Hello everyone,

Today I begin my weight loss journey, and I begin it with a perspective shot. But first, a bit of background... I hadn't been grocery shopping since before exam week (grad school), and of course, when I did shop then, it was for easy "finger food" that I could munch while studying. So today, the 6th of January, I was long overdue. And I also had to walk up and back to the grocery store, since I don't have a car and my neighborhood has no bus service on Sundays.

The canvas bags of groceries seemed to be pretty heavy, and I carried them about a mile home (including hills). When I got home, I weighed them on my scale: 19 lbs and 18 lbs, for a total of 37 lbs. And I weighed myself too (sans bags) and discovered that I was also overweight.... by almost exactly the same amount as I'd carried home.

Take two canvas bags. Put two gallons of milk and two 1-lb packages of meat in each one, and that is how much excess weight I'm carrying around every day-- only without the groceries. It was quite the perspective shot.

So I have come here with the goal of losing 36 lbs, and as soon as I find the little bar-graph-icon thingy (I'm not the most computer-savvy person on the planet), I will begin posting my results.

I've been impressed and inspired by what I've seen so far, and I'm hoping that the inspiration will help to keep me honest. Because--and I'm sure many people can relate-- I can muster every excuse in the book. But excuses don't bring progress.

Thank you for listening, and any thoughts, prayers, advice, encouragement, etc. will be greatly (and gratefully) appreciated.

Happy New Year,
Ariane

Hey Ariane!!

I hope you're well and feeling pumped to make this change!
It can be pretty scary at first - I mean I know I was astonished when I got onto the scale and realised that I was overweight... well I was astonished when I read I was overweight! I almost fell over when I saw that I had become obese! But here we all are - to help each other and I wish you all the luck and motivation in the world!! YOU CAN DO THIS and don't you forget that... or I'll have to chase you round 3FC reminding you lol!

Anyways - its great seeing you here and a great big welcome to 3fc on behalf of everyone here! It's a friendly place to be - and you'll love it!

Take care!
Yaz.

The ticker thingie is up User CP (upper left corner of purple taskbar) under edit signature.

Any ideas on the eating plan for you? Exercise? Roam around 3FC - ask questions - there's tons of knowledge and support here.

Making the ticker is pretty fun. I'm glad you came on board! You really made me think about doing that, actually... with groceries and milk and all. Thanks for the idea!

Hello again, and thanks for the warm welcome!

As I write this, I have a home-cooked meal roasting in the oven, which ought to be a good change from McBurgers and leftover fried food. Plus it will give me a leg up on tomorrow's lunch. (I work in one of those offices where everyone eats out every day... and it's hard on both health and wallet.)

Here's my slider, and if I did it right, it should show my determined walk from head-in-the-sand to chillin' beach body!

See you later,
Ariane

Didn't show up. You can try www.tickerfactory.com too to get a weight loss ticker. Did you make sure to paste the ticker code it gives you after the initial design into your signature window from the User CP after you designed your ticker?

If you use the fatchicks ticker, remember to copy the code from the first box after you design it. You paste that in the signature part of your User CP under 'Edit Signature'.

OK, hopefully this should work.

It does. =)