Hey all,

I KNOW I'm going to sound like I'm bellyaching for no good reason, but I figure I can bellyache and kvetch and complain HERE and I'm bound to run up against somebody whose felt the way I do at one time or another. At least I HOPE so.

Okay. Here goes. I've been sticking to my *lifestyle change* for about three weeks now. The first week I lost four pounds, the second week two pounds, and this past week, another two pounds. Great, right? So why aren't I doing the happy dance, then?

This is GOOD PROGRESS! It took me several YEARS to get here, and if I can keep up this pace, I'll be where I want to be in under a year, right?

It just feels so slooooooooowwwwww. I used to go on the Atkins plan when I'd gained weight (over the past four or five years I've been a regular yo-yo; up one month, down the next) and I would right away drop 10 pounds, and then lose four or five a week. But, for me, Atkins (obviously) just doesn't cut it, because I can lose on it, but I can't maintain on it. NOW I'm doing high fiber, low cal, low fat and lots and lots of water (about five 16-oz. bottles a day). I FEEL good (except still feeling heavy and klutzy) and I feel like I can really stick with this, and that I really WILL stick with this - I don't think there's any doubt in my mind that I'm going to do it (and all the inspiration I get here is HUGELY helpful) BUT, I have to admit that when I weighed myself this morning and saw two pounds gone, I wasn't thinking "YAY" or "Way to GO, girlfriend"....I was thinking, "Oh. Right. Two pounds".

Ungrateful wretch, right? But hasn't anybody else ever felt like this? And if so, what do you do to cheer yourself up? (I'm doing all that self-talk about how two pounds is a LOT - after all, picture two pounds of hamburger melting off your body, right?) But I KNOW it's a lot....I just have such a LOT more to lose!
<~~~~~~~ Me, right???? I KNOW, I KNOW. I sound like a fool, here. Sorry. Just being truthful, you know???

TTFN
Ellabella

Ellabella, I did Atkins for the wt. loss part of my journey and like you, then it just didn't cut it for me for maintenance. I was maintaining but after 1 1/2 yrs. I wanted more choices. I wanted more bread. LOL. I switched to calorie counting for my maintenance plan and it is working fairly well. But, when I over-eat and see a gain, I always think "should I go back to Atkins induction and get this wt. off quick?" I guess I got spoiled to the quick wt. loss that I had with Atkins. (I lost 16 lbs. the first 2 weeks on Atkins). But, with calorie counting now it takes me 2 weeks to lose 2 lbs. But, like me, you deep down know that 2 lbs. a week is awesome wt. loss and we really shouldn't try to lose any faster than that. Hugs, I know where you're coming from.

2 pounds is great. I'd argue that losing too much more is unhealthy on your body.

Picture it this way:
If you want to weight to be gone, and I mean REALLY gone, forever and ever and ever amen, you have to lose it slowly. Weight that comes off quickly will be just as quick to come back!

So grit your teeth, realize that if you lose 2 lbs per week, you'd have lost over 100 lbs in a year, and celebrate the fact that the scale is moving in the DOWNWARD direction!

Allright, you said you wanted to kvetch and bellyache, and you are so absolutely entitled to it. But I'm gonna give it to you straight - ARE YOU OUTTA YOUR FREAKIN' MIND? You are doing fabulously!!!! Really, really great. Not only are you losing at a fairly rapid pace if I do say so, but it sure sounds to me like you're winning the mental part of it too. You say you've got a plan that you like and you can stick to it forever. FANTASTIC!!! What could be better?

It sounds to be like you're kinda beating yourself up for past mistakes and are therefore in a hurry to right your wrongs. So yeah, I definitely UNDERSTAND you, 100% in fact. And you most certainly do not sound like a fool. When I first started my "lifestyle" change, I'm telling you if I would have lose 5 lbs a week for the first 2 months (ridiculous of course), it couldn't have been fast enough for me. That was just over 6 months and the time has really flown and I have made progress. You are doing great, stick with it, hang in there and try, just try to have a little patience. But for me I kinda used the not having patience to my advantage and MADE SURE I stayed on plan day in and day out. That for me was the ONLY way I knew I could deal with getting off all my weight. Keep your head up and try and go easy on yourself and keep on doing what you are doing. Before you know it you will be right where you want to be.

oh my gosh, i know exactly what you mean! the time appears to go so slowly when you are SO aware of what you are doing minute to minute.

if it helps, i have days where i think it's taking sooo long (i just have to get through those days and do the self-talk you mentioned), but more days that i don't feel it so much or am able to look at the overall picture. it helps when the non-scale victories begin. look for them!

you can do it!!!

Hey there! I would say that just about everyone knows that feeling of frustration that the pounds aren't dropping faster. Look at my ticker. From 186 to 170 took me three months. No, it was not even 2 pounds a week. I LOVED it when I happened to drop 2 pounds a week. But usually that's not how it went. I'm doing the slow, healthy weight loss.

You can be happy with your weight loss, or you can be disappointed. It's up to you. Get used to the fact that it will take a long time! You didn't gain it all in a month, and you won't lose it all in a month. Sometimes that's a real pain, but too bad! As long as overall the direction is down, you're doing fine.

So, I hope you cheer up! And continue to lose! And keep on your program!

