I am new to this site and would like a buddy too! Lots of them to keep me on track!

Well ladies, I did it. I dusted off the eliptical machine and got on it Sunday afternoon. The baby was napping, the hubby downstairs, so I did it. I was on for 17 minutes (I always tend to do too much too soon, so I did what I felt was comfortable). I was proud of myself.

Only problem is that I threw my back out about a month ago picking up my daughter (remember, lift with legs, not with back?), well that's what I did. Now I find that I'm extremely stiff and I guess the doc said I pulled a ligament in my lower back. The problem? Well, if I turn funny in my sleep it ends up pulling again and sending extreme pain through my back. I really want to work out, but don't want to injure myself. Guess I'll have to suck it up and go to the doctor.

I'm eating better too, just went to the grocery store, and no sweets or unhealthy snacks. I even ate chicken with no BBQ, which I usually can't live without, but put different seasonings on it so the BBQ wouldn't be missed. I'm really determined this time and I'm hoping that my hubby will be motivated too.

Good luck everyone!

Hi everyone - I need a motivator - someone to keep track of me and make sure I stay OP. I'm 27, live in Denver, I work in the schools, and I have about 40lbs to lose! And I want to lose it quick! I'm all about eating healthy and being active - no short cuts this time as they never last. Send me a message if you want to be my motivator and if you need one as well!!!

2009 is my year!

Bexx: Welcome, and I think I speak for everyone when I say we would love for you to be a buddy! Motivation is our specialty! Just join in and tell us all about yourself.

MaddiesMom: I actually have the same problem. Lower right side of my back (almost my butt) has been sore for about 3 weeks now. Ever since I started working out. What is weird though, I go through the day and it just keeps getting looser and less stiff and after I get off the elliptical at the gym at about 9:30, my back feels great. I go to sleep at night and wake up the next morning, crazy stiff and have to be careful which way I move. I am not going to go to the doctor unless it gets way worse. I am just going to keep losing weight and I think it should get better not having to carry an extra 200 lbs. LOL. I think losing weight is going to fix absolutely everything in my life. It is the cure-all. At least I hope anyways. Oh an congrats on getting back on the elliptical! It is my machine of choice at the gym. I go about 50 mins a night. I have been doing it about 2 weeks now and I think I am already going to start upping the intensity and resistance because my heart rate isn't getting as high as it was at the beggining.

Butterflywings34: Welcome to you as well. We will definitely try to keep you on track. Just throw your two cents in whenever it seems appropriate. :-)

Hi Butterfly and Texx! i thin the biggest thing to keeping each other motivated is keeping each other accountable. its going to happen - your going to "fall off the wagon" but as long as your willing to jump right back on, you'll accomplish your goals. many of us have shared ou reasoning for wanting to lose weight or an event that leads us to our goal (i.e.: i have a vacation in June to see my family and a cruise in October and I do not want to be the "fat girl" in the photo). You may just want to be healthy and thats a great reason too! we are glad to have you join us. Let me know what day is your weigh in day, thats a great way to support each other. Mine is Sunday. Anyway, i dont know if anyone belongs to a gym but if you dont mind getting in a bathing suit, water aerobics is sooooo much fun and can help a lot with injuries while helping you get toned. they use it at physical rehab facilities all the time. Also, just a thought and many of you may know this but MANY of the insurance companies are starting to cover gym memberships under your insurance, so you may want to check that out. I know my insurance covers LA Fitness and Curves (which is awesome)!

By the way, I usually log on through my G1 phone throughout the day and every time I re-read my post I look illiterate (like I can't spell or use proper punctuation-lol). Please disregard those errors, I am a smart cookie I just have fat fingers that can't type every letter sometimes - haha.

Thats okay lindy. We're not judging=)

I love the show Ruby. I just watched the finale. She is so inspirational. She is so excited about trying to lose weight. I'm going to watch the biggest loser tonight too. I think these shows really keep me motivated.

I wish I had an elliptical at home! That is my dream. I have had a gym membership for the past four years and have only gone maybe 50 times total in that time. Now.. my membership is only 10$ a month because I've had it so long. I still haven't been going like I should. This is like day five of my vacation and I haven't worked out yet. But I have stayed on my diet. My husband's car broke down and he's been taking mine to work, then we he gets home I usually have some errands to do or he wants to spend time with me.... so then I end up not going to the gym. I wish my gym was open later or I had a treadmill at my house. That would be awesome. But.. dieting isn't always easy. I'll find time. I'm going to put in my tae bo dvd. That's something I can do at home.

