I've heard various places on here where people are asking about motivation, and how to keep the motivation to keep going. At first, I was surprised because a lot of the people said they simply didn't have motivation. They treated it like anything else they have to do but don't want to do - they do it anyway, like it or not. I have been making myself work out quite a bit lately, and I can see how and why it works. When you try to stay motivated, sometimes there really is no motivation. But, that's when you need to do it the most, so sucking it up and doing it anyway has been working for me.

I'm tired and grouchy and so I will put off the individual replies for a little while. Take care everyone.

Thanks for the tips! Hopefully i can wean myself outta the habit.. and what a nasty habit it is!

Kayley: I know where you are with the pants. I am 5’4” and If I buy the petite they shrink and if I buy the regular size they are 6 inches too long so it is hard to tell what something will look like. I am pinning the sides to keep mine on as I don’t sew. Enjoy the Hockey Game!

Lanne: I get the urge to eat fast food whenever I go out shopping, it can be tough not to give in. You did great! The walking is easier to do each day don’t you think?

Zelma: It is so great to see you have reached such a wonderful milestone! I know I will get there too. I am so looking forward to having problems finding the right size 12! Lol

Felicia: Good for you, making the jello choice must have felt very good. Do you have “no pudge brownies” there? I like that you can make just one at a time. A good thing.

Butterflyns: You are coping with your stress very well, shopping with friends is a great way to spend a day.

Liannw: You are doing things the right way, go slow and change one thing at a time, there is no rush you will get there. How wonderful to be able to go to the Y with the whole family, that is a great way to stay close and get healthy.

Lanne: Have you ever tried “sprouted grain tortillas”? They make a great pizza crust and are so good for you and tasty too!


I have done some house work today and passed on the walking. I will do it again in the morning. I like to have 1 day a week off. I am making up some walking playlists for my mp3 player so I will have more variety and better arrangements that include a warm up and cool down song.

I bought some new runners for doing my tapes in the house and it sure is hard to find comfortable shoes. I am not able to spend 300.00 on a pair, wow have prices gone up on these things!
You all have a great night!

hi all! its been a good week here. ive been on plan all week so far. even going to disneyland with my friend. shes doing low carb so she eats all the junky stuff i cant have. we split a burger and fries, which i justified because A. i was realistic about my points, B. we walked arround all day, and C. we split it.

for dinner we went to an area resturaunt and i had a brown rice veggie burger and didnt eat the bread. and i got fruit instead of salad.

i also brought fruit and jello snacks to set today (and will tomorrow too). im very proud of myself. i really need to go to the gym, but i just started my TOM today and... well... i just dont feel like it. i know its just excuses, but im ok with that right now. its cold and rainy outside and my back hurts. it would be nice to go sit in the hot tub at the gym tho. thats for sure. so other than that, im just good. i weighed myself today. one of the places we are shooting is a weight loss dr's office so they have all the fancy scales and measureing devices. its pretty cool. they have this one thats like the scales at WW but it does sonic waves and electricity through your body. it measures just your bone weight, your body mass, all that fun stuff. it was neato.

To keep you guys updated, I had the first half of my physical. Mostly it was check my heart, eyes, ears kind of thing, and listing all my surgeries and hospitalizations. I will take my X-ray and urine test next week. The nurse was very nice and told me to wait on my urine test until I was half way between my cycles. Something about not wanting any red blood cells in my urine. She also said that when you are sponsored by a husband, they just don't turn you down on the physical part. If you are trying to sponsor a grandfather with alzehimers or a nephew on dialisis, that's what they try to avoid. I've been in marriage prep classes for the last two days, and tomorrow is the last one. If you are over 40 or already had a marriage, the class is just a weekend. If you are younger, it lasts 3 months. They teach them budgeting and stuff like that. I guess they figure if you are 40, and still can't balance a check book, you aren't going to learn now. It has involved stuff like conflict resolution, avoiding overreacting, how to keep your marriage alive, and stuff like that. It has gone from really raw at times, to really boring, especially the conflict resolution stuff. I have over 1000 hours of mediation training, and used to train mediators, so I was quite bored for this part. The dealing with stepchildren part was also boring since neither of us have kids. We will have to meet privately with the facilitators before we can get married in the church next July. We had to take this long SAT type of test called FOCUS that asked all sorts of questions like whether you thought your inlaws would cause trouble in your marriage, how much money would you spend without discussing it with your husband first, etc. We also have a bunch of counseling sessions with our pastor. He is not pleased that we are marrying civilly first. He understands that it is about immigration stuff, but he can't officially condone it. Himself is very good friends with a retired Monsinour, and might be able to get him to marry us sooner. That will probably piss our pastor off, but there is nothing he can do about it. We are not kids, and I feel like in a way I have wasted the first half of my life, and don't want to miss a moment of the second half. I want to savor each day like it is my last, but hope that I have at least 40 more years ahead of me.

