So what would you do for instant weight loss in whatever amount? What is your price? What would you sell to the devil for this reward? I'm just curious and interested if everyone is as cheap of a date as I am.

I probably wouldn't go so far as to sell my house or my car, but I'd sell everything within my house except for my mementos. I wouldn't want to lose family, friendships or my job. Because without my job how would I buy back my tv? :-) I'm a fairly reasonable person, but I would give up a lot........yet the funny thing is that I won't give up the things that cause the weight gain which should be the easiest.....so even if I gave up my 'wealth' to suddenly become 130 pounds, apparently I would just gain everything back because I really haven't changed anything....hmmmmmm

But out of fun, what would you do? :-)

You know, this question is one we ask ourselves and others---asked and answered just as you did because on the one hand ... what wouldn't I give ... and on the other, the very things we know we should give, we don't. Or we give for a while, then we stop...

I've written this here before and it bears repeating (cuz I like to "hear myself talk") - if you woke up tomorrow the perfect size, that'd be a great gift, right? The caveat, however, is to STAY that perfect size, you must eat to maintain it. In a nutshell, that is the secret. Eat to maintain the perfect size and eventually that will be your reality. While I read this little gem about 20 years ago, its only now sinking in.

I'd get flamed if I told you :P

"The caveat, however, is to STAY that perfect size, you must eat to maintain it"

Exactly the reason why I wouldn't offer up anything :P...If you lose, and your old habbits remain the same, whats the point paying any price for that. Weightloss is like a trial run. We make many errors but in the end it's benificial because we learn from them.

For most of my life, even a good part of this current journey, I thought that if I could somehow get thin, I'd have a chance at maintaining it, because I thought maintenance had to be easier than weight loss.

I realize now, that's I've been telling myself one heck of a big whopper.

My last 36 hours, has really drove home the fact that I am as addicted to carbs, especially sugar as any junkie in an alley.

And despite having SAID this many times here on 3FC, over at least the last five years, on some level I've been denying it.

I've cleaned up the house of trouble foods, for the most part. To the point that I have my husband keep his high-carb junk out of sight.

But every year, the holiday season gets me. It's the season in which it's practically sacreligeous and anti-american to turn down sugar.

And just like an alcoholic, the very act of indulgeing reduces the inhibitions even further (increasing the liklihood of a "bender,")

Well, I literally just woke up from a "bender." I haven't done anything this sugar-crazy in at least a year (in fact, last year it was with my mother's homemade caramels).

On Sunday, we had a family (hubby's) Christmas get-together, and two small slivers of pie (one each of pecan and key lime, two of my favorites).

I rationalized them - they were at someone else's home, so I wasn't going to be in a position to eat more than I "should" (forgetting that in my case the only amount I "should" eat is zero).

I've been on a carb and sugar bender ever since...


and I'll tell ya, it was a challenge because there's not a lot of sugar left in our house, so it was pretty sad as far as benders go, and it still made me sick.

I'm itchy head-to-toe, have gained some water weight (which I'll add back to my ticker if it's not gone within a few days), my face and fingers are swollen, and I'm craving sugar like mad.

Today and yesterday, I sold my health for sugar, and now I am paying interest in pain, discomfort, and cravings.

I KNOW I can't eat sugar without this happening, and yet I feel into the "but it's a holiday tradition," trap of crap.

In the past, I would have seen this failure as proof and premonition of failure.

Now, I know it's "just" a relapse, but there's no "just" about it - this is pure unadulterated living-****. I feel like I've been hit by a truck, even my eyelids itch and hurt, and my joints are killing me... and yet - even knowing this, I still can fall into the same trap.

Hm...I'd love to be instantly thin. but I know it wouldn't last long. I've been thin ONCE. It was in high school, and it was because I starved myself.. I was literally only eating 0-400 calories a day and exercising like crazy. I dropped from 160 to 138 in a very short amount of time. I gained it all back within a month. First real meal that touched my lips set it off and I ate like I was making up for all the months of starving myself.

No quick fix works, because if you don't work hard for something how can you fully appreciate it?


Kaplods- I went through the same thing this weekend...but for me, instead of sugar, I eat carbs covered in cheese and greasy meat...pizza, nachos, pasta....

We just have to remember how crappy those foods make us feel. Like you, I've been bloated, feeling sick, groggy, and listless since my crazy weekend free-for-all...I hope you feel better soon. I'm just starting to come out of my carb coma after day 2-3ish.