WELCOME to all the new people! It's so great to see that this forum is getting a lot of support! YAY! We are all so alike with our struggles and accomplisments. We'll do this. It's not a short term fix. It's a lifestyle change. It will come off with time.

Lucky...I didn't even notice any spelling or grammar errors...So I think that makes me even more illiterate ;-) Lol. I just skim when I read, so I think I will use that as an excuse. That also applies when I answer a question that hasn't even been asked. I just read it wrong cause I go too fast. Apparently I can't type today either. Backspace is my friend.

I am going to the gym right at 8 tonight, just so I can watch The Biggest Loser while I workout on the elliptical! We canceled our cable a while back and don't have bunny ears, so the only TV I get is at the gym. (Other than TCM, The Food Network, and Hallmark that is....for some reason when they turned off our cable, they left those three channels). In case anyone didn't know it, The Food Network plays ALOT of reruns, and is not very good to watch late at night when you are on a diet!!!

Does anyone have Planet Fitness near them? That's what gym I am a member of, and I LOVE it. It is so unbelievable affordable. My fiance has a membership...which is $20 a month. With it, you get unlimited guest priviledges, which means as long as I go with him, I can go free. As much as I want!!! So it actually works great for us, because we are doing this weight loss together. If I want to go to the gym, he has to go. If he wants to go the the gym, I have to go. The second part isn't in the rules, but we made it a rule. So we are aiming to go to the gym every day. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. But that is our hope, and if we don't do it, we don't let it bother us. We just go again when we can. Also, whats great about PF is that they are open til 10 weeknights, and 7-7 on weekends. So we can almost always find a time to go (we prefer nights).

My goal for losing weight is to get married. Neither my fiance or myself want to get married while we are obese. We want to look great in our pictures and feel completely comfortable in our skin on that day. We are hoping to have lost enough weight by 9/9/09 to go to Niagra Falls with only our parents and several close friends and get married in a simple ceremony there. Then we want to go to Italy for our honeymoon. ::Sigh:: It can't come quick enough.

P.S. I am sorry I "talk" so much...once I get started, I just can't seem to stop until I get it all out.

Hi all! I guess my biggest reason for wanting to lose weight is my boyfriend. I mean, I'm absolutely doing it for myself first, and him second, but he's the reason I'm going to stick with it this time. He blames himself (he likes to cook and eat fast food) he doesn't have weight issues other than wanting to gain a few pounds (he's 145).
We just moved in together (moved across the country together) he loves me 'just the way I am'. But I don't. I'm about 20 lbs heavier than when we first met. I'd like to be back down to the same weight I was when we met, for our one year anniversary (4/19). If not less.
So that's why I want to lose weight. He wants to go hiking, skiing, etc which I want to do, but at this point am apprehensive because I don't want to hold him back. I started thinking about this over the last week or so and decided on Sunday to make a commitment.
I don't have a set weigh in day. I weigh in every day - which I wish I didn't have to do because it's so discouraging, but I like working out on the Wii Fit and it tells me every day how much I weigh. :-p I make my BF leave the room when my weight comes on the TV. He obliges even though I tell him immediately after, how much I weigh. :-) He goes to the gym with me and competes for high scores with me on Wii fit. He's a fantastic exercise motivator - but not diet motivated at all. He can eat anything and not gain an ounce. It's probably more information than I really needed to share, but once I get going it's hard to reel myself in.
Any tips on dieting? I've tried weight watchers in the past with some success, but the counting always gets to me and I quit. I think I'm going to try eating more frequently - has anyone had any success with this?


SW: 200
CW: 196.7
GW: 185 (2/14) 177 (4/19) 140 (overall)

I'm losing weight so that I can have children one day. Which I've talked about before. But, it never really occurred to me that it really depends on me. I've never wanted something more than I do right now. I want to be healthy and live life to the fullest.

There's a new show coming on tonight called Diet tribe. I think its one word though. Anyway.. it looks really good.

Tiffany-That sounds amazing. I know you'll get there. That's a really good idea with the gym plan. I think I'm gonna get my husband to do that with me.

