I have been doing great AAAAAALL week. watching what i eat, working out daily...i've lost 4 pounds...which i'm THRILLED about. HOWEVER, sometimes i look at myself in the mirror, and i feel like i have SO far to go still, that i am asking the impossible. i'm 42 years old, and sometimes think "can a woman my age lose 50 pounds and look great? is that possible, or can i only lose 20 and my body will give up?" i'm FINALLY motivated and DOING it...i'm just SO scared that i'm asking for something that, at my age, is unattainable. i have not set an unrealistic goal for myself...but i just get depressed and afraid of failure. or even worse, putting in all this effort and heart and STILL failing. i don't get whats WRONG with me and why i am thinking this...i just get so sad and scared even though i'm showing results and doing things RIGHT for a change. anyone else ever feel this way??

I'm realizing that my goal body is most likely impossible. Not my goal weight, but the body I had in my mind when I started weight loss. I felt like lossing 20, 30lbs was such a huge number, that surely, if I lost that much weight, I'd be slim and look just like I always wanted to.

Well I have now lost 35lbs, and even with plenty of toning and strength training, I still don't look like a Victoria Secret model. I guess I knew I wouldn't, but still. It's more mental for me, also. I went from wearing a 12 to a 4 in the same brand, but I still feel like I look the exact same when I look in the mirror.

Yeah, I definitely feel like that. Basically, to be at the highest "normal" weight for my height, I'd need to lose around 90 pounds. That's such an enormous number, I can't even grasp how I would do that. Not to mention that I continously beat myself up over the fact that I was once 180, and that I allowed myself to get this fat.

But at the same time, I feel like this is my breaking point. I'm so fat, and I just feel like I'm in someone else's body because I'm constantly bumping into this and slamming into walls and doorways because in my mind I'm still the way I was 20-30 pounds ago.

*laffin'. 42 is YOUNG! I found success after that age. All I can say is, just do it. Read every post you can find from RockinRobin or any of the Maintainers and gobble up the wisdom. I finally got control of my wt. after the age of 42 and have maintained for ~8 yrs. Trust me, 42 is YOUNG. Even if your body is not perfect, you will be amazed at how you feel at a normal, or even lower than normal wt. I have ppl saying to me all the time, "You are so thin". It is so cool.

Don't worry about "it is too late." Trust me, it's not. Just do it!

Even if you don't get the "perfect" body you've always wanted... think about how you FEEL now. You're not only changing on the outside, you're changing on the inside. Nothing can replace the benefits that good food and exercise bring to your body.

Shoesie, (like your new nickname?) I sure hope you can do it because I have about twice as much to lose and I'm 6 years older than you are. I worry too...if my poor old tired body will cooperate lo0ng enough for me to get anywhere close. I suspect even the yojnger guys and gals worry about the same thing. We're probably gonna be alright. I think we should just keep at it and see what happens. If and when we reach a plateau and no longer are losing, we can adjust. Fair enough?
Barb

I'm 49 ... it can be done And you can do it.

You are not old because that would make me old too! I'm about your age and I've lost over 50lb so far. It is possible and I know that you can do it. One quote I've read several times on 3fc that I love is "a year from now you may not be at your goal weight but you will be happy you started today."

Here's to being happy and healthy in our 40s!

I think everyone goes through a funk of feeling like "can I do this at my age/weight/body shape/something" as part of the struggle to get to where you want to be. It would be so much easier if the answer was "no, you're too fat/old/short/tall/something" because then we'd have permission to fail. That's the thing I keep telling myself, that I don't have my permission to fail. But honestly, even I sometimes thing "I'm too old for this" and then I give myself a MENTAL SMACK (because I'm only 23!!!!) but it feels like it sometimes because I've been fat through all my teen years and my early twenties. That's okay though, because I won't be fat in my late twenties, and I hear those rock. Similarly, my mom says that her 40s have been some of the most fun she's had, so there you go... you can do it, and you should! For your 40something self

I wondered the same thing too when I started. Turning 40 was what got me going on this weight loss journey, but I also wondered if I was getting too old to do this. I haven't quite lost 50 pounds yet, but I'm getting there. You will too! I am about to turn 41 and I have never felt better in my life. Hang in there, you will be so very glad you did!

I started my weight loss journey at two months shy of 43. And shed 165 pounds from my body.

And there are plenty more here that have lost many pounds at a later age.

