We are a group of individuals who weigh or have weighed 300+, or near there. This group was formed to provide a place for others like us to find support and hope. We are aware of the distinct problems that come with weighing over 300 lbs.

We want to invite everyone (roosters as well as chicks!) to join us in our journey.
We share laughter and tears, heartaches and fears ... joys and celebrations.
We also share what works for us and what doesn't.

We know the thread can move very quickly, and that people often make "personal" remarks and keep a number of conversations going. Please feel free to contribute even if you can't make personal comments all the time.

Finally, we also have several extra threads going on simutaneously such as Monthly Challenges, Weekly Weigh-ins, Recipes, Bios, Photos, Exercise, Info for Getting Started and more. Many of these threads are stickied at the top of the page. Please feel free to check them all out.

We have found this thread to be more than just a support group... we have found it to become a home. We invite you to join us.



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There have been some concerns expressed by the powers that be about copyright infringement. So please, if you are directly quoting someone else or printing an article in whole or in part, please give credit where credit is due!!!!

Hi All,

I hope it was ok to start a new weekly thread. I figure all the time zones should be on the same date now, the 15th, so here's our new thread

I am pleased to say that my WI went well this morning, down another 4 lbs now That means I am 1 lb away from my pre Christmas weight, and just 3 little lbs from that elusive 100 lbs lost It's getting exciting now

Catherine - Sorry that you were having a case of the blahs Hopefully it was just an off day rather than you coming down with something and I hope too that you will feel much happier today.

Actually it wasn't the Southern Fried Chicken that was calling to me the other day, it was the roasted stuffing. It smelled sooooo good Still, my willpower paid off and my weight loss was far more palitable than that stuffing would have been

Annie - as much as I love that doggy avitar, I do look forward to seeing your smiling face there I wish your sister in law would hurrry up with those photos already

So glad to hear you are totally over your flu now, I guess that means you can finally go swimming

Patti - hope you have a better week this week so that you can exercise relatively if not totally pain free

Shadie - lovely to see you post, and I am so pleased to hear that you have been doing so well with staying OP I really look forward to hearing how much weight you have lost. When do you weigh?

Kymberly - those non exercise days will come soon enough for you, in the mean time on keeping so committed!

Heather - how did the abs work out go? You aren't a dolt, you just have a lot of other stuff on your mind...like.....that ab work out

Erika Leigh - sorry you are feeling so stressed and tired. I don't know what you intend to do to make that change, but I am glad that you are going to do something. Take care

Everybody else, I hope you are having a good day, and that anybody with WIs have good ones. I am off to change my ticker now Take care all and bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

Ammi WOWEEEEEEE!!!!!! You have done so well!!!! I am so pleased for you!!!!
Nothing much going off here Gareth had to come home from school this morning (bad cough) so I'm stuck on my own with both boys, as usual they are fighting and the cough has, miraculously GONE!!!! I feel very tired anyway, roll on 7pm-bedtime, lol!
Jilly, I am way behind on where I wanted to be, exercise-wise, but we can try catch-up. Either way anything is better than nothing!xxxx
xxxxxxsharon

Hey everyone-

I hope you all had a good weekend. Nothing new here besides planning and packing. Will be doing that till I leave! I did my walking back and forth in the house yesterday. Its really hard to get motivated to do it. But it was just way to cold to walk outside! Also we are getting more light around 12 -1 pm. Its really nice! During the summer when it was 24 hour sunlight I wanted it to go away...now I am thinking I would prefer 24 hour daylight over 24 hour darkness!

PATTI~How is your leg? I was wondering if it ever got better or not. Hope its ok!

AMMI~Yes I am excited about moving in general. Great thing is we leave Feb. 5 and thats when its starts getting really cold here. -50 to-60s. I won't miss that! As far as how long I will be offline I am not sure. No more than two weeks hopefully. Also I like your new avatar pic!

JEN~I am sorry you had a rough week.

JILL~I am glad you feel better!