Jay

I realize it's going to take at least two to four years for me to get all of my weight off [Really big sigh]

If someone were to offer to let me "sleep through," it all and wake up in a couple years at my perfect weight (hopefully, after the plastic surgery to remove the extra skin), Even with everything non-weight related that I would miss, I have to say it would be extremely tempting. Patience isn't one of my greater virtues, but I also know that the learning process necessary to maintain my weight is probably going to take even longer than getting the weight off in the first place, so I guess I'm stuck at the "healthy pace," whether I like it or not.

Oh, I hear ya! How do I console myself by slow results? Too often by seeking solace in the cookie jar! Not a good strategy, I know.

I'm like you EllaBella... I've been this weight (more or less) for several years now, so I need to reset my mental clock and accept the fact that it's not going to be gone overnight. Slow and steady is the only way to take it off, and more importantly, KEEP it off! Good luck!

The first week you do everything perfectly and you don't lose any weight, you will think fondly of this "tiny" 2 lb weight loss

Thanks, everybody - Colleen,Train & Kelena for the encouragement, Jay for the well-deserved kick in the butt Glory for pointing out the obvious which I knew but didn't like, Lilybelle for sharing how she did it, Robin for understanding that I'm really angry with myself over past actions (the ones that got me here), and Janie - Janie, YOU keep your hands out of that cookie jar, you hear???? We ARE going to do this no matter how the heck long it takes! I have to say that every time I get really frustrated I go and look at somebody's before & after photos and recharge my inspiration and determination.
STILL...two pounds.....Oh, Lawdy!!!

What a great group of folks - I'm SO glad I found you!

Ella

I also wanted to see fast results, then I started looking at my weight loss journey as a whole. I am changing a lot of bad habits that took all these years to develop, I'm enjoying good food while making better choices. I'm not feeling deprived at all because I can eat whatever I choose as long as I count it into my WW points and this is a complete lifestyle change. As a result of making these changes the weight is coming off. Sometimes slowly, then sometimes it changes up and I have a couple of weeks where I have bigger losses. It takes time, so enjoy the ride.

Denise

I reread my last post, and realized how scary it is that Iwould even consider missingss out on 2 - 5 years of my life (and the lives of family and friends) for any reason, especially something like losing weight (as opposed to say saving lives, or in the cause of world peace, you know something noble).

I guess it shows how perverted our priorities can become with the stress of "the quest." I am so anxious to have "this all over and done with," that I constantly forget it never will be. We all know it is a "good" thing, it just doesn't always feel like it, but we'll get there.

It's like the story of a woman after her daughter's college graduation, said to a friend that she had always wanted to go to college. The friend encouraged the woman to go for it, but the woman said, "it would take 4 years, and by then, I'd be 47. The friend said, "and how old will you be in 4 years, if you don't go."

Hi Ella!

When I get down about not losing weight very quickly I try to think of a pound as the amount of CALORIES that it is: 3500. That makes a pound VERY impressive. Now how about TWO POUNDS? Well, THAT is 7,000 calories of fat G-O-N-E! Now that's even MORE impressive!

Before, I thought about going ON a diet and finally BEING FINISHED with the diet. Now I have realized that I must think of all of this as a LIFESTYLE REVISION that I will be experiencing FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE if I want to be the thinner person I dream about! I have had to come up with tried and true methods that will work for me every day for the rest of my soon-to-be thinner life!

Every one of us here would LOVE to automatically lose the weight overnight and wake up thin and healthy and fit. Of course THAT PLAN is science fiction (although very tempting stuff!)

As Robin said, you are doing GREAT! Congratulate yourself and wave Buh-Bye to those pounds forever!

Cheryl

I know exactly what you mean. I started out wanting to go low carb, not exactly as extremely low carb as adkins, but low carb.... Tha lasted all of about 2 weeks. The weight came off fast at first while I was cutting carbs. In those two week I lost 7 lbs, but I realized that this low carb thing just wasn't for me, becuase it's hard to stick to for long periods of time. Eventually the bread will win out. So I began to incorporate some carbs back into my diet, mostly in the forms of fruits and veggies, but I do allow myself a little bread and rice, etc., in moderation... since then I have been losing about 2 lbs a week. I am now at 15 lbs lost after 5 weeks, and going strong becuase I do not feel deprived at all. I even allow myself a cookie or a piece of french toast, or a fried chicken breast now and then (I absolutely cannot resist a piece of Popeye's chicken) But if I do this, I work it into my calorie count for the day, maybe cut back a little from somewhere else. I aim for 1500 a day, but sometimes I fail in either direction. I really like this fitday.com calorie counter thingy. I count everything that goes past these lips... and I mark all the activities that I have done all day, and compare cals consumed vs. cals burned...

Where weight loss is concerned, I used to think that faster was better. My mom instilled that in me from a young age, since, in the 80's, she lost like 150 lbs. in less than a year eating alot of skinless chicken, and not much else, and practically starving herself. She gained back most of it gradually over the next 4 or 5 years after that, and I saw that too. So I know, high pro low carb diets do work, but they don't last. I know this first hand.

As for me, I think a more balanced diet and slow and steady weight loss will be more permanent life change for me. I just have to be more patient.