Heya folks!

The weight loss board I've been reading and participating in for some time has nearly died out, so I thought I'd look around and see what else was out there, as I find myself needing more support than usual as of late. I was happy to find such an active and vibrant group as you folks have here so I thought I'd join up and introduce myself and tell ya'all my story.

I'm a 36 year old computer nerd who lives in Seattle Washington. With a few exceptions, I've been overweight my entire life, and on Feburary 12th 2002 I bought a scale that was capabale of finding out just how overweight I was, most scales top out at around 350 pounds. Turns out on that day I weighed 457 pounds, which was a lot to cary on my six foot frame. I had considered weight loss surgery, as I was a decent candidate for it having been relatively healthy as well as morbidly obese, but for various reasons I chose to attempt to lose weight the old fashioned way -- diet and exercise. By October of 2003 I weighed in at 183 pounds, which was enough to clasify my weight as "normal" by BMI standards.

Since then I've tried to maintain my weight loss by sticking to a regular exercise routine and trying to eat sensibly, but the weight has begun to slowly creep back. Today I weigh 217 pounds, which is pretty alarming to me. My current goal is to try to get back under 200 pounds by the end of the summer. If I can pull this off my reward to myself will be to go through with a surgical procedure to try to remove some of the loose skin, which is a daily and unpleasant reminder of my past.

Hi folks!

spud

Hi Spud:
Nice to meet you, I am looking for buddy's to keep me on the straight and narrow. I am 42 and a mom of 3. I have probably close to 100 pounds to drop. God that sounds terrriable. I have MSN , if you do please add me, we can do this togather.

Cheers

Wow Spud, what a great story, to lose that much weight Congrats on that. I only have a little over 30 to lose but wanna lose it by the end of summer also, maybe we could keep each other on track to get there.....you and my hubby have a lot in common, he's a big time computer geek also lol. He's currently doing Atkins and me and daughter are doing South Beach.....any particular diet plan you followed the first time to lose all that weight? Maybe you could be a little more strict with yourself now.....When i start getting a little sloppy with my eating I buckle down and be strict with myself, maybe that could help you also, Best of luck!

Howdy Jenn!

I lost most of my weight by eating around 1200 calories a day and exercising one hour on an elliptical trainer around 5 days a week. I ate around 600 calories in the morning and around 600 calories in the evening, I skipped lunch. For breakfast I ate my favorite cold cereal (Fiber one) with skim milk and some fruit. For dinner I made sandwiches using 40 calorie a slice bread, light mayo, mustard, lots of veggies, light cheese (which is kinda gross and plastic like) and lean pressed turkey.

These days I'm not so careful about what I eat, and I only exercise around 3-4 hours per week, which explains how the weight has crept back on. I love sweet breads (banana, pumpkin, squash) and coffee (with steamed whole milk), which is where most of my unwanted calories are comming from I think. You're right, I do seriously need to buckle down.

Are you going to try to journal? I haven't really investigated that part of the board yet...

Nah, prob won't do a journal, don't have that much time on my hands (got 2 kiddos) I need to exercise more....went for a 45 minute walk on Tuesday and did about 30 minutes of strenght training....plan on taking the kiddos to the park today, oldest (7) can ride her bike while I push the youngest (15 months) in the stroller.....how are the ellipticals? I'm looking for some kind of home equipment for my cardio, can't really decide between a treadmill, elliptical or exercise bike.....kinda hard to find the time to walk with hubby working night shift and 2 young kids lol, (prob just my excuse)
anyway, have a good day

Have fun at the park today! It's really nice here in Seattle, gonna be about 80 degress. I'm gonna play some Dance Dance Revolution in a bit (got inspired to try it by reading this board recently) and am going to maybe do some cycling later.

