I am curious as to how long you girls have been on your weight loss journey? I always expect instant results when I exercise and eat right, I know that this is not the case. So, please, if you don't mind, how long have you been seriously at this??? WHat keeps you motivated?

I have changed my lifestyle around Feb 20th I believe. I thought I was on the "weight loss journey" before that but I have since realized that my head was not in the right place. Since I started, I have lost a few pounds but have recently hit a plateau for the past two weeks after I gained a pound. I have given myself just over three months to lose the 15 pounds that I set out to lose. I'm trying not to get discouraged by my plateau as I understand they happen a lot.

Good luck with your goals!

January 22nd was when I started, but I only lost about 2 pounds in the first month; it wasn't until the second month that my metabolism began to change as a result of the exercise.

Good luck.

As you can tell from my join date (and I've been doing this for a while before discovering 3FC) I've been on this journey for quite a while... however, I haven't really dedicated myself to weight-loss until May '06 (when I got my Master's, which free up a LOT of time for me to actually eat healthfully and really exercise, since I was doing the graduate program in conjunction with 50 hrs/week of work.)

I first joined back in 2003 when I had 10 pounds to lose... But this time around I started the end of January. It seems harder the older I get...

I got serious in October 2006.

2 years and 7 months. And hopefully I will be able to just maintain my way through life........

Since last April - just about a year.

I started in December 2006 - two days after Christmas.

April 15, 2006 is what I consider my starting date. I went to the doctor on April 7, 2006 and that was when I came to terms with the fact that I weighted 300 pounds and was obese. It took me about a week to get started.

I consider myself very lucky not to hit a stand still and have been consistently loosing weight. I just hope that it continues for the rest of my journey.

I started around December 28th '06 or therabouts. It's been a very slow steady loss, on average about 0.5 lbs per week. I think it's better to come off slowly though. Last August, I went on a "crash diet" because there was a pool party where I had to be in a bathing suit. I got down to 130 for the party, and then immediately afterwards binged like crazy for the next 4 months

I got " down and dirty" serious March 2 2007. I have tried everything for almost 2 years ( since my DD was born)and nothing. This time, my plan is working.

this is week 4 for me-- I got a letter from my insurance companty that said they were going to raise my premium due to my BMI-- so here I am ! What keeps me motovated? This blog helps, as well as tracking food in FitDay-- because I feel like I have someone to answer to. I also printed out a picture of me -50lbs from here : weight loss simulator
and it's on my bathroom mirror, my computer screen at work and my fridge. The lack of double chin in the picture really gets me !

I started this journey January 1st (New Year's Resolution, heh!) of 2006. I basically just started eating less and better foods. In May, I started going to the gym, and went 4-5x a week. September, however, I moved. I ended up kind of taking a break from weight loss from October - January, and ended up gaining back 20lbs. I'm back on track again, but I still consider last January to be my start date, because my mentality on my 'break' was not "I give up!" but simply "I can't handle this in my life right now, I will put it on hold." and I did. And picked it back up when things got less stressful. The 20lb gain wasn't great (I keep thinking of how much weight I could've lost if I hadn't gained it back, or if I'd actually kept losing over those 4 months!), but such is life.

I got serious last summer and then maintained up until a few months ago. Now I'm trying to get these last 10lbs off.