Update. 110 pounds lost! Pic and stats.
 

As you may or may not know, on the 1st of every month I do my weigh in (the official one where i write everything down) and measurements. I thought I'd post a new pic since the last one was 78 pounds and several months ago. I also thought I'd add my stats as they've decreased over the months for anyone interested :D

Wow! You have done a tremendous job!! Keep up the great work you ark an inspiration! :cheer:

Wow Chaoticfish!
You are looking great!! I was just passing by and saw your post and couldn't resist commenting! You are so precise with everything too!
You've done a tremendous job for only having been since 6/04! What are you doing? counting calories? What are you doing for exercise? I have 120 to lose altogether and this gives me such a boost! WTG!!!! You Rock!

good job@@@@!!!!!! :)

Amazing! What do you do to keep motivated over all this time? Surely there have been times when you just wanted to cave in and stuff your face. I say that because that is how I have been feeling this week. Luckily there is nothing in my house to stuff my face with, mind you I did eat a whole bag of mini rice cakes.

Your doing an amazing job!!! Be proud!!

Wow chaoticfish! 3 cheers for you! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:
I love reading your updates! congrats!

(and look at those ankles!)

you can stop anytime now- your hips are smaller than mine (my= 41.5) and your thighs are smaller than mine (my = 23) :lol: just kidding. Keep up the great work!

and 1 more PS- tape up 66 inches of paper together (5'6"!!)... I did that when I was at 44 inches (now I'm at 46.5) it's amazing!

WOW! What a great transformation. That's awesome.
I'm not the jealous type but I sure am feeling a little green :lol3:

I've been waiting to see some updated pics on your progress. You are doing so awesome and are truly and inspiration to us all. Keep up the good work and it's great to know my 30 in. thighs will more than likely shrink down :)

I've just recently joined, but your post title made me stop in and take a look. Congratulations, you look great!!!! You're certainly a motivator for me!!!!

Congratulations!!!! Wooo Hoooo! You're such an inspiration!

I'm speechless! Please let us know how you did this. Because I'm giving up hope because I hear of people on all these diets & all the talk about cheating & really don't read many success stories. Thanks.

That is so wonderful! You must feel so good about yourself and all round. May I ask what method/s you are using. I myself Have been at it since September and haven't lost much. I'm down 2 sizes from 18 to 14 with a total loss of only 13lbs. I hired a trainer and workout all the time and have significantly reduced my food. Any advice?

Keep up the GREAT work. YOU LOOK MARVELOUS

1hot_tomato.....
Yup, I'm counting calories. I eat about 1200 a day and walk for at least an hour a day. I try to use my [device of torture] exercise bike 3 times a week and do weights/cardio exercise the other 4. And I'll tell ya what - Yoda was a smart fella. Even though we don't like it, we all know what it takes to lose the weight. It's hard but ya just gotta do it! :)

fannie~annie.....
There are a few things that keep me motivated. The first and most important is all the encouragement I get from people here and in my every day life. Especially when someone says I've inspired them. See, I was always the timid, fat girl who tried to stay as invisible as possible. Now I have people asking me how they can do this too and I run into to them on my daily walks and they say to me, "I'm doing it!" It almost makes me wanna cry. That I made someone feel they could better themselves. It's wonderful! As for stuffing my face - Ohhhh I do indeed! In fact when I do I way OVERdo it. For instance, on the 1st, after my weigh in, I had my fav meal from my fav mexican restaurant. I ate so much I felt like I was gonna explode. Yesterday was a hamburger, fries, stuffed jalapinios and a strawberry shake. I hadn't splurged for 20 days and went a little overboard this time, lol. The thing I've learned is that I CAN splurge, just not often. But now I've gotta be a good girl for a good long while to make up for my indecent eating, lol :ink:

Feeling better also helps keep me motivated. I couldn't even walk half a block to check my mail before but now I can walk for miles without blinking an eyelash. I can even run! Also it's kinda fun for me to see the scales go down. It gives me a thrill when they drop to the next "10" - from the 190's to 180's to 170's, etc. I dunno what I'm gonna do when there's no more weight to lose, lol. Oh and clothes! Being able to buy anything I want and feel good wearing it! Up until a few months ago buying clothes wasn't fun it was simply neccesary and embarrassing. Has anyone else ever felt like falling through the floor when the checkout girl, a size zero, picked up your size 28 jeans to scan them and nearly toppled over from the sheer weight of them?!? That's an exaggeration of course but not much of one, lol. I hated that and pretty much wore the same clothes until they fell apart in strings.

