Because you have to build your trustworthiness and status.
Especially, when you cannot even share your blog or anything.
Because it looks like I've only lost 7 pounds, I don't look like I'm a credible source for losing weight and definitely not for keeping it off. Yet, I know how to do it. Just haven't done the keeping it off yet!
And my ticker isn't even a true measure. I used to weight 275. It's just that I'm starting "this" journey at 255. No yo-yoing this time, just slowly changing my habits, which is resulting in slow loss.
I have lost and gained a few times, and I've learned a LOT. I know what works for me. I know how to handle so much more now, which gives me confidence that I will succeed this time. This time it's just a bit more intentional because of some health issues. But I don't consider myself 'dieting". I'm doing a lifestyle change - eating for hunger, making better choices and adding in exercise.
But, I have to build up my credibility here, and even with my blog. People don't start believing in you until they can see TRUE results.
AND, I'm not trying to do this at some record breaking speed. For me, it needs to be a slow and more painless journey and it needs to be a lifestyle change. I don't consider eating 1200 calories and exercising 2 hours a day something I could maintain for life, so I cannot do it now either. it's too extreme for me. Might work for others, but I'll be a turtle on the journey and because of it, my 'credibility' rating will be slow to come too.
But I know I know the path now. It's been working the last 32 pounds, it will continue to work.
A lot of people post "restart" weights in their stats. I've also seen something like:
275/restart 255/248/175
Maybe that would make you feel better until you get that highly sought after ticker?
You are not alone in your restart, been-there-done-that mentality. Lots of us here are weight loss experts. We just haven't mastered the maintenance part...yet. We'll get there.
In the meantime, practicing maintenance is a beautiful thing. By that, I mean pretty much what you describe. It sounds like you have chosen a plan that will last beyond the weight loss phase, for life. That's perfect. I myself have slipped into a sort of maintenance/losing phase where I'm darn happy where I am but wouldn't mind if the scale continued to drop either. I'm just keeping on plan now just as I plan to do every day for the rest of my life.
I know you were a member before. Do you want to reinstate your old posts? Let me know by posting here or using the ! to report a post and I'll see it. I know you can't send PMs but his would work.
I know you were a member before. Do you want to reinstate your old posts? Let me know by posting here or using the ! to report a post and I'll see it. I know you can't send PMs but his would work.
LOL, I'm not even sure what my old handle/user name was! It wasn't berryblondeboys (as I only had one child at that time). It might have been mams99. I cannot remember for sure now, which time I joined. My 'big' loss (50 pounds and close to goal), or the second time, when I didn't get very far.
But it's not even really about getting a ticker or a blog site listed, it's about not feeling credible because I don't have those big losses behind me - and STAYING behind me.
It's kind of like taking marriage advice from someone who got a divorce, you know?
What's giving me confidence, is that I have not regained anything since my high of 275. I lost ten.... stayed there for 5 years. Lost ten, stayed there a year. Not huge losses, but a trend in teh right direction and it's during that time that food started to lose it's power over me - no more emotional eating. No more sneaking food, and a bigger switch to healthy foods - just too much of it.
I'll get there, and rebuild 'credibility'. But it takes time and in the meantime, I'll just have to take my lumps as a newbie like so many.
A lot of people post "restart" weights in their stats. I've also seen something like:
275/restart 255/248/175
Maybe that would make you feel better until you get that highly sought after ticker?
You are not alone in your restart, been-there-done-that mentality. Lots of us here are weight loss experts. We just haven't mastered the maintenance part...yet. We'll get there.
thanks, maybe I will change my stats like that. Makes me feel better anyway!
And that's it. I'm truly an expert at weight loss. It's the keeping it off that I stink at. BUT... I didn't regain those twenty pounds either! Which is giving me confidence to keep it off this time.
Well, they used to say about teachers "If you can't do it, teach!" in teaching. Whether we make major progress or not, we DO learn. My ticker's not there at the moment but I sure have not had major losses since 1999! However, I do have a huge knowledge base.
Well, they used to say about teachers "If you can't do it, teach!" in teaching. Whether we make major progress or not, we DO learn. My ticker's not there at the moment but I sure have not had major losses since 1999! However, I do have a huge knowledge base.
It's kind of sad, isn't it? To have all the weight, yet all the knowledge in the world to get rid of the weight?
So many of us are there. It's the KEEPING IT OFF. I 'think' THINK that I'll keep it off this time as I've slowly lost and kept it off, but I even have to prove that to myself!
I notice even myself, that I pay more attention to the posts from people who have either lost a lot, or kept it off. But you have to EARN that credibility, you know?
I'm more impatient for THAT than I am for the actual weight loss! And I really want this weight gone.
I've thought that about my starting weight too - this time, I started at 233 pounds. But I've been as high as 280 (or more, not sure). And I'm not new; I've been here a few times. But in terms of trustworthiness, I don't know - I mean I can share my experiences, and they may be the same for some, but not all - so people have to take tidbits here and there and find a plan that works for them, and as you have said, see that plan as a lifestyle to follow, forever (with minor tweaking here and there as needed!).
Anyways I don't much see any one person more credible than the next on our weight loss journey, however I do look to the long term maintainers, for clues on how to do that - which of course is the ultimate test of success for weight loss, maintaining it. Again though, I'm thinking that when I get there, I'll take tidbits here and there, and find what works for me.
I have never made the assumption that someone new might not have credible advice to offer (or for that matter, that someone who has lost a lot of weight will have done so in a way that works for me). Knowledge, weight loss success, and maintenance success aren't necessarily correlated in my mind. It didn't occur to me to think that one poster was more "credible" than another, mostly because I think that everyone has to find out what works for them individually anyway. What works for Long Term Maintainer X might not be a workable strategy for me, and what Newbie Y is trying might be something that I could incorporate.
My starting weight represents my highest weight rather than the weight I was at when I began coming back to 3FC...I still lost the other weight that got me to the weight I arrived back here with, so it's not as though it doesn't count -- and it's important to me too.
Being new stinks!
We'll get there. 
And I really want this weight gone.
