I am 19 years old and honestly can't remember a time where I felt comfortable with my weight. I always told myself that I would get on track with exercise, but I had a hard time motivating myself to keep up with it. I played hockey from age 5 until 17, and it provided some fitness but I found myself unwilling to try harder or put in anything other than a mediocre effort. I really miss playing hockey, but for many reasons, including my weight, I no longer find it fun.

The fact that my weight is holding me back from something that I love to do was something that I only recently admitted to myself. In part, it's what got me jump started on dieting. For whatever reason in the past, the idea of starting a diet never really sounded like a good one. I think in some ways it held some negative connotations, as I much preferred to tell myself that I didn't need to. But I do need to.

I've actually now found that dieting has been a really positive thing for me. I've been eating healthier (more or less following a Herbal Magic food plan, without the supplements; my Aunt joined and I am sort of piggy backing off of her food plan) for two weeks now, and although I still haven't been able to incorporate a steady exercise plan into my routine, I've already had some pretty good results. I've also discovered that I have much more will power than I thought I did, and that all those times that I caught myself thinking that I could never change were for naught.

One of the especially positive things that have come out of my new lifestyle is that it seems to have inspired my mother as well. She has struggled with her weight for years now as well, and has developed myriad health issues because of it. She was stubborn for a long time in refusing to admit that her weight was the base of the problem, but now I couldn't be prouder of her that she has. For a long time I was always terrified that I would turn out to be like her, and I was actually quite ashamed of her. I've found now that it wasn't ever her weight that shamed me, but the fact that she couldn't own up to her own mistakes and her own choices. But now we both have, and I am incredibly proud to be her daughter.

I am scared of failing still, but I have a newfound sense of capability, and I can only hope that I can not only lose the weight, but also keep it off. Overall, my only goal is to be healthy.

Welcome! Good Luck! That is so great that you are proud to be her daughter, I am sure she is proud to be your mother.
You can do this! Just remember to take it one day at a time. Don't give up either! We all stumble, it's just a matter of getting back on plan.

Welcome! I see your goal is to lose about 60 lbs, and coming from someone who did just that, you can do it!! Take it slowly, take it one "decade" at a time. At the beginning when I thought about 60 lbs it made my head spin. Heck, when I lost the first 30 and realized I was only halfway there it made my exhausted to think about! But - I just take it ten lbs at a time. Focus on getting out of the 200s first, then when you're there, just focus on the 180s. Before you know it, you'll look back and realize "I just lost 30 lbs!" And you seem to be doing this for great reason and with a reasonable approach (changing things slowly). It also helps me if I set realistic goals. Like, in the beginning, what really started this was wanting to lose weight for a friends wedding. Well I lost 15 lbs in 2 months (a reasonable weight loss, esp. at my highest weight), and I loved the "losers high" and just kept going and here I am today, 60 lbs lighter

Best of luck - you sound like an amazing daughter, and get ready for an exciting journey!!!

p.s. my last tip of advice which i still have problems with sometimes - try not to beat yourself up too much if you slip up once in awhile. To be honest, while I may have gotten to goal faster, to me I would be terrified to be in "maintenance" if I had been perfect and strictly on plan for the past 8 months. It's realistic, normal, and human to make mistakes. You won't live the rest of your life eating perfectly on plan and exercising daily, so don't put so much pressure on yourself now, make some mistakes, then learn to bounce back. That's life!

welcome and good luck! I have some (unsolicited) advice. Since this is your first time "dieting", you have an opportunity that most of us here dont have...
you see, alot of us woman have royally screwed up our metabolism from yoyo dieting, starvation diets, binging, etc. Please please PLEASE try and do this the safer, slower way, or you will prob pay for it big time later. Take me, for instance-- while i am not trying to currently lose weight, due to my past history of overtraining and under-eating ( i can only lose on about 1200 cals a day), ive slowed my metabolism big time!! Im an athlete (i marathon) and work out/train HARD approx 12-15 hours a week. Even being this active, i only maintain on about 1600 cals a day, even though i *should* be able to eat easily 2500 or more...... my body has become very efficient at operating on low cals, and i gain weight easily. I know its tempting to cut cals low, and exercise over much (trying to speed up fat loss), but in the end, it makes things much more difficult later on. Try and get by losing eating as much calories as you can, while still losing. youll be better off in the end for it

Thank you, both of you. It's been awhile since I've been on here but I am proud to say that I have already lost 25lbs! I promised myself that I would do this the right way, and although I have felt a bit nervous at the speed of my weight loss (I was told it was going to be about 2lbs a week, and it's a bit more than that) I've been to the doctor and she said it's most likely due to the fact that I'm still young and still have a metabolism buried somewhere. I still feel like I have a long path ahead of me, but I feel prepared and like nothing can stop me!

Thank you again for your words of advice; they are greatly appreciated and I will definitely heed them.

Way to go, duckygirl! And good job talking with your doctor about your concern of losing weight too quickly. Be prepared for it to slow down a bit as you get closer to your goal weight -- that's a reason to be encouraged, not discouraged! You're doing great!

Thanks so much!

Check you out rocking a 25 lb loss!! Good for you!