I this goal. I'm going to steal this idea, this speaks to me so strongly!! Thank you SOOO much for sharing it!!

Wonderful! I'm so glad!

I'm new to the site but just wanted to say that all of you are an inspiration to me.... I'm at 155 ish right now (according to the wii) and I'm 5 ft so I need to lose about 25-30 lbs.... these pounds have been around since my daughter was born 6 years ago!!! I need to lose it!!

I think the biggest key to realize is that you can't look at the total weight you need to lose when you are starting but making smaller goals is most important. Every pound counts.

I am sitting here hovering between 158-160 and going into the holiday season I fully expect to be sitting around 162 by the new year. Yes, I would have liked to have been at my goal weight of 150 by this point but I am still thrilled to be maintaining the upper 150's for the last few months which in itself is a huge achievement for me. When January comes I know I will kick my efforts back into gear but for now, I'm learning to be happy with where I am and not always looking ahead to where I want to be.

And hey, you might just be resetting your new "normal"! That's awesome!

It's interesting how we measure our results. I am at a weight that many people might scoff at. They might say I'm settling for less than I could achieve.

But I have changed my life with the weight I have lost.

Losing more weight is a goal of mine. But my final goal is going to be a lot higher than many would want. And really, my final goal is not about a number on the scale, it's about being able to live my life. Some colleagues came by and challenged my dept to a snowball fight today. I'm not feeling the greatest, but I was THRILLED to be able to say "yes" and go out and have fun and not worry about it like I did when I weighed nearly 300 pounds.

the fact is that i dont think theres a chart in the world that has a *right* number on it. im also 5'6 and when i read that im supposed to weigh 132-135 by the OP i was like, what?? thats pretty darn specific.

we all have different ideas of how we want to look at the end of this. some want to be tiny, others want to have curves or muscle, some just want to fit into their old clothes that are size 10 or 12 or 6 or whatever.

who cares if ppl think you're "settling", if you're happy and healthy then that is what matters.

to redreine, it can definitely be overwhelming to think about the whole thing at once. i got a sheet of paper and wrote the number of my starting weight to my first mini goal in 0.2 lb increments. (200.0, 199.8, 199.6, etc.) that way even if i only lost 1/2 lb that week i'd still get to cross something off and feel like i was accomplishing something.

just take it one mini goal at a time.

Can you lose 100 lbs overnight? Or 200 lbs? Well, you can't, but you also can. It's a matter of perspective. I'm well on my way to losing 200 lbs. Did it happen overnight? Of course not--it's taken me about 16 months to lose 160 lbs. At the beginning it seemed like it would take FOREVER but it hasn't, at all. And now, perception-wise, I look back and it literally feels like I went to bed last night super morbidly obese (BMI well over 50) and woke up this morning average. Really.

Technically, I'm still obese but appearance-wise, I look merely overweight. I carry a lot of muscle and, thanks to genetics, exercise and whole foods, I have a very small waist and the rest of my weight is very evenly distributed.

I think the mini-goal celebrations are great, but do listen to Robin. This is a PERMANENT LIFELONG LIFESTYLE change. But, it really does seem like I lost it all overnight.

I just wanted to point out one other struggle I've had in the past, that I'm very thankful I'm not struggling with now.

Portion control. I used to not eat often, but when I did, I'd go back for seconds, sometims thirds. Once I started dieting, it seemed like such a task to eat the serving size. Now, it's different.

Now I'm not focusing on the serving size. When I feel full, I stop eating. As I've been doing this, I've come to realize it doesn't take much to make me full...I dunno, say, A SERVING SIZE? (lol)

Also, to those of you out there having the same issue with portions, something that has always been a great help to me was chewing my food and putting my fork down between bites. It doesn't sound like much, but it's definitely one of those cases where a little goes a long way.