Kind of a weird one, but I started wearing flip-flops (lol). Not sure what changed, but I used to hate my feet but this week I decided, what the heck, I'm buying a pair.:dizzy:

Me!

I began taking better care of myself before I embarked on my journey - I quit smoking (it will be 2 years in May!). I also began taking better care of my appearance rather than settling to be the 'fat shlubby mom in sweats'. I began highlighting my hair, wearing light make-up (on just regular days!), getting pedicures, got contacts again, and taking care to dress a little more stylish. I dunno, for some reason subconsciously I thought only fit people "deserved" to look nice.

I am also growing a lot deeper in my faith and disciplining myself to cultivate the personality traits I admire and want and trying to remove the thought processes that have not served me.

I find that this attempt at weight reduction has been 'different'. I think because I actually love myself now and am trying to cherish myself, no matter what weight I am -- which is leading to me wanting to get as healthy as I can.

Me too!
 

Ever since I have seriously been thinking more about my well-being. I let a few people that kept me down out of my life, i've decided to become a vegan.. for health and because I want to do something that really takes commitment. I have been trying to find a job and have been taking my dream much more seriously. I like being this way a whole lot better than the bump-on-a-log I was. It's nice to feel accomplished about something at least once a day :D

Congrats on your group and good luck on your degree!

I am having the opposite reaction from many of you. As I have lost weight this time around I have been having a hard time. (It could be coincidence because I am in my mid forties and I think my hormones are changing, and I was recently dumped by a longtime friend/love).
I almost feel like I am waking up after having been asleep for years and I have all this junk I need to work thru that is being exposed as I lose weight. Some days it's all good and others yow. I am very lucky to have a close friend I can text or AIM on those bad days and tell her to talk me down from the cheese fries!:hug:

I'm still dealing with that. I guess I feel like any cute clothes or accessories or hairstyles or anything, really, will be wasted on this body that I hate. I hope that'll change when I lose the weight, but I'm not too optimistic because even when I was thin (for a brief 6 months or so after a drastic 9-month near-starvation diet) I thought everything looked awful and thought I was fat.

I really liked your post. :)

With the weight loss journey, I am putting more of an emphasis on me, and what I want to accomplish in my life

I want to do so many things in my life, and i feel like the weight may make accomplishing those things more difficult. I know I should not assume that the weightloss will make everything better, but I just feel like the weight loss will help me to be more, well, me, and not my personality trapped in this massive amount of flesh.

I have been spending way more time on my appearance. I put more effort into choosing my outfits (i have a ton of clothes, but because of the weight, I got into a rut of wearing super big baggy clothing), more effort on taking better care of my skin and hair, and just trying to look better and show a better side of myself.

I have been working on things within my home...doing home projects I should have done a long time ago. I admit that it does feel good to actually start doing those things. I feel like I am accomplishing things that at one point, felt just too overwhelming. What I am focusing on is doing one thing at a time, and breaking up the tasks into more manageable items.

I feel like getting control of my weight and my appearance and my home will help to move me in the direction of living the life and creating the life that I want. I am so fearful that if I do not take care of myself, that I will end up even more super morbidly obese than I already am, alone (big fear of mine, i am far more of a social creature than people would think), and unhappy.

I just feel like I will have more options if I can manage my weight and my home and my appearance better.

My way of thinking is changing along with my awareness of my eating and how I need to eat to take care of myself. I am more mindful of when I am feeling sad or depressed and then make a decision to overeat or pig out. That is a huge step for me as staying conscious of how I feel really is key to not giving in to negative eating patterns.