wow. thats just... amazing. im so happy for you!

Hello Everybody!

I am new here. I've been obese my ENTIRE life. My first real memory is of me sitting in front of an open fridge and eating bologna and butter...together!LOL!!! All throughout school I was the FAT girl! When I graduated from high school in 1996...I weighed 340 lbs. I told my self that I was not going to go to college fat. I didn't want anyone to tease me anymore. I lost 120lbs. in about 8 months. I ate low calorie and low fat food and I exercised ALOT! Well...that didn't last. I had NO motivation to keep it off. I was going through a depressive time. I gained it almost ALL back.

Through the last 9 years, I have been on almost every diet out there. I've lost weight off and on but haven't been able to maintain. I knew that I had a problem but couldn't figure out what it was. Why was I giving in and gaining it all back?

I finally realized that I was dieting. WRONG!!!! Diet is such a bad word to me. I needed to make a lifestyle change. I needed to eat foods that were real and I needed to incorporate the NO-NO foods into my life somehow. I deprived myself of all the foods that I loved until I just went Hog Crazy and ate them ALL!!

I have been eating healthier for the past 2 weeks. I still eat bigger portions at this point in time but I eat completely different foods than what I used to. I eat grilled chicken, fresh salads, flavorful veggies, fish, and even ice cream. (Healthy Choice kind) I have been exercising everyday except for Sundays. I feel better already. I have dropped 13 lbs in the past two weeks. I think that I surprised my body that it didn't know what I was doing.

I KNOw in my heart that I am going to lose this weight and that I WILL keep it off. So many things in my life has changed over the past few years. This is one of the biggest reasons that I am so unhappy!

What's it like to be thin? I have NO CLUE!!! I will know soon though!

Thank You for letting me tell you a little bit of my story! I just wanted you to know a little about me!

Catherine - I hope you are having a fabulous time!

LoveGoddess1977 - Hello and to the site! You are trying again, and that's all that matters!! You can do this!!!!

The game last night was really fun. A lot more than I had expected. Unfortunately, I was only able to get another 3 hours of sleep! So I'm in the EXACT same boat I was in yesterday morning. I'm off to take my shower, and get ready for work, as I have to leave in an hour! It wouldn't be so bad if I was rested enough...but I have a feeling that today is going to be ROUGH. And I'm taking a nap PRONTO when I get home today at 3pm! Hope you all have a successful day!!

OK, here's the next instalment of my 'novel'. I truly do tend to 'talk' too much. I suppose at least you can just scroll on by while I go on and on and on and....

Kayley - I'm certainly glad you are planning a nap in the afternoon, but I wish you'd slept better. I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I suppose you were too hyped up to sleep. I'm hopeless at going out at night. I'm definitely a morning person.

