lost 15.5 lbs since then. It's moving a lot slower since I added exercise but I can feel myself getting smaller so I'm trying to disregard the stupid scale right now. If I can do it, so can you and our husband's will be holding much smaller wives when they come home!!

Welcome back!

I know how you feel; I never thought I would be here again today, especially after losing so much in the past. But we're lucky to have all the great people here and another chance!

Good luck!

I definitely know how you feel. For years I would start my diet with the best intentions, only to give up and gain even more weight. It's really easy to get down on yourself and look back thinking how much weight could have been lost in that time. But like other PP have said, think of where you will be a year from now. You have to start today to get there. Forget the past. You can't change it. You can only commit yourself today to a healthy lifestyle going forward. Trust me, as many times as I have tried and failed, I thought I would NEVER actually lose the weight. But here I am, 50 lbs lighter. Trust me, if I can do it YOU can too!!

I am in the same boat! I am pushing 40 and have been truly overweight for 8 years now. I never lost the baby weight. I just started my new journey this past Monday and am very excited and feel like I can do it this time...gotta start somewhere, right? You can do it!

Girl, I've been hanging around here on and off for two years. I lost down thirty pounds my first time around and gained back nearly cifty. Ever since then, I've been veeeerrrryyy slowly losing that weight. I've had times where life got in the way, and I've had to practice maintaining. I don't think most people would consider my lurching stop and starting progress very successful, but I definitely do. I have learned so much about what lifestyle rules I can live with. I've learned the symptoms of my unhealthy relationship with food. I've found food and exercises I love. And the most important? I've come to understand my own capacity for persistence. I almost think it is necessary to fall off the wagon to realize any of things. At least it took that for me. So, just try to think of this as a learning experience. Losing weight, while on the surface is easy, is one of the most insanely hard things to do. It takes a lot of lessons.

So welcome back! Have faith in yourself and forgive yourself.

I'm totally in the same boat! Look at my join date over there... June 2007... over FIVE YEARS. I love this place too. I just keep falling off the wagon! I don't know how many times I've changed my "starting weight" - and it just keeps getting higher and higher... I'm not the same person I was five years ago... I'm 50 pounds heavier for one thing! Five years ago, I was working two jobs, living with parents still, just had met my future husband and had no clue I would someday marry that "awkward" (and quite skinny and fit) guy at my best friends house one evening. I was very unhappy with my weight and how I looked. Seemed like every month I was starting some new "diet" and by the middle of the month I was back to the I don't give a .... and off I went again. I have gained and lost the same 5 pounds about 200 times!

And here I sit. Five years later. Almost 26 years old. Married to a very thin and active but WONDERFUL man, who is supportive but also loves me for who I am and thinks I'm beautiful just the way I am - he wants me to loose weight for my health more than my looks. Back in college to finish what I started (and much like my diets, quite). Working one job. Mommy to 3 kids under the age of three. I thought I was too busy and too tired before... NOW I really am! This time I pledge to NOT quite!

I think my problem before was that I wanted to loose ALL the weight FAST, and I got discouraged when I saw only one or two pounds gone after a week or more of working my butt off. Now I'm in a point in my life where I'm OK with the slow but sure progress. As long as it comes off, I don't care how long it takes!

Good luck to you!
+

you're not nowhere. you're somewhere. you're here...back in the game and at it again. go you. never give up

Maybe you just weren't ready before.

Make today your new day 1!

Yup, joined a while ago, lost 30ish lbs of my 50ish lb journey, had my heart broken, and gained it back. Now losing again!

I know exactly what you mean. I too feel that there's no light at the end of the tunnel (insert Metallica reference here) because I lost like 30 pounds at the beginning of the year and I put it all back on and then some. But you know what? I'm getting back on track and I'm gonna fix this. I've seen other people on here make more progress than I ever thought I could. We can and will conquer this!