New Maintainer... :)
 

So for months I've been looking forlornly on these forums waiting for the day when I would be able to officially join you all.

And it's here. Well, yesterday it was. I promised myself if I weighed in again at 135 then I would post here, and I did.

So here I am, down 65 pounds to 135...a weight I thought I would never see :dizzy:

I know that the hardest part of my journey is just beginning but I'm determined to not go back! :)

Welcome ! Congratulations on a great loss.

Hi there and welcome! Congrats on your loss!

:welcome: Congrats! Please join us over on the weekly chat thread or any other thread you please!

Thank you so much everyone! :) I look forward to maintaining with you all! <3

Welcome! Congratulations on your weight loss. We're glad you're here! :)

Welcome and Congrats on your loss!!

Thanks! :D

Better late . . . :welcome2: and congrats on your loss.

Dagmar :cool:

Looking forward to being a maintainer
 

:comp: I have to be in the right mindset from the start if I'm going to make my goals... so please forgive me for lurking on this forum. Being a maintainer is where I've failed in the past. thank you to all that share their stories. :book2:

DocAuD, lurk away! Join us if you please! We love it when people join us! :D

If you have lost one pound and kept it off, you are a maintainer.

:comp: Megan and bargoo... thanks for welcoming me and making me feel a part of this group. I didn't think that I was a maintainer since I haven't met goal, but bargoo you make an interesting point. I have been happy to find this forum and amazed at some of the members that have been posting for years and years. I can most assuredly find inspiration from being here.

DocAud, I dieted for years and was able to lose but was never able to maintain, it was after joining 3fc that I learned how to do it and I learned from people who had maintained for a long time. You can do it, too.

DocAuD I am a newbie maintainer but the maintainers here are so knowledgeable and inspiring! :) I have learned so much from them and I hope to be a part of the maintainers here for a long, long time!

DocAuD - like Bargoo and Megan said, if you've lost a pound and kept it off you're a maintainer. Lurk away if you want, or pop in and chat! I've been maintaining for a while now, but I'm still learning how to do it, too. The support here has been a lifesaver. Welcome!

i don't know about you guys, but i have a bad habit of going all out on a program (gym membership, then yoga classes, then running/training, etc) only to stop cold turkey and lapse into a hazy couch potato. seems like a vicious cycle. thankful i haven't done the fad and yo-yo diet cycle since i was a teen... so i've avoided that particularly bad habit for a long time. my exercise habits though... so shameful, so shameful. :( I could use some tips! thanks Maintainers!!

Well that's the problem—going all out! It can work for some people, but for many of us it just doesn't work :)

Start slow—even if it takes years to completely change your habits. I know you probably don't want to hear that, but slowly changing your habits is better than never changing them at all.

For me, I started exercising long before I began losing weight last year. I was an avid gym rat for six and a half years before I started my weight loss journey! Going to the gym was so ingrained in me that I didn't think twice about it and it wasn't such a big deal for me to change my eating habits and couple it with exercise because exercise didn't feel like some change I was making.

I often suggest that people start with one thing—healthy eating or exercise—make a habit of it (or at least get used to it) before adding in the other. It's a lot to change your life at once!

:comp: sontaikle, thanks for that tip. i never thought of it that way. I have been doing pretty well with eating healthy for the last 10 years but didn't take up calorie counting until now. so this is a big adjustment for me and it may be as you said that I need to make it a habit and then add another life change. I like your idea. Thanks. :hug: