Hey! My name is Lisa, and I'm from NY. I'm 31 years old. I've spent the last few years taking care of my mom and spending a lot of time at home. I've allowed myself to get to a weight, way passed, anywhere I've ever thought I could be. My best friend got engaged in September and has asked me to be her Maid of Honor. I have vowed to drop the weight and "WOW"everyone at this wedding (April 12). Since September, I have lost 14 lbs. I am definitely happy with that, but I feel like its not enough. I've been eating as healthy as I possibly can (counting calories), and I am trying to do something active after every meal. I go to the gym in the morning (at least 4 x a week, at least an hour). I will take a mile walk on my lunch break (or walk the dog) almost every day. And at night, I try to work out with the wii fit (at least an hour). So, my question is, what can I do to speed this process up? Am I just being too hard on myself? Any suggestions/encouragement will be greatly appreciated!!

Hiya. It sounds like you're doing everything right. 14 pounds in 8 weeks, is that right? It also looks like you're exercising a lot. The only question I would have is are your calories drastic, or sensible? So long as you are creating a reasonable calorie deficit (the required 500 less daily than what it takes to maintain your current weight) you'll lose in good time. If, however, you're exercising very hard and not taking in enough calories, there are theories that you slow your losses down because you slow your metabolism down. <---just how true that is...is up for debate. I think it takes a long while before a body goes into starvation mode, but others will disagree with that.

Anyhow, it really does sound like you're doing well. We all want to snap our fingers and have the journey end, reaching our destination. However, the journey doesn't end. Everything you're doing now, and learning, is valuable. It will help you to maintain when you reach your goal.

You're doing great. Continued success to you.

Hey Leesa -- Wow! 14 lbs is amazing! And that's absolutely perfect that you're moving after eating. One thing that I would recommend, that worked for me, is cutting out all grains. I noticed that not only did I lose weight super fast, but I had all kinds of health improvements -- my skin pores shrunk, my scalp flakiness complete cleared -- fantastic stuff! I thought my large pores was just part of who I was -- I've had them as long as I can remember. And I couldn't believe how fast just doing that helped.

Also, another couple helpful things I've read and found to work really well, is cutting out all sugar (I use xylitol as a replacement), and eat no more than two pieces of fruit a day before 2PM. This decrease in sugar definitely helped with lowering the number on my scale.

Hope that helped! The best of luck to you in meeting your goal! We know you can do it.