I started at 47 this current and forever weight loss and then maintaining journey. How is your blood work? And your blood pressure? Are those good? Cholesterol? How is your CV? Can you run for any distance? How is your strength?

You cannot equate being pain free with being healthy. I've only been in the hospital once in my life for a severely broken wrist at 12. Ironically I've a calf pull now from tennis and that is literally the only other time I've been to a doctor for other than check ups and colds, one pink eye my entire life. And oh yeah sleep apnea completely due to my weight. I did that to me.

No joint problems. So no major health problems but I was NOT healthy. And the train of health problems was coming FAST for me. I am sure I was heading to type 2 diabetes at the minimum. I got way too winded way to fast.

Now my BP has gone from say 135/85 to 116/65. I've knocked about 20-25 heart beats per minute down. What is that in a day? Well multiply by 1,440. Then a week? A year?

46 start now. I was going to say in 20s, 30s, you had time. But that bad health train is coming, you don't want it to reach the station. Of course 1 out of 100 seem to do OK more or less health wise at higher weights their whole lives. I'd still say they compromise their energy and clarity. But are you willing to bank on being that 1 out of 100?

How is losing weight a lot of work? It might be hard to change habits but it is NOT a lot of work. Not getting up to have a candy bar is not hard work. It might be hard, but I agree with Ian it isn't hard work. Now helping keep my home clean THAT is a lot of work to me.

The OP clearly stated that, to her, losing weight is alot of work, and very difficult. That is her reality.

It is also my reality, so I get where she is coming from.

I'm so happy for people who find it terribly easy to lose and maintain the loss -- YAY for them, you won the lotto! But perhaps they could recognize that their reality isn't EVERYONE'S reality. Given how overweight our society has become I could hazard to guess that their reality isn't even the majority's reality.

Thinpossible: I would suggest to you that there is a bit of a "gift" hidden in your attitude. Many people are just DESPERATE to get the weight off. If you don't have that horrible feeling of pressure, you can take an approach of just starting the ball rolling by changing one small thing. Then when that change has become habit and you feel really comfortable with it, change another small thing, and then another, and then another, etc.

Even if you lose very slowly, so what? You will still be losing and even more importantly, you won't be GAINING. I would say you have identified enough positives to losing weight that it is worth at least that minimal amount of effort to start. No need to do a 180 on ALL your habits all at once and make a huge, painful dramatic lifestyle change!

Pick a small thing and go from there. As you proceed you might find yourself revisiting your motivations for losing weight and finding new ones... you never know!

Just an idea!

How is losing weight NOT hard work? Running ten miles would take less than two hours; losing 10 pounds would take me months of HARD WORK – mentally and physically.

Losing weight is hard - if it wasn’t, everyone would be skinny.

Great post. And weight loss is hard for me too. I've never heard known anyone to say that it's easy. I have worked HARD to get to where I am.

Well it can be hard work. But it can also be changing habits that gets easier and easier and easier and becomes second nature.

And exercise can become very plaeasurable not hard work. I didn't say it didn't take TIME. But it isn't necessarily hard work. Now some people find cleaning pleasurable, I don't. But it takes time. So yes I get the 'hard work' for some not others.

Comes down to attitude. But no losing weight doesn't have to be hard work. I can think of a million harder things, personally. And I suppose that is the crux, personslly.

And getting my ball rolling again was hard work. I was a carb addict and the first few weeks were hard almost to the point I felt ill at times. But I was determined to not be a hostage to carbs the rest of my life. So worth it and so much easier after the first month.

I will also say it is work. Just not what I would say 'hard'. Thankfully so appreciative I have the means to make good food choices. I grew up on public assistance. My mom had a lot of things stacked against her. THAT was hard for her and me. Moving and playing sports and enjoying it is not hard, at least that is my attitude. Eating yummy but good food is not hard. It does take time and commitment. But maybe I just refuse to see it as hard because it is so important and so worth it.

For me, weight loss is hard work mentally AND physically. It has been for as long as I can remember.

I know many people look at me and see a lazy waste of space. I've worked all my life at weight loss and could only succeed at loss when I gave up almost everything else.

Looking back, I'm a little less hard on myself. If I had not put in all that work, I would surely have been 800 or more pounds.

If you're not ready to commit to weight LOSS, consider committing making healthier choices with the goal of "not gaining." That's where I started. I only made changes I was willing to make even if no weight loss resulted.

I've lost very gradually, and that's ok with me. I'm not on a timetable any more. I have no deadline. It's not easy, but I am making it no harder than it has to be.

Ultimately, you will follow your priorities. You will put your efforts into whatever you care about most.