KandiceA.....
Everyone says that, lol. STOP already! One of my best friends said some very unkind words (jokingly) when my waist got smaller than hers. As for taping 66 inches of paper together, I was thinking about that yesterday! I'm 5'2. I've lost 4 more inches than I am tall! :o

melmcc99.....
I do feel good about myself and it's an odd feeling, I have to admit, because it's a new feeling. I never much liked myself and pretty much always thought I was (literally) a big, fat nothing. Certainly that's what I was always told by everyone. But now I DO like me. I have an opinion of myself and I think I'm funny and nice and well, likeable. It isn't because of my body size that I have more confidence, it's because I stopped hiding from life and drowning myself in beef supreme gorditas!

As for what I'm doing it's pretty simple, as I said above - I eat about 1200 calories a day (give or take 100) and walk every day. Use my exercise bike and weights and do cardio exercise 4 days a week. I don't go to a gym or anything, I just use my little 5 pound Wal-Mart weights and watch Everybody loves Raymomd whole I try to elimnate my bat wings and do crunches :lol:

The best piece of advice I can think to give you is DON'T GIVE UP! Sometimes it's really slow and hard and frustrating. My biggest obstacle in the past was knowing how long it was gonna take. But this time I thought, "Ya know, time goes by so fast and it's gonna go wether I'm eating chicken breast or pizza so I might as well eat the chicken and be thinner at the end of the road" and sure enough, it's been 8 months in what seems like no time at all and I've lost 110 pounds.

Also I'd like to tell everyone that it gets easier. At first it seems aweful but that's just because you're used to eating whatever you want and I'd be willing to bet that 80% of the people here are emotional eaters which makes it even harder to give up your comfort (food). But it really, truly gets easier. At this point for the most part I just eat what I know I'm supposed to eat and it's not a big deal. The best part about this is that I know I can maintain eating this new way when I get to my goal weight. It's a good, good feeling!

To everyone else.....
Thanks so much for your kind words. They mean more than all the size 14's in the world :D

you are amazing! congratulations, and keep up the good work!

I watch That 70s Show for an hour every night -- maybe I'll take your advice & workout while I watch!

OMG!! I can't believe that's you again! It doesn't seem like all that long ago when you posted your 78lb. pics. You are doing such a fantastic job, working hard, keeping up your motivation and sticking with it day after day. You are such an inspiration and I just know that everyone who reads your story has a reason to be a little more hopeful that yes, maybe this really can be done. Thanks so much for sharing your success here. I know that stories like yours really helped to keep me going when I was losing and I'm sure it will for others as well. Keep up the good work and please keep us updated!

Beverly

WOW! You look fan.tas.tic. Look at your waist! You are a total inspiration. Good job!

I am so happy for you! You're doing an awesome job!!!

I'm still pretty new here and it's exciting to know that people here have been so successful. Thank you for being such a great inspiration!

that is absolutely amazing. congratulations to you. i know how good it feels.

You Rock !!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW- Way to go !

You are truly an inspriration!

Hello again! I must say again. You are amazing. May I ask though...please don't be offended or anything....Are you taking any meds to help or OTC's. I'm just curious. You've lost so much over eight months and I thinks it's wonderful! I am jealous! I do so oooo much and it's not happening as quickly as I would like. I had my thyroid tested and it's fine. So that's why I was wondering if you were taking anything that was helping you eat less or speed up your metobalism.

melmcc99.....

Nopers, I'm not using anything but willpower :) I don't think it does any good to use a pill to lose weight because the key to KEEPING if off once it's gone is learning how to eat properly. And that's what I've done, I've learned to eat properly. I'm not offended, people ask that alot. 110 pounds is NOT typical for an 8 month period and I don't really know why it's happening so quickly for me other than my sheer determination to do it and the fact that I pretty much stick to my calories and exercise with military precision, lol.