I have to say that I totally love elliptical machines, but a good one will set you back some money. When I started working out on one I was very heavy and self concious, so I wasn't about to go to a gym, I wanted to do it in the privacy of my own home. Now a lot of the cheaper made elliptical machines won't support 400+ pounds of weight, so I was forced to buy a more expensive expensive gym model. I picked the Life Fitness 9500HR which could handle my weight and although cost a fotrune was worth every penny. Since I've lost the weight I've been to a number of different gyms and have tried a bunch of different ellipticals and the Life Fitness 9500HR is still my favorite out of all of them. It's extremely comfortable and well built. The thing I love about ellipticals is that you can get a great workout wthout hurting yourself. I was so worried about my knees and ankles when I first started, but the elliptical has managed to get me in great shape without any injury.

spud

Hello and Welcome!! WOW Congrats on your weight loss!! I to have alot of weigh to loss slowly but surely I will get there!! Good Luck with lossing the rest!! I know you can do it!

YEAY!!!! DDR is so much fun!!!! ^_^ I have to say Im pretty impressed with you spud. Im trying to get my mother on the road to weightloss. Shes currently at 300lbs. She used to be a star athlete but do to a terrible terrible accident she was unable to play sports and settled in to a bit of depression and gained all her weight. I would love for her to read your story .

A note of help on the eating scale. I think you have a similar problem that I have. You love to eat Like me! Key thing to keep in mind is your not living to eat, your eating to live. As some people here suggested, maybe take fitday.com into your diet. At least see where things are going wrong. Ive only been doing it for 3 days now, but the first day i did blindly and it was a smack in th face how many calories i was taking in! Anyways, Goodluck! If you want, my AIM is xithilx . OH btw... Im a computer nerd as well:P

Hi Spud and welcome to 3FC! I'd like to invite you to check out our Maintainers Forum here. It's a place for people like you who have lost weight and are determined to keep it off for the rest of their lives.

One thing we all have discovered is that goal isn't an end to the journey and that maintenance is an on-going battle that we fight every day. It's not at all unusual to hit goal and then regain a bit, so don't panic. Feel free to stop by and read some of the posts - we had a great discussion of Anne Fletcher's Thin For Life in the Maintenance Library - and jump in on our weekly thread if you'd like.

Glad you found us here at 3FC!

Hello spud,
I love your story, it gives me some hope, as I want to lose about 100 pounds. I am glad to hear such positives about the elliptical. I keep thinking about getting one but I don't have the money for a pricey one. I may just have to get one after all I have heard. Any advice you could give me would really be appreciated. Thanks
Jen

It's ok to love those foods Spud. But you need to keep it in the front of your mind that they should be treats and not a daily diet. I used to have a donut for breakfast...ok...I had 2 or 3 donuts for breakfast. There! I said it. :P Now, if I really really want that donut, I have it instead of my usual breakfast and just realize that's what I need to do in order to break ranks every now and then and have something I really want. But then go back to my eggs and Special K or whatever the next day.

As for your exercise, buy a membership into something to motivate you to go exercise since you've spent money on it. Or find a friend that will exercise with you to keep you motivated. Try a different routine or a different time. Go to a gym right after work or at lunch and see if you can stick with that. Whenever I find myself slacking off on exercise, I change my routine or go buy a membership in something to get me out and doing it.

Hello Spud!

You should be so proud of yourself ! I too am gonna give myself the gift of surgical skin removal. It is going to be so wonderful to finally feel and look as young as I actually am. You deserve it, you have worked so hard to accomplish such a major goal. An I know from personel experience that until I get the surgery, I will not feel like I am completely successful. Congratulations on your success. Maintaining is so hard, but just try and keep focused and remember that you are worth a long healthy and happy life!

Debbie

Thanks for the kind welcome folks, I hope to be hanging around for some time. Thanks to Boiaby and Meg for steering me towards the maintainers forum. I've already read a bunch of great stuff over there. Meg's summary of skin surgery posts as well as her own story were great reads.

spud

Hey Gingergin, as far as cheaper elliptical trainers go, I think you can find a number of them out there but beware they can and do break. It seems like you might want to do as much research ahead of time to find what the better cheaper models are and then scope them out on eBbay or craigslist I've heard of people getting great deals on used exercise equipment at garage sales too.

spud

Hey Gingergin,
You may also want to check out some local gyms in your area, some are actually willing to sell there old equipment when they upgrade. I bought my first treadmill from the gym that I belong to about 4 years ago, I have since sold it, but it still ran great. But, just like buying a used car, check it out first.

Deb