LoveGoddess - Welcome! It is wonderful to see you and hear a little of your story. I think you have the right attitude to do this. I had never tried that many diets before, but when I did I put the weight back on fairly quickly and always added a lot more. I changed my lifestyle almost exactly two years ago and haven't looked back since. I finally feel as though I have control of my eating for the first time in a LONG while. I am currently a weight that I can never remember being, at least as an adult. I started putting on weight when I was 11 and TOM started. I have always had a feeling that hormones affected my weight, and this seems to confirm that. I think I must have gone from kids' sizes to a large adult size, because I am now able to buy clothing sizes that I can NEVER remember buying before. It is SO exciting! Problem is, all the people in shops keep having to hear about my weight loss as I'm still so excited about it and the novelty of all this available clothing. I'm mostly mentioning this because you asked what it would like to be thin. I'm not what I would call 'thin', but I'm certainly the thinnest I can remember being as an adult and I'm loving it. I love being able to do things that I couldn't do before, like fit into restaurant chairs. I love being able to have a choice in clothes - although I'm buying WAY too many. (Bought more today, and it's a Sunday! Over here we don't have many stores open on a Sunday, but I managed to find one.) I love not being stared at and laughed at and having rude comments made about me. I could go on, but I would probably bore you.

I want you to believe that you can do this. I would never have believed it before about me, but I was never ready before. Two years ago, something just 'clicked' and I felt as though I suddenly knew what I had to do - just like you.

If you have any questions, just ask. As you can see, I like to talk!

Catherine - I am so excited for you on this special journey of yours. I can understand how wonderful you must feel. I met my hubby 8 years ago - on the Internet of all places. We didn't go on the Internet to meet someone, we were just in a chat room like any other and one thing led to another and here we are. Actually, I was in a REALLY bad mood one day due to something that had happened at work and we were the only familiar names in the entire room, where there were ALWAYS lots of familiar people in there the other times we had visited. Hubby (now) asked if I knew where all the familiar faces were and I told him that I didn't know, but he probably wouldn't want to talk to me as I didn't feel that sociable. Well, he tells me this was like a red rag to a bull and he just HAD to make me feel better. Lots of messages, phone calls, gifts and photos, letters etc later and he came to visit - and we haven't been apart since, except when he went away for a week for visa requirements and we both cried on the phone every day.

Phew! I do have a purpose in writing all of that... it's just taking me a while to get to it. Hubby is Canadian - aren't Canadian men just adorable? - and we had to go through all of the rigmarole of getting him a visa, then permanent residency and now he is an Australian Citizen. It was a lot of hassle, but it was definitely worth it. I hope that things go smoothly for you with paperwork, wedding ceremonies, etc.

Luan - I am sorry that you are not feeling too good because of the TOM. I've had a number of years without that and have only recently had my cycle return. I'm not sure that it was something I was expecting so soon, if at all, and I'm not really thrilled about it. I suppose it makes me feel a little more 'normal', having a regular cycle (well twice so far), but I do NOT like the weight problems that come with it. I have found that both times I actually put ON weight instead of losing it. Nobody warned me about that! At least I'll be ready the next time, but I will probably still get a little depressed about it. Well done on the food side of things. I find it very difficult to stay on track when we are out. I tend to just try to take something with me as I'm too fussy now.

Brandnewme - I understand totally about not having the motivation, just doing it! My exercise sessions have just become part of my daily routine now. I am not necessarily 'motivated' to do them, but I sure don't feel right when I have to miss one for whatever reason. I don't really even think that much about doing them anymore. I get up in the morning and go on the treadmill for 40 mins, and I watch the morning shows on TV, then in the afternoon I go on the exercise bike for 30+ mins while news is on. I know that lots of people need exciting exercise things to do, but this seems to be working for me. I know that I NEED to do these things, so it isn't really an option. I can't say, "Oh, I'll just skip that today, it won't matter." It does seem to matter to me, my system seems to need the regular workouts and my mind needs to know that it isn't an option. Oh well... enough of the waffling. I hope you are feeling a little better today. You mentioned that you were tired and grouchy and I hope that today you are energetic and happy.

Valerie - Thank you for the award! You asked when I started this lifestyle change. It is almost exactly two years ago now. It was on the 12th or 13th of January 2004 when I had my 'brainwave' and realised what I had to do. I can't remember the exact date, which is sad, but I'm close enough.
I'm glad you found a Curves to work out in. I know how 'stodgy' I feel if I can't work out. Take care of those ribs though.