You're doing a great job! I know it's sometimes frustrating but if you stick with it you'll be to your goal weight before you know it. I wish I could help but the only thing I can think to suggest is that you might try upping your exercise or lowering your calories if you haven't already. Please feel free to email/message me anytime if you have questions or just need someone to talk to :)

Thanks so much for the reply! I am proud of you and don't even know you. I myself don't want to take OTC's and all. I know medically some people need a head start sometimes and that's ok too. I haven't taken that either. In the past, I tried and it didn't do much anyway. Like I said, I've been at it hard with not as much success as I would like, but hey, it's better than nothing and I don't really gain only around TOM and then it goes away plus some. I am going to try to eliminate some foods and see what happens. I can't possibly UP the exercise I sometimes do 2 + hours in a day. That's between Cardio and weight training. Mostly it's about 1 1/2 hours. I eat about 1500-1600 calories per day. I burn about 500-600 in cardio alone. If I eat less, I get the shakes... I do think I have a wheat issue though. It has been suggessted to me to do a detox of my GI track to get rid of toxins. THat way my body works properly. It has also been suggested that I might have a systemic Yeast problem and that could be the culprit. TWice last year I was on MEGA antibiodic and it was after that, that it became difficult to lose weight. Last January...before the meds.... I lost 17 lbs in 6weeks. Just eating right and exercising 3 times a week. I am going to do this "detox" which is suppossed to take 1 month. It's a slow process of eliminating Wheats and dairys and taking a supplement to flush out the metals and gunk from the body. We'll see if after that the weight starts to move better.

Thanks for answering my question. I felt I had to ask. Again, great job and I know you'll keep up the good work.

I just happened to notice your post and I wanted to let you know what an inspiration you are. You have done such a great job! Tears came to my eyes (happy ones) when I read it. Congratulations!

I am so inspired by you. Sometimes it feels like I have an insurmountable amount of weight to lose before August, but seeing what you could accomplish in 8 months (not that I expect even similar results) really motivates me.

Reading your comment about how the time will pass the same so you might as well be thinner is such a great outlook. Even if I'm only 15 pounds less in August, it's better than I am now.

I'm new here, I just wanted to say you look GREAT! You are such an inspiration to me, seeing those pics and reading your stats definitly helped to motivate me to get started on my weight loss journey!

chaoticfish, you look absolutely amazing! And I love hor organized you are. It must be great to do all those measurements every months and see the numbers go down.

Thank you for sharing your progress with us. You're an inspiration.

Chaoticfish-
Just wanted to pipe in my appreciation and thanks for sharing. You a bound and destined to be skinny-minnie!

Thank you for keeping such a diligent record of your measurements Chaotic Fish, they are truly inspirational. It must be amazing to look back at how much your body has changed. Well done!!!!!!!!!!!

Your weight loss is just incredible and you are really quite an inspiration to me. Thank you so much for posting. It makes me feel like I can do it!

I just peekd here at your message and it's prolly a while since you posted. How wonderful that you could share your success with the gals here...yes you are an inspiration
You should be so proud. I love your comment about having a good nibble every now and then. It's true we can but not often. It's so nice to know we can have our cake ( once in a while) and eat it too.
Well done and good luck for the rest of your journey. I know you can do this. I would love to see what you think Your goal weight is. it's such a good idea to keep it open.
Cheers from me

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I hope everyone is doing well.

Thanks so much for all of your support and encouragement and kind words. You guys make me smile because it's good to know that all this hard work is more than worth it since it gives someone else the inspiration to accomplish their goals too :)

hello chaoticfish,
congraulations girl. you rock. i know it's hard work. you've shown what the reward for working hard is. you go girl. you are an inspiration to all of us who are working our porgrams and watching the pounds melt away. don't stop until you reach your goal. how will you reward yourself when you reach your goal? have you been making small goals for yourself along the way? what do you reward yourself with when you reach those goals? great job. i so excited for you and myself. have a great evening and an even better tomorrow.
kind regards,
mary m

What an inspiration you are! You go girl!!!! :)

What a true inspiration you are! I am new here and actually this is my very first post. I would like to lose 80-90lbs. I have read your 1200 calorie diet and your fitness plan. I have started going to a fitness center and I have some physical problems that hender my workouts, but at least I am there giving it a shot. My biggest thing is of what to eat as to not get bored and not feel starved. Would you mind just post for example of what a daily menu for you consists of? Just to give me some ideas.
Thank You, Glo

Hi,
I'm new to this site but not new to 3FC's. I've been a part of their email group for almost 5 years :) Jennifer posted a link in the email group to your success story and I'm so happy for you! You've done and continue to do an awesome job. You have a fantastic attitude and I know you'll reach your goals.

Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing your success with us.

Wow totally amazing!! How wonderful for you! Great job!! Your pictures are just wonderful, I would love to know what you eat on your diet! I'm currently doing 1200 a day but was told that I'm not eating enough and that is why I'm not loosing any weight. :(