ANNIE~Thanks hun! Oh and congrats on meeting your exercise goals! You are doing awesome!

HEATHER~I wanted to say thanks for posting that thread on exercise at any size. A lot of great information! Espeically since I have been having a tough time with working out.

SHADIE~Congrats on the 10 days! Good luck on your WI I am sure you will see a loss!

KYMBERLY~You are doing great! And your right you are a "winner" no matter what. Good luck at your WI!

ERIKA~Sorry you are having to go through all of that stress. Hopefully you can find a way to make time for you. Hang in there!

AMMI~Wow a four pound loss is awesome! You are so close to losing 100! you can do it!


Everyone else I hope you are all doing well! Have a good day!

Patti: Be careful when you exercise. Don't do it if you are in pain. Pain is the body's way to say, 'Hey, something is wrong"

Shadie: So happy to see you post. Please, please try to post a bit more if you at all can. Just to say hey, your still around. You are very missed. I know you are super busy with your big family but, whaaaa we miss you too. lol. Glad you are doing so well. Keep it up.

Kymberly: Good luck on Wednesday. Be sure to let us know how well you did. I'm so rooting for you!

Catherine: Good tears this morning when I read your post. Well, I should say, hopeful tears. lol. I can't wait for all those things. I often think about when I go to the Orthodontist and can fit into the blankity blank chairs. lol. I think I will truly cry real tears that day. I hate standing around waiting for my turn pretending I'm reading the stupid posters or watching something interesting outside. It sucks! Thank you for reminding me of some things I have to look forward to. Life for one.

Wyllen: I see your point. You were not rambling. lol. I really feel that I will shoot for maybe 750 or so because hopefully I will be adding swimming starting today and 3 times a week but, If I can't get there because of ...... whatever, then I will still have my daily exercise at home to count. Thanks for the imput.

Ammi: Yipee! Congrats on another -4. I can see that 100 just around the bend! Yep, I hope to swim today. Come on nerves, stiff upper lip. lol.

Jilly: Good job planning out your op week. I think that is wonderful. Have a great day today wheather you work at home or not.

Sharon: So sorry that you are having a handful with the boys being home today arguing. When I was younger I recall my Dad asking my sister and I to stop arguing one time. I remember thinking to myself. Why does he care if she and I argue. It isn't affecting him. Well, flash forward to my sister and her 4 children living with us for 3 years and having the older ones argue and fight. I really could understand my dad's point of view. I feel for you. Makes you want to conk their little heads right togther. In a good way of coarse. lol. Hugs.

Mechelle: My goodness. This morning Spokane is 4 degrees above zero. So it will feel almost spring like to you if you are used to -50 below. I think my toes would fall right off. lol.

Well, I am up early, early today. I had a black nose snuggled against my face this morning at 4 a.m. I woke up quickly and took my doggies out to go potty. One good thing about the cold weather is they don't like to toodle around and mess around outside. They do their business and want right back in the house. lol. So, since I was awake, I decided to do my exercises and chores early so I will have no reason not to go swim except for nerves. lol. I have already drank 32 oz. of water too and it is only 6:22 a.m. So, I'm on top of the game for the day. lol. Hope everyone is op today with something really good happening for them.

Blessings all,
Annie

Ammi -- Thanks for starting the thread! And congrats on that weigh in!!! You are rocking it and we will have a virtual party when you lose 100 pounds!
As for me, I didn't get those abs done, but am down to 177 on the scales this morning!

Jill -- I think planning food on days off or days at home is what I am going to have to go to. I have that tendency to wander into the kitchen and eat whatever... Good luck!

Michelle -- Glad you liked the link to the "exercise at any size". I'm thinking I should add it to the stickies. Did anyone else see it? It's a separate thread with "advice" in the title. Not sure I labeled it well.

Annie -- I hope you have fun swimming! Let us know how it goes! 750 for feb then? Sounds good!

Ammi way to go i am sooo excited for you!My leg is still doing the same some days its better than others... today was a good day i got in 40 minutes on the treadmill so i am happy!

