[Aileen]

Hello again.

I've been on this site before and I've been on a diet before. And you know what? I don't want to be on one again.

Diets suck.

So you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to eat sensibly most of the time, say 80% of the time and I'm going to exercise most days. You know what else I'm going to do, when I'm walking down the street, I'm going to hold my head up high and smile at people. Maybe I'll go for a jog and know that it's okay to stop and walk to catch I'm breath. I'm not going to feel like I don't belong at the community pool because I'm a bit overweight. I'm going to silence the little voice in my head that says it's not okay to be fat, that I don't belong because I'm different! It hurts to hear those kind of things. I never learned to swim as a child because I heard those things. When I was a kid my mom said 'shame on them' when I told her kids called me fat at swimming lessons. Mom, kid's at school made fun of me, I'd say. You know what she'd say: you hold your head up high.

Shame on me I forgot that her advice still works.

Good luck to all of you on your journey and good luck to me!

[Moving Forward]

That all sounds right on! Good sound advice for all of us to heed. I don't want to be on a diet either, so the official word is that I'm not. I'm just making a whole bunch of healthier choices all at once. Good luck to you too!