Well, I think it is time to head off to bed and read for a while. Hubby and I have done a LOT of housework today, getting ready for his Dad and his wife to visit from Canada on Wednesday. We're nearly there, and the house is feeling almost 'normal'. We also spend an hour and a half wandering around the zoo today, which was lovely. All in all, a wonderful day.

Take care all,

Zelma

Just a quick one, Ammi its probably the awful cold weather and stress that you have been through recently not helping you, hope you feel better soon.

If anyone is interested I finally got hubby to help me put some photos on the picture sticky thread, of Gareth's birthday outing and ME!!!! on the carousel they had there.

regards,
sharon

Ammi – I’m glad to hear you didn’t hurt yourself when you put your knee through the bed base. I don’t know if I would have had the guts to make that insurance claim. That is great that you were able to not let the embarrassment of the situation stop you.

Katie – another thing that has helped me for nighttime eating is herbal tea. You can get so many different flavors depending on what you like. My favorite is Bengal Spice, but I also got one over the holidays called Gingerbread Spice that tastes just like gingerbread (both are Celestial Seasonings). They give your mouth something to do, taste good and help get your water for the day in.

Kayley – What a great thing to be needing more money for! I am trying to hold off on buying anything for a while and am putting a little bit in the bank every month so I will have money to spend when I get there.

LeAnne – Way to go on not hitting McDonalds. It can be so tempting when you have had a long day. I did eat there recently because my boyfriend wanted to go and their grilled chicken salads aren’t bad.

Zelma – Congrats on getting down to 170. You are such an inspiration. One thing about US sizes is that they are NOT consistent. A 10 at one shop can be an 8 at one and a 12 at another.

Felicia – Way to go not giving in to those cravings. I love those Jello sugar free pudding snacks. Another thing that helps me with those chocolate cravings are Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches. They are great and only like 110 calories I think.

Butterflyns – Sometimes the best way to move on is to keep going. Good for you to go to work and not stay home dwelling on the negative.

Liannw – That is amazing the difference not eating fast food can make! I also started by trying to make small changes like no sweetened drinks and being more careful of portion sizes.

Valerie – That is great you made the healthy choice of salmon and salad over meat and potatoes. Also that is amazing that you are finding Curves wherever you go. Going to the gym can be tough enough when you know what to expect, but going to a new place each time would be more stressful. Are Curves the same everywhere so that isn’t as much of an issue?

Brandnewme – I am starting to know what you mean about motivation for exercise. I don’t want to get too confident since I am really just starting out, but I have exercised every day this month by just getting it in somehow. I set a goal of a minimum of 10 minutes a day, which is totally doable. But once I have started, it is easier to keep going.

Sheri – I am glad you found some good shoes. I also just got some, but now I know that my feet are different because the right one fits perfectly and the left one hurts in the arch. I will have to try and do something with them since I can’t take them back now.

Luan – The hamburger doesn’t sound too bad, especially since you got right back on track with a veggie burger. I didn’t know there was a device that could measure your bone weight. Very cool. Maybe my doctor or my gym has one of those too.

Catherine – I am glad the physical went well. It is usually stressful enough to go to the doctors without feeling like it might affect something as important as your upcoming wedding.

Lovegoddess1977 – I too have been overweight for as long as I can remember. It was that same thing for me – when I made things off limits all of a sudden I craved them intensely. I also set my calorie range WAY too low and no wonder I had issues, because I wasn’t feeding myself enough to survive.

Sharon – Your boy is adorable! I hope he had a nice birthday.

I was supposed to go in to work today (my choice to get things done in prep for our audit), but I think I will just go in super early tomorrow and stay late. I will definitely have to work next weekend, but I think I can get away with it today. Plus we got snow overnight and the roads are still a little bad.

Tomorrow I go and see my primary doctor so she can clear me for the gym. I am getting my cholesterol checked so I can’t eat before the appointment which isn’t until noon. I should probably have my sugar levels checked too, although maybe they do that automatically.