Losing weight and lots of it IS a doable thing. For every one and any one. We've all got the ABILITY to do it. Yourself included! DECIDE to do this. Be WILLING to do what's required to MAKE it happen. COMMIT to do this. And is shall be done!

There is no reason on earth why you too can't achieve your goals. You've got the power to do this. It's within your hands.

With the exception of having my children, losing this weight was the very best thing I have ever done for myself. And it couldn't have come at a better time! I am enjoying my forties (I'm 46 now) waaaay more than my thirties. At a time when woman my age are bemoaning their age, I am now at my optimal and feeling FABULOUS. Though I wish I had done it earlier, I am thrilled that I didn't do it any later.

Don't use your age as an excuse. Because like I said earlier, you CAN do this. And you should! This is a wonderful journey of self discovery and self growth and it couldn't have come at a better time. You will find strength in you that you didn't know existed. It will give you such confidence and a sense of accomplishment, self worth and self respect. Discover who you were meant to be!

I look forward to hearing of your progress.

wow. thank you all SO much! it feels so good to know that a) it can be done and b) what i'm feeling is completely NORMAL. i WILL keep going, i (unfortunately) am one of those people that demand instant gratification (so to speak). when i want something i want it now (ie: Varruca Salt), i just have to remember that it took TIME to put the weight on and it will take TIME to take it off.

And LizR...i'm with you! here's to being happy and healthy in our 40s. you're an inspiration because our stats practically mirror each other...and you DID it...50lbs. SWEET!!! thank god for this site. it feels so good to know you're not alone.

rockinrobin...i printed out a post you made to me a couple weeks ago...the one where i was having trouble getting motivated and i said i just couldn't do it and you told me that it wasn't a matter of i couldn't do it...it was more i wouldn't do it. i LOVE that post and keep it in my purse at all times. whenever i haven't felt like going to the gym, i take it out and read it cuz it's so true. thank you for that B***H slap! hahahaha! it was JUST what the doctor ordered.

42 here. And I've lost 181 pounds so far. I started on this project two weeks before my 41st birthday, when my then-goal of weighing 195 pounds seemed utterly impossible. I mean, at my height, 195 would leave me just a little over 10 pounds overweight, and I quite literally could not IMAGINE myself as anything other than overweight. I thought I was shooting for the moon, picking that number, and I picked it because I thought it sounded OK -- I'd have a five pound buffer below 200. And I knew, on the incredibly remote chance I DID get there, I'd look pretty good. But, at first, I honestly didn't think I'd make it. I was absolutely determined to lose a LOT of weight, and prepared to accept something less than my goal if I had to, as long as I managed to get, say, most of the way there.

And then I started taking the weight off, and the numbers started to really stack up, and within a few months, I KNEW I was actually probably going to make that 'impossible' goal. The idea of NOT making 195 became intolerable to me, because I bloody well knew I could do it. What's more, I also started to believe that my incredibly ambitious, unachievable goal wasn't going to be enough, because if I could get there -- and I now knew I could -- then why the heck should I settle for that? Wanting to get BELOW 195 wasn't crazy, after all. It's not as if I'd be dangerously thin or anything.

I hit 195 a couple of days ago, savored it for about five minutes, and then went ahead and changed my goal to 175. I've come all this way, so why should I settle for STILL being overweight? 175 will take me to about ten pounds under the overweight BMI category, and judging from my where I am this morning, at 194.2, I should be pretty thin then. Right now, ten pounds overweight or not, I don't look fat at all. But I don't want to settle for just being 'not fat,' although it's great, and yes, I'd probably be mostly very happy if I could just maintain this weight. The problem with that, for me, is I KNOW I can go the distance now, and I am enjoying this so much and it's done so very much for me that going the distance is exactly what I want to do.

So, yes, I believe if you pick a reasonable goal weight, whatever that goal may be, outside of a few medical or physical factors, it's probably possible to reach it. If you pick a crazy, unhealthy, or unrealistic goal, that's different. Only you can determine what the right goal is, and only you can decide to make it.

Yeah,I know how you feel.Even though I've lost 17 lbs so far, I still have over 100 more pounds to go, and sometimes I think I'm never going to reach my goal, that it's impossible.Especially since I've been trying to lose weight for several years and I would always hit a plateau and give up.But I'm determined to keep going and I'm not going to give up, no matter how depressed I get or how pointless it may seem.Good luck!We can do it!