Hello all!! I am from Michigan and today is the first ay of my new life style (again I am kinda excited to get started and excited to find this tool to help the sloppy days. I am in my 30's and pretty happy with all in my life. I even work my booty with panache and style, But I feel like I need to be healthier and lighter. I am beginning to have problems with my knees and other joints. I know its now or never.. ok never-ish. I am looking to meet some others who feel like me.

Girl, even at age 23, I feel your pain - which is a huge red flag for me. I already have bad knees from a sports injury years ago, so I cant do treadmills and high impact stuff. But over the past year or so, I've had more problems with back pain - which I can only attribute to the extra weight I'm carrying around.

Good to see you here - especially on Day One, a Monday no less!

Very glad to be here. Thank you for your well wishes and same to you. Today I will begin to end my love affair with sugar. It has been my partner since ...birth. I have tried this before and wind up doing great for weeks and then I reward myself for sugar abstinance with candy, or muffins or (oh God) cinnamon rolls. So this time I am going to pay myself and reward my self with great shoes or clothes. I hope that helps. Do you have a weekly goal? or are you happy with any loss?

I hope you like it here and find some threads which answer your questions and keep you motivated.

Sugar is a tough one. My horrible weekend binge started with a piece of birthday cake and took a really bad turn. But, I'm back at it today and I will do better. I hope you can stay in control of your urges today too. Good luck.

Well, my problem isnt so much with sweets as it is with salts! I can sit and eat an entire bag of pretzels, or popcorn, or CHEX MIX. And in my opinion - exchanging cinnamon rolls for hot shoes is a GREAT exchange!

Just wish I could afford a new pair of shoes for every craving I get!

As for my plan...I'm still not sure. I dont particularly do great with goals (I get really upset and discouraged when I dont reach them)...so I'm not setting too many numbers. I'm just going to keep doing the "right things" and working so that I feel better. I want to be more healthy and have more energy...the actual weight loss and downing sizes is icing on the cake - not to bring up icing, or anything

I think over the next few weeks I will have to formulate a plan...but for now, I'm just trying to ease into the new lifestyle - with lots of help from my new 3FC friends!

thank you!! I am very impressed with your success. I will soon be celebrating with you. ( and I hope I dont mean celebrating with birthday cake

Hey Artsy Girl,
How long did it take you to get down so slim...and what program are you on?

2005-189 took off 10 pounds through the spring doing Body for Life-lost my momentum in the summer, but didnt regain

2006-Portion control and TONS (2 hours a day) of hard core exercise. I made it to my goal in April. Summer slack off..are you seeing a trend??? I gained about 10 pounds back and stayed about 142 for all of the late summer/fall. Christmas EEEKKK.

2007-I was back at 151 on Jan. 1st and been doing mostly portion control and reasonable exercise (1 hour most days) to get where I am.

We'll see how I do over this summer. My hope is I will LEARN maintenance better this time.