...nothing of value comes easy. If you want an 'A' in a course, lets say, you will not be able to watch TV, go out and talk to friends. There are limits and restrictions your are subject to if you want to succeed in a course and you will have to really want that 'A' to sacrifice a few moments of pleasure. Same with weight loss. You can't have it all (splurging, bingeing) and still be successful. You must really commit yourself, but forgive yourself for occassional failure ( You can't ace every quiz). So, all in all, one is the one who has all the control of thoughst and actions, so it is up to you when you will start getting closer to what you wanted. Once you start, the rest is easier.

This summer was a real turning point for me in several ways. My partner, who had been living in CA for ~2 years while my stepson finished high school, moved up to Portland with me. She brought my 2 1/2 year old grandson, Andre (see pix to left). I wanted to be able to keep up with him, and I didn't want him to grow up fat because of my unhealthy habits. I also went through a leadership development program through my job that had a profound impact on how I thought and felt about myself. I realized I do have a purpose for being on this planet and things to do -- that I really wanted to live.
Finally, my dad had (successful) triple bypass surgery at the end of August -- which made me realize that if I were serious about becoming a healthy person, I didn't necessarily have forever to do it in.

The day that I got home from visiting my dad in the hospital, I joined a local gym and signed up to work with a personal trainer 2x/week. They weighed me, measured me, and told me how many calories I needed to eat a day. I was surprised that I was supposed to eat 2400 calories/day! Before, when I tried to lose weight, I was probably eating around 1200-1500 cal/day and starving all the time. I've managed to lose 35# since the start of September.

As I've been losing weight, I've been noticing my assumptions and feelings about being thin. I associate thin with weak. I associate being large with being safe. Aerobic and strength exercise is helping me feel strong even as I get thinner, but there is more for me to work on. I am also meeting with a therapist on a monthly basis to look at this -- I really want to be successful this time, for the first time, in achieving a "normal" weight.

It took me couple years of therapy and crappy relationships to realize that I am my own biggest roadblock to success. After all, if I don’t try that hard and end up not succeeding, well I can hardly be surprised. And in my mind not putting in my full effort protects me from disappointment in personal failure. It’s messed up, and I’m working on it. I am worth the effort, and even if I fail sometimes, I’m still ok and I can always try again. Sounds simple, but it’s taken me a long time to see things that way.

Ummm... I am going to add to this, in case anyone is wondering what the heck I'm up to here. :lol:

Obviously I'm not making progress here... too darned busy exercising and losing weight for once! :lol3:

If anyone has any "words of wisdom" they'd like to add here, please post away! :comp:

Okay, I've got one for you. I don't know how inspiring it'll be for anyone else, but it sure works for me! :lol:

I'm not sure where he got it, but my trainer told me this one the other day:

"If you have to eat a frog, don't spend too much time looking at it. If you have to eat two frogs, eat the biggest one first."

I now think of my dreaded exercise workouts as frogs. :D I saw my trainer last night when I went for my exercise class, and said to him, "I'm here to eat my frog." :hat:
I've spent most of today avoiding my run on the treadmill. I was trying to take a nap, but all I could think of was, "Darn it, I haven't eaten my frog yet! Better get it over with."

I've done it. ;)

Oh I love that quote! Thanks for sharing it!!!! Definitely best to get those frogs down quickly!

Elmay, great job on the weight loss! I can relate! In the past I went on low calorie eating plans -- but my doctor told me not to go under 1800 and I am losing weight, am eating wonderful meals and am never overly hungry.. but I AM hungry at mealtime which I really wasn't when I munched on junk all day LOL! The lower calorie intake crashes your metabolism. I am tall and built large so of course others might not have as high a count as I do... but still it is far better to get sufficient nutrition so we are not famished al the time! I want something I can live with... and wow when I stick with the plan I am on I cannot BELIEVE how well I am eating. Forget about junk LOL, give me this yummy stuff. In fact dinner is coming up in just a few minutes and I am READY!! LOL

Here is a sampling of some diet quotes I like (unfortunately, I don't know the sources for all of them):

"I'm allergic to food. Every time I eat it breaks out into fat." ~Jennifer Greene Duncan

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow."

"Don't give up what you want most for what you want now."

"If you really want to lose, you'll find a way, and if you don't want to, you'll find an excuse. It's up to you." -I think I found this one somewhere on this site (maybe someone's signature)

"We are what we repeatedly do" -William Blake

"Don’t let yesterday’s failures keep you from reaching today’s dreams."

The quote that inspires me most is down in my signature.

Goodbye Chubby, those are GREAT quotes! Thank you so much for sharing! :hug:

Diets make you look good in clothes, exercising makes you look good naked. - unknown

I know I’m gonna die, so my revenge is living well! – Robbie Williams

Hello temptation, how are you today? – John P Hussman PhD

If you love the results, learn to love the process – Mel 3FC

You’ll never achieve extraordinary results by taking average measures – Skwigg

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Here's my few - I've just been browsing this topic after the few odd days of compulsive eating have hit and I think I might have to sort something out in my head :dizzy:

Those are great! Thanks for sharing

I've been watching this thread too. And searching, searching for the quote I thought I meant. So maybe it's not so much a quote as an idea. Somewhere along the way, I've gleaned the knowledge ... that there is a difference between being lighter and being attractively slender ... that fitness has a far greater role in the likelihood of obtaining my goal body than I understood at first.