Bexx-I use to starve myself and lose weight quickly. Then I tried calorie counting.. and I'd lose weight quickly.. but then it would come right back on. Now.. I'm kind of going with the flow. I'm eating three small meals a day with two 100 calorie snacks in between. It's going really good for me. It's keeping my metabolism up and I'm not starving. I've decided that slow and steady is the best way to go. It all really depends on what works for you though. Look at your past dieting attempts and analyze what you did right and wrong. That is what worked for me. Good luck=)

Hey Neesy, the fact that your sticking to your diet while on vacation is impressive, the excerise part is important but if you "fall off the wagon" from exercising, it just means you'll either maintain or not lose as much, 1 out of 2 is not bad. We know you'll get back on track after vacation .

Tcs - please do not think for one second that you over talk or "babble", I enjoy hearing your stories, actually everyones stories and it just gets me more comfortable and able to relate more with my weight loss buddies, I for one appreciate - so, thank you!

Texx - thanks for sharing your story. I think we can all relate. Yes, we all want to get healthy but we also want our mate to be attracted to us. I completely understand where your coming from. My poor hubby met me at 160 and I'm now 220! That's an extra 60 pounds that is "more to love", but I'm sure he would rather do without (not that he has ever said anything to me, its just how I feel). I too used to weigh myself everyday, ibut I came to terms with water weight and realized that if I weighed myself day to day and gained a pound or two even though I stuck to my diet routine I would get upset and frustrated and have the thought of "well, I might as well have a large slice of cheese pizza tonight, I stuck to my diet and gained a pound anyway - what difference does it make." Now I see, a couple times a week of doing this and it makes a huge difference, 220 pounds difference.

I'm glad to hear that people are sticking with their plans in the new year. I'm about to have my "4th" meal of the day, plain oatmeal with real bluberries...yum...yum. Catch ya later!

[QUOTE=luckylindy;2532542]"well, I might as well have a large slice of cheese pizza tonight, I stuck to my diet and gained a pound anyway - what difference does it make." [QUOTE]

Haha...if I had a dollar for everytime I thought this to myself (minus the pizza and add something fried or cheesy) I'd be so rich. I still weight everyday, but I somehow have gotten it through my head that those fluctuations are going to happen. In the beginning, I actually gained 3-4 lbs and didn't lose them for like a week while I was on plan perfectly and working out like crazy. I just can't keep myself off the scale, and I like seeing my progress...whether it be up or down. It also helps me to make changes if I see that something makes me retain water or gain. But I totally know what you mean about not being able to handle those fluctuations.

Wow! You guys are wearing me out just reading all this...haha! I am just starting back after months of no activity. There have been family obligations that have taken a lot of my time and will continue to do so for another month or 2. It really has sucked the energy out of me lately. The holidays didn't help either.

Anyway...I've been eating a little better. Today was 50/50 on the good/bad scale of food quality. Exercise hasn't crept into my daily routine yet, but it's in my weekly schedule.

Today was my 2nd day back to work after vacation and I was wiped out when I got home. Last night I couldn't fall asleep. The last time I looked at the clock was after 12:30 and I get up at 5:30...uugghhh! So the plan is to go to bed early tonight and walk on my treadmill in the morning before work. I don't care if it's only 5 minutes! I have to get my morning routine back. That is when I lost 25 lbs fairly easy and had TONS of energy through the day. ahhemmm...I have since gained it back. So I'm not going to push myself in these beginning, I know myself...I'll quit. I just have to 'outsmart' myself and work around my issues to make it work.

Last night I went to the gym at 8 so that I could watch the biggest loser. Apparently it was a two hour episode...so I did the elliptical hardcore (60 mins at 160 HR, which is the cardio rate for my age) and then realized that there was another hour and got on the bike for some "easy" exercise (30 more mins). DF wasn't feeling so well, so we had to leave with 30 mins left, but I could have easily gone the rest of the two hours. How amazing is that? I can do 90 mins of cardio and I weigh 330 lbs. This is why I need to lose the weight now and not keep putting it off. I haven't affected my body (that bad) yet and still can lead a great life if I get it off now. If I don't, I'm sure the health problems will start creeping up and in effect it will be even harder to lose the weight. So this is me sticking to it and pushing myself harder each and every day. There is no comfort zone when you are morbidly obese.

On a side note, watching the biggest loser while working out is SUPER motivational. I have an idea for a gym...whoever does it first is going to have a big following. Instead of playing Fox News and CNN and a couple main channels on all of the TV's...have a motivational channel that only plays shows about people losing weight, success stories, etc. I think they would have problems getting people off the machines then. I know I would work out harder and longer if that was always there. I know I did last night. Even when I was on the bike, I was pushing myself harder than I had before.

How is everyone today???