Hi, everyone. I was watching the movie "Julie & Julia" today, for the first time. Strangely, all that food love inspired me to tackle my weight problem (again). Because while watching the movie I was thinking about how I have not allowed myself to cook much, to enjoy the joy of cooking; I've always been so scared it will trigger my tendency to overeat. But here I am, close to 60 years old, and 50 pounds overweight. So where has avoiding cooking gotten me? Nowhere. So ... I started searching online for cookbooks/recipes for "foodies" (hate that word, but can't think of another one) who need to lose weight. My searching led me to thinking more about the need to lose weight rather than the need to enjoy cooking. So here I am. And it's prophetic that I'm doing this on Labor Day weekend, because I don't want to lose sight of the fact that weight loss takes work. I need to accept that and face that as my first step.

This community looks like it has a ton of resources and support. I look forward to getting familiar with the community.

Hi Sal... and

So glad you have joined us. And I agree completely with you about the need to lose weight being more the goal than cooking. I actually cook very little; I just learned to eat a lot of fruits and veggies raw because I hate to cook, and they are better for me that way anyway.

I work long hours so I also buy a lot of things that are convenient even though they cost a bit more... such as little containers of cut up carrot and celery sticks, cut up fruit, the foil 3-oz packets of tuna, etc. They don't take much time or work to prepare plus for me in the long run they are not even more expensive a lot of the time because this way they get eaten instead of rotting in the refrigerator.

And yes, losing weight does take work, but we can find ways to make it fun too. There are lots of things here in the forum... exercise challenges, support threads, etc.

Hope to see you around the forum.

Thanks very much for the good wishes, Misti. Congratulations on what you've lost!

Well, I faced the scale this morning. Gulp. But it's done, and I'm glad I faced it and know what the story is.

I'm still looking for lower-calorie, lower-fat, healthy cookbooks, as I do like to cook. Today I'm going to make a big batch of soup that I can have on the ready for after work. Oh, those long hours. I hear ya. They kill me.

Have a great day.

Great idea about the soup! I've been thinking about doing that too!

You are welcome to join us in our daily check-in and accountability thread if you would like. It helps!

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weig...e-welcome.html

Thank you, Misti. I will keep that in mind. Right now I'm a little timid about that. It's very much a one step at a time deal with me. But your friendliness has been very helpful. Thank you so much.

I think the very act of suiting up here and writing down everything I eat is one huge step.

I confess I did not make soup after all. But I will. I am a little more inspired to like soup when autumn really hits: a butternut squash or pumpkin soup, with apple cider ... that really hits the spot.

I've done okay the past two days. Not perfect, but pretty damn good.

Have a nice evening.