I know exactly how you feel! I have 100+ more pounds to lose and I've lost 30 so far. I lost it REALLY quickly and now I'm stalling/losing very slowly. I want the weight loss to speed up but I know if I stick with it, it'll be gone eventually whether the fat disappears overnight (I want this one to happen) or it takes 20 years. Just think about how much this will change your life in the long run--it will make you happier, more confident, healthier, and you'll KNOW that you worked hard to get there. Good luck!

I don't have numeric goals at all, in part because of the very issues you are struggling with.

I try not to think about the numbers - I keep track of them, but I don't gauge my success by them. I don't even have a goal weight in mind - like Justice Stewart, I'll know it when I see it.

Instead, my goal is to make the best choice I can make every time I am faced with a choice. That means choosing to pass up the cookies that are available at work. Choosing to eat an apple instead of hitting the vending machine. Choosing to spend saturday afternoon planning, shopping, and cooking for the week instead of doing something else and taking each meal as it comes. Choosing to pass on seconds when I've already eaten my calorie allotment for a meal. And so on.

That's my goal - really, that's it. Laser-like focus on the moment, on hitting that goal 20 times a day with 20 little (or big) choices. The rest, the numbers and the weight loss, flow from that. I don't have to think about how daunting the job is or how long it's going to take me to get there. I just have to think about the choice that's in front of me right now. And that, I know I can manage.

I can't remember which member's words of wisdom these are, but I shall borrow them for now and hopefully someone can credit them to the original poster: Remember that time will pass anyway. You've made a permamnet lifestyle change, right? So if it takes 12 months or 18 months or whatever to reach that goal in many ways it doesn't really matter, because in 12 months you can be lighter, the same or heavier, which one do you want to pick?

I do try to break my weight loss goals down more, you still have some very big numbers to aim at even as mini-goals. A mini-goal ticker can be very motivating as you start to see it getting near to the end, and it moves a lot further with each pound instead of being a never-ending line that creeps by. I see yours is a very short one, maybe look for a longer style so that each pound seems to make more progress across the page? Depends if that's something that appeals to you, if you are very visual that might help, and I also like a big graph with a downward line. Make each lb cross several squares so that you can record 1/2lb losses easily and also so that the line looks really dramatic! LOL

Try to aim for not just numbers on the scale but some other NSVs (non-scale victories) that you can really quantify. It helps if they are meaningful to you rather than something arbitrary. Going for something like every 10lbs is a nice round number, but it may be hard to visualise and connect to your progress, but something more concrete like "I'd like to go to my cousin's wedding in a size x dress" is personal to you. I broke mine down into different BMI progress points, and that is particularly rewarding because you can see health progress - I am no longer morbidly obese, I am no longer obese at all, my blood pressure has gone down this much, I'm off my diabetes tablets (not all will apply to everyone, just some ideas).

I totally know how you feel! When I look at the overwhelming amount of weight I have to lose it can really freak me out. What I have done is created a Word file on my computer with a "Weight Loss Mini Goals" list that I update every time I reach a mini goal. I've never posted this list online, not even on my blog. but I will post it here for you so you can see my thought process and how it's really helped me so far to stay on track. I concentrate on reaching one mini goal at a time. Then I go back and post the date when that mini goal has been achieved.

Say goodbye to the 260’s – 8/29/2010
Fit into size 18 jeans again – 9/26/2010
Say goodbye to the 250’s – 9/26/2010
Buy an outfit from the normal size racks – 10/1/2010
Say goodbye to the 240’s – 11/7/2010
Lose 25 pounds – 11/7/2010
Lose 10% of my starting weight – 11/7/2010
Have less than 100 pounds left to lose –
BMI moving from morbidly obese to obese (232 pounds) –
Fit into my prom dress again –
Say goodbye to the 230’s –
Lose 50 pounds –
Say goodbye to the 220’s –
Say goodbye to the 210’s –
Hello One-derland! –
Lose half of the weight I want to lose –
Lose 75 pounds –
Say goodbye to the 190’s –
Say goodbye to the 180’s –
BMI moving from obese to overweight (174 pounds) –
Say goodbye to the 170’s –
Lose 100 pounds –
Say goodbye to the 160’s –
Say goodbye to the 150’s –
BMI moving from overweight to normal (145 pounds) –
Say goodbye to the 140’s –
Fit into size 8 jeans –
Not cringe when I look in the mirror –
Reach my goal weight –
Redo the Disney photos after weight loss –


When I get to the end of this and see dates beside all of these little mini goals, that's going to be a REALLY good feeling! :)

First, losing 25 lbs is an amazing achievement, so give yourself a pat on the back! Before losing the weight this time, I don't think I ever got all the way to a twenty-five pound loss. I used to give up after about 10-15 lbs.

You've received a lot of really good advice here, but I just want to add one thing.

