Hi everybody

Well...it's been a while since we last spoke and not much has changed with me. I went from a size 210 down to 175 and now at 180!!!! My husband, who was totally NOT interested in weight loss when I first started posting, had a change of heart and went from 265 to the now.....203!!!!!!!!!!! He's 6'2 and LOoKS GREAT!!!!! He walks 4 miles a day (7 days a week) and has just bought (us) a "Cross Bow" excersice equiptment.

He is OBSESIVE about weight loss and now strenght training. I NEVER thought that he would be where he is today. I swear to you that EVERY where we go, people say to him, "Man...you have lost a TON of weight"!!!

I am sooooooooooo jealous!!! This was MY IDEA and now he's taken it from me LOL

I NEED encouragement guys. Where is a link of you guys' pictures?

HELP!!!!

Sandy

Welcome back! Sounds like you've done fantastically well! Don't you just hate the way guys can drop weight and we seem to have to fight to lose every pound?

Our photo albums are at: http://groups.msn.com/3FCLadiesWhoLift and yours is still there. Please add to it and let us see how you're doing.

Meg

Welcome back Sandy!! You put a blue sad face beside your : "I'm back!" why? I think you've done really well considering it seems like you were side tracked.... Stick with us and we'll show your DH!! Men bug me too when it comes to weight loss...grrrrr....I have a naturally slim husband too, he still weighs 165 same as 20 years ago when we were married....!!

Hey Ilene! Mine is 165 too (6 ft. tall), same as when we got married, and he eats whatever he wants to, whenever he wants to, in whatever amounts he wants to. Men!!!

So he has no idea what it's like to diet. He doesn't automatically know the calorie count of every food he eats and won't know a gram of carbs if it bit him in the butt. But he does try to be empathetic, at least, and supports me in what I do. He teases me a bit about what I eat, but so long as I cook what HE likes to eat, we're fine. But if I ever tried to feed him what I eat, I would have an insurrection on my hands!

What about your DH? Does he understand how we struggle? Does he have to watch his weight? Does he eat what you eat? I'm just curious ...

Meg

I missed you guys! It's so good to *see* you again.

Ilene, you're right...I have gotten side-tracked! I know this is going to sound like an excuse but here in the south, it gets sooooooooo hot out and I didn't want to die from a heat stroke. That's why I stopped walking. I couldn't walk in the mornings because my husband decided that he would use that time to walk and with us having two small children, someone needed to be here with them.

I guess the truth of the matter is I just don't love myself enough to do anything about the weight issue. Guys, for a while there I was loosing and tanning and looked and felt better than I ever had but to me....I still was/am HUGE!!!

A few people still notice my weight loss but I don't think I've lost enough to really be able to tell.

I look at Meg's pictures and she inspires me so much but I KNOW ME and I can not eat like the BFL book recommends. My husband eats ANYTHING he wants but the difference now is that he counts calories and has cut out sugar.

That's how I lost my weight but the cardio is what I need most. I really (MORE THAN ANYTHING) want to be lean but muscular. I love Meg's body and that's what I'm shooting for.

I've been fat for 12 years now and have abused y body so much that I often wonder if getting to where Meg is will even be possible. If I can't eat the foods I like, I WON"T stick to it. I know this for a fact. It's just my nature.

I am a very lazy person. Not so much phys. but mentally. I like No-brainer careers, workouts, foods, etc.

I have NEVER finished anything in my life. I start something and then the *new* wears off and it's back to being depressed and hating me again.

My husband, on the other hand, gives 100% to everything and always finishes. He now shops and Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, etc. and I still have to shop at Lane Bryant, settling for what they have.

I am going to post a message in a minute about the Cross Bow and particularly about reps. I need help there too.

Thanks for listening to me whine. I feel somewhat better

Good Morning Girls !!