This is probably courtesy of MrsJim, Mel, Meg and Ilene 3FC.

Susan !! You're too kind :hug: ...

Ok...this one helps me a lot....

"Nothing tastes as good as thin feels"

I like this one:

'' Fail to plan, plan to fail ''

I thought my weight problem was entirely due to the prednisone that I have been on for the past 3 yrs. My doctor said, this medicine does make you more hungry "but it doesn't choose what you put in your mouth". He was right, I am losing weight very well, even though I am still on prednisone. It was just an easy excuse for me.

Ok something I read in Shape over the weekend:

Are you interested in losing weight or COMMITED to losing weight?

Me? NOW? I'm commited :yes:

Ok this is one I read this week...It was just to funny....

'Jeans and bra should not meet in the middle, folks.'

Ok this sent me laughing! I was on the edge of a binge. Thanks for the help! I knew I could count on my favorite site to talk me out of binging! Now I am going to get a glass of water and an apple. LOL

Elva

I love them all!
Frogs, I will really remember that, and of course when i say im going to go eat my frog I will have people's attention for sure...lol Thanks Ilene

And Jeans and Bras shouldn't meet in the middle? Well i guess I need to get out of that fashion style.

Yay Elva.... good choice of coming to 3FC rather than binging!!! :)

I like this one...

"You have to be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi

One of my favs is:'

"Winners are too busy to be sad, too positive to be doubtful, too optimistic to be fearful, and too determined to be defeated." - Darryl Campbell

I don't know who wrote this...

"Don't wail on the scale if you cheat when you eat."
:D

I hate discipline, but I love results - Jack La Lanne

I have a couple:
"Knowledge without effort is Useless"
"Failing to plan is planning to fail"
and from our very own 3fc LindaT
"I don’t like it [exercise] much either some days, but it’s just another daily task in self maintenance…
like brushing my teeth, combing my hair… taking a shower." —LindaT
Not that I listen to any of them when high fat - refined carbs are calling my name! :-(

Quotes Theat Inspire- Not from Members
 

It's never too late—in fiction or in life—
to revise.



~Nancy Thayer

No action is more fascinating that the
action of self-transformation. Nothing on
earth can compare with its drama or its
value.



~Vernon Howard

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.



~Dawna Markova

When you're stuck in a spiral,
to change all aspects of the spin
you only need to change one thing.



~Christina Baldwin


The future is purchased by the present.



~Samuel Johns

Not from members either
 

"The difference between "involvement" and "commitment" is like an eggs and ham breakfast. The chicken was "involved" - the pig was committed." - Unknown

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" - Seneca

"We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face...we must do that which we think we cannot." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Any idiot can face a crisis. It's this day to day living that wears you out" - Chekhov

"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage" - Thucydides

Enjoy

"You are but a traveler on a cosmic journey. You have stopped for a moment to encounter others, to meet, to love, to share. Your life is a little parenthesis in eternity."



"Begin taking action now, while being neurotic or imperfect, or a procrastinator or unhealthy or lazy or any other label by which you inaccurately describe yourself. Go ahead and be the best imperfect person you can be and get started on those things you want to accomplish before you die."


cheers,
elizabeth:)

lol..... this is me to a 'T'

it's sooooooo going in my signature....lol

Here are a few of my favorite quotes that help inspire me to stay on track....

Remember when you see a man at the top of a mountain, he didn't fall there.
- Anonymous

Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better.
- Anonymous

The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.
-Don Marquis

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. - Buddha

When it's getting hard - this quote explains me why is that. :)

"Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it"

Have a lovely day!!! :)

I have this on my wall right above my computer:

If you can't fly, then run.
If you can't run, then walk.
If you can't walk, then crawl.
But no matter what, just keep moving.

I love this quote to death! i have no clue who said it but it just means alot to me

this is one of my favorite quotes recently-

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens
us. We ask ourselves: who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually who are you
not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small
does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened
about shrinking so that people around you wont feel
insecure. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are born to manifest the glory of God within us. It
is not just in some of us: it is in everyone. And as
we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same. As we are liberated
from our fear, our presence automatically liberates
others."

-Nelson Mandella

Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
- Robert Service

To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love.
- Karl Viktor von Bonstetten

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
- Thomas Jefferson

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
- Leonardo Da Vinci

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.
- Elie Wiesel

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.
- Aristotle

How about -

Whether you think you can or can't, you are right.

I can't remember who said it but I know that I've always applied that to every other challenge in my life and never thought to apply it to weight loss, maybe because I didn't want to???, until I read these posts. So thanks for the inspiration!

My favorite quote
 

One of my favorite quotes to help inspire me to let go of past failings (diet and otherwise!) and move on....

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." - emerson

"Inherently, each one of us has the substance within to achieve whatever out goals and dreams define. What is missing ...is the training, education, knowledge and isight to use what we already have."~ Mark Twain