You DO NOT need to lose all of the 100lbs to look and feel 100% better. If you stick with it long enough to lose 50 lbs, you will be AMAZED at what will start to come your way: compliments, increased self-esteem, smaller sizes, better fitness... and then, it just gets easier and easier to keep going because with each pound you lose, things just get better and better.

That was is so hard about having a fairly high start weight, like I did. The first twenty-five to thirty pounds are really hard-- because it feels like you work so hard and yet the weight you lose is just a drop in the bucket.

But believe me, pretty soon, that will start to change, and it will change long before you hit your goal.

I've been at this for eighteen months, and I still haven't hit goal, BUT, my life has changed completely for the better because of my weight loss and that is without reaching goal.

Keep at it. You have no idea how many wonderful things are in store for you.

And reward yourself TODAY for the amazing achievement of losing 25 lbs. You've done something that most people will never do.

wow, I thought this was terrific advice (for me too! and I've been doing this a while)

OP, you might want to try keeping track with a journal, with pics (so much easier with digital cameras). looking back at my beginning, I can see how far I've come, what steps I've taken, how different I look, and how much healthier I feel. I still have some old clothes that are way big on me now. Keep a shirt or pants from your biggest size and pull it out from time to time.

I bet if you thought about it, you could think of ways you feel physically different and better after losing that 25lbs. I'm sure that's true mentally too.

I feel a huge difference with the amount I've lost, and I still have a ways to go. Good luck with everything! and congrats on the 25!

First, congrats on your 25lb. While you may be feeling like 25lbs is insignificant in the grand scheme of weight loss, your heart, muscles, joints, etc., definately don't think it's insignificant.

I get the same feelings and have to talk to myself to not feel frustrated or overwhelmed. It's gonna take some time and we have to start somewhere. We'll get there!

It's not insignificant! In fact, it's very significant! Congrats and keep up the good work!

First of all, congratulations!!! :D I would suggest finding something that weighs 25 pounds, and well..pick it up! Then you'll see how big of a deal 25 pounds is!
I just passed the 15 pound mark this weekend...I was carrying our turkey out from the grocery store to the car, and I told my husband, "dang, this turkey is heavy." It's only 12 pounds, but then I went well shoot - I've lost MORE than this heavy ol' turkey. It helped put things in perspective for me.
That's an extra 25 pounds of weight your body isn't carrying around! That's a huge accomplishment! Stick with it! :)

I think maybe I'll cut it down to 25lb goals for now and also maybe only weighing myself once a week.

It could be that it's taken me sooooo freaking long to lose this first 25 (I lost it in June but then ran myself off the rails and am losing 15 of it for the second time now) that maybe there's some shame and regret tied into that. Subconsciously maybe I'm thinking don't congratulate yourself too much because you've messed it up once before.

In any case, it's gone now and as long as I keep focusing on TODAY and not 125lbs from today I can stay positive.

Congratulations on the 25!!!!!

I do like CournteyDaisy, and have a list of mini-goals posted on here somewhere, which I update as and when (half a pound to go to the next update).
Also
I'm doing the Christmas Jiggle challenge, and decided early on that instead of listing weekly weightlosses, I'd only log the Start Weight and the Weight This Week. This has been a huge boost, because even last week when I'd lost very, Very little, when I put the current weight next to the start weight, I was bowled over by how much I'd achieved.
Also
I have 4 dogs so buy their food by the sack. 15kg hang on until I do the maths. 33lbs. I can only just drag it out of the boot of the car, and yet I've lost one and a half of them since May this year, two and a quarter of them since my highest weight.
Also
I Do consider that I'm On A Diet. It's what works for me. It means I DON'T have to make good choices on a choice-for-choice basis, I just stick rigidly to my rules. No disrespect whatsoever to people who do it differently but I need Laws to help me concentrate!
Also
I reward myself for amounts lost. Not by dates, that's too pressurized. I'm currently building a Trollbead bracelet, with a new bead for each stone (14lbs) lost.
Also
I find it it easiest to just put blinkers (blinders) on, and plod. I celebrate what I have lost but don't look too far ahead to how much still to go. Which is
9lbs to first interim goal,
29lbs to second interim goal (1lb lighter than last time),
48lbs to probable final goal.
See, that just depresses me, because to get to prob. final goal, I've got to do what I've done this year All Over Again.

Head down, head down, keep plodding!

:hug:

Well look at the bright side you have 25 less to loose. I had a few challenges thinking like that but I have a picture of me from last year and realized that I have come a long way. So though 25 may seem small in the big picture, there is someone that has been trying for years to loose that same 25.

I know it's been said, but it really is 25 fewer pounds that you have to lose. The time is going to pass either way. When I started school, they spoke at orientation about people saying they will be too old by the time they graduate. The dean said that you're going to be ___years old at some point anyway, do you want to be there with a degree or not? I always think this applies to weight loss as well, and really anything that people say takes too long. The time will pass and you can either have squandered it or used it. 25 pounds is phenomenal and you should be proud of that.