Happy New Year!

I have a question for you all, can you share with me any ideas you may have for non-food rewards? I am trying to move towards food for fuel. I enjoy food and i don't think there is anything wrong with that but I need to diversify how i reward myself and how I sooth myself or deal with stress. Any ideas?

Hi all – I can’t believe I haven’t been here all weekend. Saturday was really long – I worked for 6 hours at the B&B and then another 3 at my own office trying to prep for my audit coming up in 2 weeks. It was not a good weekend diet wise. On Saturday when I was finally heading for home after 8pm, I asked my BF to order us a pizza. It is from a local place and isn’t very greasy like chain pizza, but I still ate too much. Then Sunday I am not sure what got into me. I was just angry and resentful of everything. We went shopping at Trader Joe’s and all I could think about was all of the delicious things that I can’t have. I put myself into a real funk with the feeling that life has cheated me. Why do I have to watch everything I eat – why do I gain a pound from just thinking about chocolate when other people can eat all they want and be stick thin? I know how useless this line of thinking is, and normally I can stop myself, but yesterday I just got mired in it and couldn’t rise above it. I ended up eating ice cream in the evening in defiance. I feel better today and am ready to get back into things, but it was really distressing. I guess my consolation is that those feelings only come every once and awhile. Thank goodness I don’t have to try and deal with them all the time! It would be next to impossible to make any progress then.

Unfortunately I don't have time for personals as I don’t have the day off of work today. I am so busy for the next few weeks. In fact, I will probably not know what to do with myself come February when work has slowed down and I don't have to work at the B&B anymore!

Ammi - Congratulations!

Hey does anyone have any advice on keeping a buddy motivated? I'm joining WW on Thursday with a friend of mine. Last week when we decided to do this she was all gung-ho about it and now she's losing momentum and we haven't even gone yet! Any ideas?

i would show her that amazing picture of Zelda on this web site that always motivates me!

and also those amazing pictures of Ammi!

I just came in from shoveling snow and chopping ice. I went 93 minutes this time which is past what I normally set as a limit for myself, but I was almost done, etc. you know how that is. So I am relaxing and warming up with a cup of tea while I wait for the dish water to cool off some. The boiler that heats this whole building also heats the hot water, and it comes out at a scalding temperature. The dishes are practically done and sanitized just soaking in it.

Ammi-Oh yes, stuffing. My mother used to make huge pans of it at Christmas and Thanksgiving. No turkey would have been large enough to hold as much as my family ate unless this turkey was the size of a Volkswagen.

Michell-I remember how everyone was scared that I was going to come down with SAD real bad moving from Florida to northern Canada in January. It didn’t bother me at all because in Florida it was so hot that we only came to life once the sun went down. We’d go shopping at 3am. I had trouble once summer hit and 20 hours of daylight hit. I could go so sleep most of the time, but when the sun came up at 3am, I’d wake up and not be able to go back to sleep. I’d have put heavy drapes up, but no one has air conditioning here, and we needed to keep the window open.

Annie- I used to say that as soon as I loose weight, I’d get married, have kids, rejoin the church choir, have a life. I realized that my life was continuing along while I was still making plans. I decided not to wait anymore. I found a man who loved me for the banana inside, not the peel outside, I joined the choir, and no one has cared about the fat lady singing. I know that I will live a longer, fuller life when I can get fit and healthy, but I’m going to squeeze every drop out of my life along the way. The feeling of sweat running down my back after working hard, the smell of fresh cut grass and getting itching from laying in it, the satisfaction of knowing that today I lived an authentic life walking the path I was supposed to be on all along, these are the things that keep my heart beating.