You sound like me in a way. I hate attention. Now that I'm 30 lbs down, the guy in front of me at the grocery checkout will turn around MANY times to try and make eye contact. I just ignore them, but it feels nice...

I think your plan sounds great! I haven’t been doing this as long as some of the previous posters, but the one thing I would suggest is to have replacements/substitutions for the things you want to change. Maybe have gum around instead of candy. Have some lowfat string cheese, natural applesauce, carrots, or protein bars, so you don’t pick-up the fast food, and you can go home and cook and not be starving or think you’re starving.

I think you’ll also be surprised how much you like some of the changes that happen when you start losing weight. I’ve been doing some workout videos, and I LOVE the little muscles on my arms… love, love, love… Didn’t expect it, and it is totally worth it . Honestly making your post makes me think you know you need to lose the weight, whether difficult or not.

It’s difficult for me too.

Well, there are a number of reasons weight loss is difficult for me. I don't like to exercise, I love junk, I'm very inconsistent and undisciplined. It's my greatest struggle. About the only thing I'm consistent in is keeping my house clean and going to bed on time, everything else is just hit or miss.

But I think people's suggestions of making a couple of small changes may be doable.

OP, I think you have to do whatever feels best for you. But, one comment you made sticks out for me.

Being overweight is not keeping you as invisible as you think; people may approach a fit/thin person more often than one who is carrying extra pounds, but trust me, others notice fat people just a much.

The only difference is the thin/fit person gets talked to his or her face and the fat person gets talked to behind their back.

While I can understand you want to encourage the OP by saying that weight loss is easy, saying so is actually demeaning and makes people feel worse.

OP, think of it this way. Losing weight IS hard but you know what's harder? Taking care if someone who is ill. That's the position you put your loved ones in when you don't take care if your health. Do you want that for your children? Do you want someone running your errands because you can't? Tying your shoes because you can't reach? I always think about that when I want to give up.

I am going to learn something from the original poster. Cleaning isn't hard for her and I bet it would be a lot easier for me if I adopted some of my lessons from weight loss: attitude, habits, small changes, just small things adding up.

I think saying weight loss is hard is self defeating. But it's all attitude isn't it? I love junk also. But my attitude/ priorities changed. Also I thought I wasn't one of the 'lucky ones' for who it isn't easy or had a bad metabolism. Maybe that is true for many people, we are not all created equal metabolism wise. But I learned for me it was complete BS. When I changed my habits I lost weight.

So I have to adapt weight loss success to cleaning success. Maybe the OP can do it in reverse. And talk about house cleaning. Your first and most important 'house' is your body.

And I bet I love junk food just as much as the OP. But it was literally killing me. And it was hard to change. But everyone deserves to give themselves a month no matter how hard to go off it. That was hard. Now it isn't.

Also everything is connected when you are eating junk your body is so tired and malnourished, yes you can be that and overweight, that exercising is hard. You have to break the cycle then it gets much easier. New habits. I have to break my aversion to cleaning cycle. Different things are hard for different people, I posted that above.

I am trying to change my attitude to cleaning saying and thinking it isn't hard. How foes saying its hard make anything better?

I think saying it can be hard to start but then gets easier is much more encouraging. If we say it is hard hard hard hard all the time forever that would be discouraging to me.

Diamondgeog - I understand what you are saying. I always say that, for me, weight loss is 95% food management, 5% exercise, and 5% attitude. That attitude part is definitely important!

There are, for me, hard days and easy days. At the beginning, way more hard days than easy, that's for sure. But just because something is hard, doesn't mean it isn't VERY worth while.

It does get easier, though for me -- so far -- I wouldn't go so far as to say it is overall an easy task. That's just me. I'm not that far into this go-round for me, less than a year. Maybe if I can truly learn to maintain it will truly get easier.

But whether I'm having a easy day OR a really frickin' hard one, I'm going to stay committed. Because being healthy is what I want.

But I take your point about encouragement. Embrace the SUCK at the beginning, knowing that the SUCK will lessen over time as you build good habits, wean yourself off of junk, and adopt new healthy strategies. And be prepared for the hard days, too, and know how to make it through them.

Yes it is, I'm not saying it's a good habit, and I'm sure it doesn't make things easier. I'm just saying it here in this thread because I'm trying to decide if the difficulty is worth it. If it was easy, I would just sail through, and there would be no debate. But I get what you're saying.

I will try this. I didn't used to be neat, in fact I was pretty messy, but with 6 people in the house it was worth it to invent a system where I could keep it clean and get things running smoothly, because the alternative was not fun. I will try to apply the same mindset to losing weight.