I'm so sorry if I sounded rude, it was totally not my intentions. I thought maybe you were in high school...there was no indication of your age, and the picture on your avatar looks really young. I'm a mom and aunt to several teens and the "get a job" line is part of my daily vocabulary...I am truly very sorry I hurt your feeling.

no worries..I deal with not working every day of my life, and it doesnt get easier..It struck a nerve and I let it get to me :)

Makinthechange....good luck with your job search. I would go months looking for work myself sometimes, hopefully something will come along soon. :)

I had 4 major "diets" in my life before I figured out what would work for me permamently this last time.

High school - I was an ever so slightly chunky high school kid, definitely not fat at all even though I felt IMMENSE since so many girls in my high school were those super slim willowy no hips teen age girl types. I weighed around 140 lbs and dieted down to around 132 lbs. I didn't really know what I was doing, I tried to eat less and rode my bike around the neighborhood a lot. I had no idea about calories or anything like that.

College - I weighed 157 lbs and decided to just stop eating one summer. I had this genius idea that if eating too much made me fat, I would not eat and I would lose tons of weight really fast. For about 2 months, I existed on dexitrim, a bowl of rice krispies and an orange. I did lose a lot of weight, really fast. I binged on the fourth of July, helplessly, out of control. I gave up and regained the weight so quickly I have 3 permanent stretch marks on my belly to remind me of my stupidity.

Senior year of college - I was up to around 170 or so. I decided to eat "low fat" basically anything I wanted as long as it was low fat. Lots of pasta, baked potatoes, cereal, fruit, fat-free stuff like Snackwells. I had several "binge" episodes during this diet (now I know that empty carbs are a huge trigger for me and I was piling them in). I got down to 140 or so. Eventually just...stopped, went back to my old eating habits.

Several mini diets, I knew HOW to lose weight, so I would "diet" for awhile, lose weight, stop, gain the weight back and more weight...."diet" for awhile, lose weight, stop gain the weight back. These were really small efforts, I did manage to keep my weight fairly stable (well, kinda stable, under 160 lbs for about 5 years).

1999 - had my jaw wired shut due to surgery. Lost a LOT of weight really fast, gained it back equally fast when I started eating normally - not recommended!

2000 - Started a new stressful job - in a building with a FABULOUS cafeteria (including buy 1 get 1 free pastries every afternoon after 2). Gained weight very steadily, up to around 200 lbs over 4 years. Basically, I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it.

2004 - Completely changed my life forever, lost 70 lbs, have kept it off for over 3.5 years :)

I've been on about five major diets since I was around 35. I was skinny before that. I am 65 now, so that is a diet every 6 years. I am like many others - good at dieting and not so good at maintenance. The trouble is, I have gained back more every time. This time, I have lost 40lbs, and I have managed to keep at least 35lbs off since last Dec. I am pleased about that even though I haven't gotten to goal.

I've yo-yo'd since puberty. In college, I could drop 10-15 pounds in a few weeks by crash dieting and exercise. In my 20's, I tried a "quick weight loss" program, paid lots of money for their program and protein supplements, lost 15 pounds and promptly gained it back (and more) when I fell off of the program and never went back. I lost weight for my wedding at age 30, gained for baby number one, lost all but 5 lbs, gained for baby number 2, and kept another 5-10 pounds. I decided to lose weight when I hit 40, lost 20 lbs and actually kept it off for a couple of years before the bad habits slipped back in and I gradually gained back that 20 and quite a bit more.

So put me in that category of "can lose weight just fine, it's the maintaining that's hard". I finally figured out that I regain weight when I stop watching. If I don't get on the scale regularly and watch what I eat every day, AND consistently exercise ... then the weight will come back. I've been maintaining this time for 8 months now. I still weigh every day, work out almost every day, and write down and calorie-count everything I eat. For me, I think this is what it's going to take. If I stop closely self-monitoring, that's when it starts to creep back on.

Morning, I've realized that I've never "dieted" correctly in my life. I never made any life changes when I dieted. I've restricted too much, gave myself an end date,blah, blah, blah...but most important I've NEVER finished. A good weight for my body is around 125-130ish. Any time I've lost weight, I've stopped in the high 140s, ironically it's where I am now. I settle for "good enough" and then let myself go because I wasn't truely happy where my body was. At least I've finally realized I do this. So no end dates, it's taken me 16 months to lose 31 lbs. And it may take me until next Spring to get to where I ultimatley want to go but that's okay too. I've maintained this weight for almost 3 months so I know I can maintain. This is my 4th big weight loss attempt ( and attempt to maintain ) . This time I make it out of the parking lot and into the building:-):-)..