Hi All!!

I'm a new member to this website and I love it. You all seem so honest and I look forward to findind a buddy or two to help me on my journey. I've set a goal of 165 for now and WHEN I reach it (I hope!!!), I will make a new one.

I'm a 35 SAHM of 2 girls and have been married for 10 years. I have a a VERY bad back which makes exercising very hard for me. I really think that this time I'm commited and ready for my weight to FINALLY get under control. It has been out of control for several years now.

I have to admit that I LOVE (I REPEAT.... LOVE) food and think that I may even have addiction. All things seem to be celebrated with food and I would say that I am one of those people who LIVE TO EAT.. rather than eat-to-live.

I love to laugh and enjoy chicky chat with my girlfriends and humour/fun is the feel in our home.

Here's my question for ALL/ANYONE who reads this, what is the best advice you can offer me on weight loss and keeping my motivation up?

Thank you!!
chunkomommy (hoping to be a former-fatty this year!!!!

Hey Chunkomommy!



You know, I STILL LOVE food. I still CELEBRATE with food. In some ways, I still handle some emotions or physical states (particularly being anxious and being tired) with food. HOWEVER...and this is a big HOWEVER...I make a plan and I stick to it, the vast majority of the time.

That means that, first, I plan my meals so I can eat the MOST food for the calories I have...TONS of veggies, the leanest of proteins, and reasonable portions of whole grains. I can have a giant plate of food if 50-60% of it is low-cal veggies, so I try for that.

Second, it means I plan celebrations into my plan. If I'm going to visit family, or going out with friends, the early part of my day is lower calorie so I have a little more room at the end of the day. Then I try to have small portions of the less-healthy foods, and giant helpings of good ol' veggies and other low cal favorites that would be on plan anyway.

Third, it means I plan my snacks out, and plenty of them, even if it means that my meals are a little lower...and if I get in a bind where I just NEED to eat something, I try to have one of my planned snacks for the day in reserve.

You CAN do this! You just have to do some planning, change your cooking a bit...but it is ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE.

Can't wait to get to know you better. Keep posting!

For my eating plan I'm using Weight Watchers, but I began with small changes in order to build up good habits over time. Drinking my water, walking for 10 minutes at a time, making sure that I added fruits & vegetables to meals. I'm not perfect (by far!), but due to the fact that I've done these small things, I'm on "auto-pilot" healthy most of the time. It's so ingrained now that it feels weird when I'm not doing them. In the beginning, I had to really force it (yes, sometimes I still do) but again, for the most part, they're good habits now ^^

Motivation... In the beginning, the thought of just losing weight kept me going for months on end. And while the going was easy, I was right there with it going along. However, when I began, I also made sure to make a commitment to this new lifestyle. I told myself that there was no "quitting." I didn't care if I stumbled a million times along the way, that I would get back up and get back to this. It was the commitment that keeps me going now. Oh, I still feel automatically motivated certain days. (Like weigh-in days ^^) I sometimes meditate about how I will look and feel a year from now. That certainly helps, but it doesn't always pop into my mind when I'm staring down a 5 lb cheesecake in the grocery freezer. My commitment stays with me no matter where I am.


So, tell us about you! Are you changing your eating? Doing a little exercise that doesn't hurt your back? Drinking water? Let us know ^^

Best of success!!

Hey mommy, welcome. First of all it sounds like you have a great sense of humor, so that will definitely help. I find that making small goals, like increments of 10 pounds....helps keep me motivated. For me, looking at big chunks of pounds to lose is overwhelming, so I break it down into little pieces.

I totally agree with mandalinn82, plan, plan, plan and then plan some more. Don't let yourself come home after a long day, starving. You have to keep healthy snacks with you. I always make sure I have some almonds, an apple and a bottled water with me before I go out the door. I keep one of those soft lunch bag things that keep stuff cold in my car, and I usually throw a yogurt into it too. I don't always end up needing these supplies, but I always have them. I always have lot's of vegetables and lean meats to chose from at home for meals...mostly fresh, but I always have a few bags of frozen just in case. Don't let being unprepared sabotage your weight loss.

The thing that prompted me to start this new lifestyle was an ankle injury. I'm a nurse and I have to be able to walk for 12 hour shifts. The doctor told me that in order to prevent further injury, I really needed to get down to a healthy weight. I also had blood tests that showed I am pre-diabetic and borderline hypertensive. I now live my life as if I ALREADY am a diabetic and I HAVE hypertension. When I look at a piece of cake or fries, I think about how it would effect my life if I did have these diseases. THAT has been the thing that has helped the most. Even though I'm a nurse (probably BECAUSE I'm a nurse!), I'm terrified of being sick.

You can do this, this site is the one of the things that has made this time different than all the others. I have so much support, it's amazing. Keep us posted.

Hi Missingmyerica, Mandolin & Faerie!!

Thanks so much for all the support! You are all right I already feel that I can do this - I think just hearing that from people who "get it" is going to really make the difference for me. I'm the "fatty" in my group of girlfriends (by ALOT!!!) They are awesome ladies but, they just don't get it (like when we are at the local restaurant with the indoor-playground for kids... they don't know that my biggest fear is that one of my girls will want me to come in to get them and there I will be, trapped in that slide-tube thing waiting for the jaws-of-life to save me!! ha! ha!)

I've been doing the proper eating, trying to move more (seriously my back is BAD - I just recently had a spinal fusion) drinking tons of water (which I really enjoy), and talking about it which must mean that I'm in it to win (admitting the problem and dealing with it).

I NEVER used to eat breakfast - I just wasn't hungry. I was totally happy with my cup of coffee. I've been doing that for most of my adult life and now that the last four weeks I've been forcing myself to have a healthy breakfast I feel so much better and I'm now starving in the morning (since I don't eat after 7:30 at night).

Thank you all for such great advice and I look forward to getting to know all of you better and MUST say WOW.... YOU HAVE ALL LOST A LOT OF WEIGHT!!

Looking forward to getting to know you all better as well!

chunkomommy

Looks like you've already made some nice changes ^^ It's wonderful to see that breakfast is helping you out

And oh yeah... we all "get it" here.