I don't even know what I'm doing... But I needed to find a support community. For the past 5 years I've slowly gained weight, and now feel terrible physically. I hope that by the end of the year I can at least lose 20-25 lbs. How do I do it? What makes a person sucessful in weightloss? How do I stop the cravings? HELP!JGal

Janiegal -- WELCOME!!! This is an awesome place!! I've certainly thought about this question a lot, and there are many answers. Here's one -- my ABC's of successful weight loss:

A is for Attitude: You have to believe in yourself and that you can do it.

B is for Behavior: Don't focus on the weight loss, focus on new behaviors (eating and exercise). You can control your behaviors, after all. And don't worry if A follows B in this case. Psychologists know that attitude sometimes precedes but sometimes follows behavior.

These new behaviors take time to learn, and many of us take baby steps to incorporate them into our daily lives.

C is for Commitment: This one should probably come first. Make a commitment to yourself (and not necessarily to any one plan!). If you fall off the wagon, get back on again. Don't allow yourself to give up (but don't keep working a plan that isn't working for you!).

Hi Janiegal,

The first thing to remember is that everyone is different, so the advice we give worked for US, but you may have to pick and choose from what you hear until you have something that will work for YOU.

Ammi is definitely right about having the right mind set. I truly wish I knew what triggered me off to the successful journey to a new lifestyle. If I knew, I would bottle it and GIVE it away to anyone who needed it. Somehow you just seem to KNOW that this time things will work. I don't know HOW you know it, but I know that I had no doubts that I would succeed from the first day of my journey.

Wyllen is also right about taking 'baby steps'. If you try to see the WHOLE picture all at once, it can be way too daunting. The first thing I did was decided to bring NO junk food into the house. I could have 'treats' outside of the house, but nothing came home from the shops or wherever. I then had to decide what foods I would 'swap' for the usual junk foods. I knew I would still want something to nibble, but I wanted it to be healthy choices. I chose dried fruit and nuts at first, but now I've changed to only have them as 'treats' and my nibblies are fruit, veggie pieces, yogurt and licorice (helps to keep my 'system' working).

One thing I would add is: "It won't happen overnight, but it WILL happen." Please remember that this is a journey for life. You can't expect changes to happen immediately, and you have to be willing to stick to most of those changes for the rest of your life. So make sure that whatever you do, you know you can live with it from here on in. You will find that you surprise yourself. I NEVER thought I would be able to exercise as much as I do. I am even JOGGING!!! I also never even imagined that I would actually MISS exercising if I couldn't work out for some reason or other. I never knew that vegetables tasted so wonderful, just on their own. I find out new things about myself every day, and I am loving it!

If you want to know more about what I've done, there is a link to a PDF document about my journey on my pics page. The link to the pics page is under my tracker.

Good luck with your own journey to a healthier and happier life.

Take care,

Zelma

Our Zelma is so wise, isn't she??!

Welcome to the 300+ area! We're glad to have you joining us. Please check out the "sticky" thread above marked for "NEWBIES". It has some tips for navigating in our area.

Janiegal - Welcome! One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give is to start with what you can do and don't feel like it is all or nothing. In the past when I dieted I thought I had to eat 1200 calories and work out hard for an hour a day. Of course with that mindset it wasn't long until I had burned myself out. Larger people need more calories so we need to start slowly - small changes can yield some big results. For calories 2000 is probably a good place to start if you are going to do calorie counting (although people here are on all types of programs - weight watchers, south beach, etc.). You don't want to go too low to start. Also with exercise, something is better than nothing, so if you need to start with 10 minutes of walking in front of the TV, then that is where to start.

Also with the all or nothing mindset, don't beat yourself up if you fall off for a meal or a day - better to pick yourself up, try to learn from it, and move on. You won't be perfect all the time.

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