Ayanna-I reward myself with things like a new basketball (black in case I lose it in the snow), a new CD to listen to while exercising, or fabric to make new smaller clothes. A movie, new pair of earrings, or even an exercise DVD or new cookbook. You’d be surprised how many really good diet/healthy eating cook books end up on the shelves of our local Goodwill. I guess people got them at Christmas from well meaning relatives and friends, and promptly donated them. I deal with stress by going to mall and walking and window shopping. When I’m really stressed, chopping sidewalks worked. Right before Christmas I ended up chopping all the way to the corner bus stop, that’s a 5 foot wide sidewalk and we are two houses from the corner where there is a large church, so about the length of half a football field. Some of the ice was 8 inches thick. I was too tired to be stressed after that.

Nancy-you’re feeling the way that all of us have felt at some point. My mom had two younger sisters. My mom was 5’2” and they were both 6’ tall. My mom struggled with weight her whole life, her sisters couldn’t gain weight if they tried, and were about 100 lbs soaking wet. She allowed those feelings of resentment to weigh down her entire life, and her feelings about food were instilled in me from birth. In a way, it is like a cycle of abuse in families. I have to be the one to stop this. I don’t beat myself up that I’m light skinned and prone to sun burns, I don’t resent having blue eyes so that I have to wear sunglasses, or that I’m horribly near sighted, and other people don’t have to mess with glasses. This is just another of the genes that I inherited along the way. If it makes you feel any better, my mom has outlived both of her skinny sisters by 10 and 20 years. We’re doing something so hard that most people have no idea what we go through. We will end up being tougher than they can ever imagine. So in a way, we are the lucky ones.

Sabrina-I’ve never used a diet buddy for just that reason. I firmly believe that you have to lose weight for yourself, by yourself. A buddy would make it more pleasant, but you can’t allow anyone in your life to slow you down, or bring you down. Your friend may just not be ready yet if she needs motivation in the first week. What you might try is showing her pictures of clothes in a catalog that you are going to buy as soon as you lose weight. Sometimes visualization helps. Ask her about a small goal to reach, and what she will reward herself with when she gets there. There’s no way I could have made it this far focusing on losing 430 lbs. You’ve got to take smaller bites. Maybe she just got overwhelmed thinking about how far she has to go. Also talk to your WW leader. They have faced this many times, and she might have some suggestions to use on your friend.

Shadie-It is so nice that you have someone to help you. There are times that I just am scared to go in the kitchen. When that happens, I end up just eating the same thing every day for awhile. It is kind of like being on automatic pilot. Cheerios and yogurt for breakfast, veggie burger on English muffin for lunch, and chicken breast with frozen veggies for dinner. I thought that I’d get bored, but in a way it makes the food less like food, and more like just fuel.

I figured it was about time to repost the 7 habits of highly effective dieters. This is from the National Weight Control Registry at the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado. To register you have to have lost at least 30 lbs. and kept it off for at least a year although most have lost much more and kept it off for at least 3 years (the point where it is supposed to become much easier to maintain)

1. Expect failures, but keep trying. (I always say the only way to fail is to give up)

2. Don’t deny yourself things (that just leads to wanting it more, just remember moderation)

3. Weigh yourself often (not daily, but most obese people have not weighed on an accurate scale in over 3 years)

4. Serious planned exercise. (Make sure it is something you enjoy, can afford, and is convenient so you will more likely keep it up)

5. Add little bits of physical activity into daily routine (yeah that parking farther away and taking the elevator thing. People who fidget weigh 30 lbs. on average less than those who don’t.

6. Low fat/high carbo diet. (Any diet that you stick with will work, but for some reason, low fat worked more often for the maintainers.

7. Eat five meals a day. (Don’t allow yourself to get hungry, keep your blood sugar more consistent helps with cravings, and allows your stomach to remain smaller)

The NWCR also found that most of the successful maintainers had yo-yo dieted for years until they found that one thing that finally worked. Half of them lost the weight without belonging to a weight-loss group or a gym, so if you can’t afford either, take heart, it can still be done. They also found that 66% of them had been chubby kids and were able to rebound from their “fat genes.” We can do this, one baby step at a time, one pound at a time, as long as we are willing to keep getting up when we fall, and helping each other when we don’t have the strength to get up by ourselves.