~Meg~ My hubby is totally understanding of what I do... Only once or twice did he say that he didn’t understand how I could get up so early to go workout, but that’s it... I am a very blah cook... plain rice, plain steamed veggies, no sauces, no butter, but he eats it all and never complains. He’s just happy that’s it’s in front of him when he comes home from a long day and he just doesn’t have to make it.... He even says nothing when I leave the kitchen right after I eat because if I stay at the table near the food I keep eating, PLUS, (this is starting to be a joke now ) HE does the dishes while I’m gone, (we still have no dishwasher BTW)... If he wants the Twinkies (ewww I hate those, they leave a film of sugar and fat in my mouth) or granola bars (I still succumb to those occasionally) he leaves them in the fridge in the basement, out of sight out of mind.... He only eats them tho to take in his lunch never at home, NONE of us, or very RARELY do we eat now before bed, and if I do, it’s a PP shake, and the kids it’s a very small bowl of cereal.... I was thinking the other day of how far I have come in the last 5 years or so. I remember the day when I would make supper and nibble on absolutely everything while I was making it, then sit down and eat a plateful, then nibble on the leftovers in the kids plates....Now I view leftovers as a next day meal... ~~ ~~ ~~
~Sandy~ I know you have it in you to loose, you just have to WANT it bad enough... This may sound silly but did anyone watch Dateline last night? It was a two hour special Called Survival of the Fittest with Katie Curic interviewing Dr. Phil about his new season opening on Monday. He’s not my favorite person by any means but he certainly had some good points about obesity and being overweight... I’m certainly going to watch his season opener on Monday... All this to say Sandy we KNOW you can do it, you have the tools and the knowledge, and US, now just DO IT!!

Later!!

Sandy,
In your last post, you said that you know you can not eat like proposed by the BFL book. What exactly would you have difficulty with?
I ask because I too, hate to feel deprived. So, when I started out my first Challenge, I was realistic about what I'd be able to stick with and what I couldn't. So, I modified things a bit for myself, and was very proud when I managed to complete those 12 weeks.
And, even with the modifications I had great success - lost 23# of fat and went down 3 pants sizes. I can now shop at The Gap and Old Navy, wearing "regular" Misses sizes, and this has been a thrill for me.
So, I'd be more than happy to work with you to help come up with a food plan you can live with that will still give you some good results. It's all about taking steps forward, even if they are baby steps. You can worry about eating perfectly "clean" much later - that can be a longer term goal to look towards (I'm still working on that ;-)
Cindy

Sandy, I have at *no* time followed BFL to the letter. While I know that my best and quickest results would come if I did, I am like you in the fact that I can't convince myself to eat that strictly. I do follow the principles, but I'm not always perfect in my carb choices, for example. But I strive to follow it to the letter. And with that, I come about 70-80% close to doing it. If I were to say, "this is impossible," I could easily slip into my old eating habits.

You know that saying, "shoot for the moon, and you'll land among the stars"? (Ok, I don't know the exact saying, but it's something to that effect). I live by that now. I signed up for a half-marathon to take place in February. Now, part of me says that it is an impossible task for me, who only took up running a month and a half ago. But I'm already running 3 miles because of that goal. Even if I don't conquer that goal, I've already reached benchmarks that themselves seemed impossible 2 months ago.

I really think you're setting yourself up for failure by repeating thoughts such as "I've never finished anything in my life," etc. Let this be the first thing you DO finish! You stated that you want this more than anything, and you've already made great progress, so you KNOW you can do it! And you've got a husband who's now committed to a healthier lifestyle as well, which is a support system many people *don't* have.

Keep posting here - being accountable here always helps me You can do this!!

Thank you for all of your replies to my posts. That's what I love about this message board; everybody supports one another!

For years I have been unhappy in many life choices that I have made and I think because of my being unhappy in my life in general, that it's two-fold; don't take care of me because od a stressful situation and the stressful situation occurs because I don't take care of me! Make any sense?

You see...I wasn't raised to "respect" myself and I didn't have options of life outside my domain! Now that I am an adult, I realize that I'm getting older and need to take care of my body (and mind) because heart diesease, high blood presure, diabeaties (sp?), mental depression, cancer, etc. run in my family.

~~CINDY~~ Yes....I would love for you to help teach me with food choices. I will tell you what I most commonly eat and maybe we can go from there.

~~Colleen~~

"I really think you're setting yourself up for failure by repeating thoughts such as "I've never finished anything in my life," etc. Let this be the first thing you DO finish! You stated that you want this more than anything, and you've already made great progress, so you KNOW you can do it!"

Thank you for that advice! You really nailed it on the head!

I need to reread the BFL book, that is if I didn't get frustrated and toss it.....

Makes perfect sense! However, when stressful events take place in my own life, I always take solace in the fact that my health and my body are two things that I *can* control, when other things happening around me seem to be out of my hands.

Ilene, I watched the Dateline Special and understood every single point. Dr. Phil got to me in his book, SELF MATTERS. First step was to identify the fears I had of being thin. I knew what they were but had to decide to deal with them WHEN I get thin.

Second thing was to recognize the bad food choices, even on Weight Watchers.

And the third was to stop *thinking* about changing and doing it. Upon making the decision, everything else fell into place.

In other words, I got IT. I can only wish the same for anyone else. Once I got it, and found my real support system in LWL, it has been a piece of cake. You gals are the bestest!

dip

Hey Sandy - nice to see you again!

JC