Hey there! I'm brand new to the forums as of today. I'm 38 years old, no kids so nothing to blame my weight on other than my love of fried foods and Belgian beers.

I have an ultimate weight loss goal of about 65 pounds, though I'm wondering if I should break that down into smaller 5-10 lb goals. I'd LOVE to have a buddy/buddies that are staring down the same ugly road I am.

I've half-assed tried to diet probably once a month for like the last two years. Then I fail, decide I'll eat what I want for the rest of the day/week and just start over again tomorrow/Monday.

It's time for me to stick with it.

I hope everyone is doing well this week. My week has been pretty good so far. We started back to school after 10 days off for snow, and it nearly sabotaged me. I was so tired and had forgotten to bring some healthy snacks with me to school. I came home, and just wanted to forget the whole thing. I slipped a little, but got right back on and did my whole workout routine. I worked on fixing the problems that I had yesterday, and today was much better.

Dieting with kids is so difficult. I absolutely agree. We have snacks in the house for them, and I have fat free jello pudding cups when I just can't take it anymore Fitting in exercise is really tough too, but my kids think its funny to watch me on the exercise bike. The come and talk to me while I'm working out. I tend to talk too much, and when I'm working out, that's not gonna happen

When I started exercising, I didn't want them to be inconvenienced, but they were really excited and wanted to be a part of it. They know when I'm going to do it, so they get my sneakers and water bottles ready. Its really fun.

Hope everyone is doing well

Slimby35, I'm so sorry to hear about your loved ones. It is really tough when you lose someone so close to you. I hope you are doing better now though, and I think the more support you have, the better it will get.

micheleahsc, I'm doing fine now, but I was hit with a lot for a while. Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right? Or crazy... It's time to change some things in my life for the better for me and for my kids.

Hi everyone,

Welcome everyone! Sorry to start this thread and disappear. I tried logging on all week and was having trouble accessing the site. I updated my email address to a new one that I use (the old one was cancelled) and I never got the notification email with the verification link. I kept having them re-send it and it never came. I finally just decided to start a new yahoo email address because we just couldn't figure out the problem.

Anyway, so glad to see that the group has grown. How was everyone's week? Mine wasn't so hot on the eating/exercising front. We have some family staying with us from out of town and we've been doing lots of visiting, eating out, and snacking and I haven't made good choices.

So, how do you guys want to use this thread? Should we try to check in daily with food/exercise updates? Should we all set short term goals, announce them to the group and motivate each other as we make progress towards them? Or, should we just keep it open and unstructured as its been up to now? Let me know what you think.

Anyone doing anything exciting for the weekend?

38 and ready--we are the same age and close to the same weight with the same weight loss goals. And, we're both just starting back up. Let's see if we can work together on this since we have so much in common! Like you, I can't get started. I do a few weeks or even a few months on a program and then stop and gain it all back. It's been a really rough battle and it seems like I keep going backwards instead of forwards.

Sounds like a lot of us are struggling with juggling the whole weight loss, kids, work, life balance thing. I see that there are a few here who have had some great weight loss success already. I would love to hear from you what has worked for you and how you got motivated (at first) and have managed to keep it going. Any takers? Gamecock? Kristi? envelope? LTs girl? Or, anyone else who has already made nice progress towards their goals?

Thanks!

Hi there, I'm 30 with 4 kids. I had triplets when I was 25 which put my body through ****..Before I got pregnant with my first child I was a size 1 - now you can add another 1 to that and I am a size 11 on good day but mainly pushing a 13. I'd love to buddy up for some extra support. I have been just counting calories like crazy!! Also trying to get in 30 mins on the treadmill everyday - which sometimes impossible with kids as I a sure you can all relate!!

So happy to see so much support in here and goodluck to everyone!!

Ann72 if you read my earlier post I am calorie counting and exercising like crazy. I giggled a little bit when you included me in the "got it going and keeping it going" category. The one thing the ticker doesn't tell you is how long I have been at this. I started about 1 year ago. And as you can see I am only down about 20lbs. 197 was my highest weight.

Having said that, I have started taking all of this serious about 2 months ago. I signed up for a triathlon. I actually paid $35 to do it. Sounds crazy but that has given me motivation. The triathlon is next Saturday. So I started looking for the next thing. Today was the first day of a fitness challenge at the local gym. The individual (male & female) with the highest weight loss wins $100 dollars and that was free to join. It doesn't end until April. So I have extra motivation to lose the weight. Next on the list may be a half marathon in June. I may be a big girl but I can run! Well I guess that depends on your definition of running lol. Started out walking and after 1 year I am up to 3.67 miles in 40 minutes. So about 5.5mph.

So that is my weight loss journey so far.

Ann72, I keep going back and forth, trying again. And I'm really tired of having to start over. I think the idea that keeps me going is that its got to be easier to keep moving forward than to start over again. I am terrified that I'll have to start over again.

I've got a short term goal that I've got my eye on, and that helps me. I think coming on as close to daily as possible and posting how we are doing, at least in the beginning, might be helpful. What does everyone else think?

Hi all.
I'm doing well so far. Despite working really long hours this week (until 5am one morning) I managed only to snack on grapes - I know they have sugar but better than the dreaded chocolate!! So I am pleased with myself. I need to maintain that level of self control all weekend too.

Hi everyone.

flora-Good for you! Grapes are much better than chocolate. That's a big step forward.

Michele-it is really hard, but at least we're here and ready for the challenge. I find the support of a group to be very helpful to me when losing weight.

LT'sgirl- thanks for sharing. 20lbs is something to be proud of, even if it's taken a while. I think I've gained 20 in a year, so you're way ahead of me.

Have a great day!

Oh, forgot to welcome triplet mom. Sounds like you're on the right track.

There were a lot of different factors that played into getting motivated last Jan. I wish I could say that I started and never stopped, but I had a period of time in the Fall that I was getting very little sleep, and was highly stressed...this combo led me to decide I needed to take a break and I could get started again when things settled down. In theory this was good, but the stress eating caused me to gain more weight then I expected.

I got motivated again when I stepped on the scale and realized that I was about to leave onederland. This was when I decided enough was enough and I started CCing again.

My motivation to keep the scale moving down include, graduation in May, Job interviews coming up, being comfortable in a swim suit this summer while playing with my kids, being healthy, getting rid of some of these aches and pains from carrying around extra weight.
I also have an evil motivation. I challenged a really competive person in my program, who was saying she wanted to lose some weight, to see who can lose the highest % of weight before graduation. I want to win that challenge.

Envelope - that is a great challenge! Nothing like a bit of healthy competition!
Ann72 - thanks! I really want to go this properly this time. 2 years ago I got down to 187lbs but when I get sick I tend to comfort eat and give up. So this time I am determined. I don't want to be the fat lady any more.

I'm 38 with a 9 and 13 year old. I lost quite a bit since January of last year, but lost some ground due to medical issues in the fall (Sept-Dec). Now I'm back in the saddle, working out and eating well. Nice to hang out with thirty-somethings.