hello all i am a newcomer who has about 119 lbs to lose-i would like it if you could give me some helpful tips and encouragement? unfortunately i find myself making excuses-anything will help

There is another thread in the 100lb club I suggest you read. It's called how did you do it. It is the most enlightening thing that you will read on this topic. All of the motivation that you need is right there, I promise! Of course it's other places too, but I thought that particular one may be helpful right now.

I'm sorry, its "how did u start"

Hang out here, see what everyone else is saying. But don't spend too much time here. Get up and move! Get a pedometer and go for 10k steps a day. Drink your water. Eat sensibly and on plan (for whatever plan you are doing). And the #1 thing for me was: stop making excuses! There will always be a reason you can't or didn't or won't. I'm the queen of excuses. But excuses just made me fatter and fatter and fatter.

This place is great for support and encouragement but in reality, YOU are the only one who can do it. You make the decisions.

RockinRobin recently said something on here that really stuck with me and something I remind myself daily. "Everything you put in your mouth has a consequence" and you are the only person who decides what you put in that mouth. It's all about accountability and acceptance of who you are, what you want, and what you are willing to do to get what you want.

Best of luck on your journey!

~Onyx

All I can say is take it one step at a time and don't overwhelm yourself. I found when I overwhelmed myself I'd quit. OVER AND OVER I'd quit cuz it was too hard.

So then I started with small changes. Cut out soda, cut out snacking as much as I could, stopped buying junk food, started working out- and so on. It really helped- and though I still have a ways to go- I find that many of my terrible habits I have almost completely if not completely kicked to the curb. I used to eat out almost everyday and now I definitely have cut a ton of outside food out (except subway).

Good luck!

Hi and Welcome!

What a cute little girl in your picture! It is great that you are looking for tips and encouragement. We all need encouragement and this is a great place. Here is a link to the thread Devsmama was talking about. It is a great thread, http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=168763

I look forward to more posts by you. You can do this!

time2lose thanks for posting the link!

Welcome! I agree -- try to focus on changing ONE thing a week. If you try to do everything all at once, you'll get frustrated, overwhelmed, etc. I did not eat the things I eat today on Day 1, and there's a lot of foods I gradually cut down on in time. So maybe this week you focus on eating 3 servings of veggies/day. Then maybe next week you focus on cutting down on fast food/restaurant food you eat and make it a goal to pack or cook all of your meals but 1. Etc.

Keep plugging along, and you WILL get there. I NEVER thought I could lose this much weight in a million years.

you'll find lots of encouragement and help here for sure!! the excuses part tho, sorry that's all you You either do it or you don't, and nothing anyone's going to say to you can MAKE you do it - you have to want it. No, no that's not the right word - we all WANT it -- i guess the word is commit. You have to commit to it no matter what, no matter how much it might suck, no matter how hard it is, you just have to put your head down and plow through it we're here for you!!!

Gradual change isn't popular, but it can be just as effective (I suspect more so) than expecting perfection from the start, and getting upset when you fail at perfection.

I always went "gung ho," in diets in the past - and then when it got too hard and I made mistakes, I thought that was proof that I "couldn't do it," or that the results weren't worth the effort.

So this time, I decided to do it the easier way. I decided I wasn't going to add or take away anything from my life that I didn't want to. At first, there was darned little I was willing to give up in food, and put out in exercise - but there were a few things and so I did them. I looked for "moving around" activitites that I would enjoy. When I thought I'd enjoy bicycling, I bought a bicycle (that wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, but I still look forward to getting it out, and using it a few times every summer). I really enjoyed geocaching the easy sites, until hubby lost the gps (we still haven't gotten around to replacing it).

The weight is coming off, but very slowly. Still, I'm not tempted to quit, because I haven't made any changes that I can't live with - even if I don't lose another single pound. So there's nothing to get discouraged about. The 68 I have lost is an amazing acheivement, the not having had a long term gain in the last four years, now that's astonishing to me. I look back to the three or four times I lost more than 50 lbs, and I've always wondered "why didn't I at least maintain the loss," and the answer is pretty easy. I wasn't making changes I could live with, and I didn't see anything but the final goal weight as success or sometimes even as an achievement in and of themselves. If it wasn't absolute success, it was absolute failure.

Weight loss isn't a game of absolutes. You don't have to absolutely win or absolutely fail. If you're in it just for an idealized concept of beauty, maybe only being at goal weight matters; but if you want health, strength, and stamina benefits or even just the sense of accomplishment, it ALL matters.

So don't start with 100 lbs. Start with 10 - or start with 1, and then build on success.

thank you all for your replies-i will definitely read that link you sent..i know that only I can control me..and thats what i needed to hear from others..i dont know why-i just did thanks all!