What a good question! I would love to wake up and have the perfect body. I would give up many of my possessions, nothing that is irreplaceable or special though. It would be amazing to go to sleep one night and wake up the next morning with the body I have only dreamed of!

Unfortunately like everyone else has said it would not last long. I would eat back all the weight that I magically lost. I needed to learn that my eating behavior was wrong because I truly didn't think I had a problem with food when I started. Boy was I wrong! Plus, humans value things more when they take effort to do. If it didn't take any hard work then I think I would easily fall back into my fast food and junk habit again. Now if I crave chips or pizza I just think about my long I would have to run to burn all those calories off and it instantly puts me off whatever food I am craving. I highly doubt it would be the same if I simply took a magical pill.

I also think if all the weight were to fall off I would not value my body like I am beginning to. I had to work my butt of to get where I am now and I appreciate every single pound I lose. Weight loss has given me insight into myself and although it's freaking hard and sometimes frustrating I would not trade all the things I learned about myself for anything. Even the perfect body.

While waking up to the perfect body would be nice, I'd be lost without my "goal" to attain a semi-perfect body!! And, even though weight loss isn't fun, per se, it has taught my how to cook, how to be more consistent and patient, and how to become physically fit - I am much fitter now, at 30, than when I was in my early 20s (never exercising, smoking, drinking, not eating to stay thin).

kaplods: I really hope your husband helps you rid the house of the addictive substance. I used to have a roommate that was a recovering alcoholic. I once tried keeping a bottle of wine in my room that I wanted to drink later, she sniffed it out. I then realized how selfish it was for me to do that. She literally couldn't help drinking it - I think that all inhibitions towards an addictive substance is lost whenever the substance is within the confines of your own home. I do hope your husband can assist you with removing it.

And, btw, nice to have you back!

True story.....

15 years ago I was at my lowest weight since college (145) and I was in a relationship with a great guy. Marriage material for sure. But during the course of our relationship which included traveling, many many unhealthy breakfast, lunch and dinner's, I packed on the pounds. Instead of blaming myself for the poor choices I convinced myself it was all HIS fault so I wouldn't feel bad about breaking up with him. Deep down I knew that in order to lose weight I'd have to end the relationship. And I did.

But anyway, to keep my response in the spirit for which you intended .... I would say that I would have given up a couple years of my life. When you are so desperate to lose weight and you are so miserable living life I wished to have this opportunity to make this deal with the devil. Because I'd rather have a shorter happy life than I would a longer miserable one.

Of course that "fantasy" changed over the course of the past year. I still made a deal with the devil (the devil being my lack of motivation and willpower) that I would NOT date or permit myself other things in life such as new clothes until I lost the weight. I only allowed myself these things I deprived myself of along the way as weight loss goal rewards. And I'm a better person physically and mentally because of it.

Nothing.

I learned so much on my journey, you couldn't put a price on it. Cheesy, I know, but true

I agree 100%. I wouldn't trade in this experience for insta-weight loss.

I wouldn't give up anything for instant weightloss because I know I'd gain it all back. But just to lose weight I would give up:
My time - I use my free time to exercise
My favorite foods - I hardly ever go out to eat or order out and I'm careful about what I cook at home
A favorite pasttime - I looooove baking but now I only do it when I know I can give the baked goods away!
My money - Gym membership, workout clothes, good running shoes & healthy food all cost money
Booze - Cutting down on this also cuts down on calories. Plus, I run better when I wasn't drinking the night before.
I'm sure there are more things. Like eating whatever I want and not caring (especially around the holidays). But whenever I hear a question like this I can't help but think, I've already given a lot up for this! :P

My experience has been almost the polar opposite. The more I deprived myself, the more I destroyed myself mentally and physically, bit by tiny bit.

Not only did obesity itself probably shorten my life expectancy, I suspect that the way I dieted (to get the quickest weight loss), and the joys in life I deprived myself of "because I didn't deserve them," did far worse.

I think my fear of obesity did far more damage to me than the obesity itself - because I WAS willing to sacrifice my health and my life to get thin.

I think we're taught to hate fat so much, that we treat it as if we're covered in tar and excrement - and instead of removing it "the best way," with patience and the appropriate materials, we try to rip it off to be rid of it as quickly as possible, not caring that we're taking skin and possibly our lives with it.

Ironically, the only permanent weight loss I've ever acheived (this time) has been by a method I never considered when I was younger, deciding that I was worthy of all good things in my life, whether or not I lost a single pound.

Instead, I took everything from myself, and with so much weight to lose, it meant I would have nothing for a very, very long time.

When food is the only thing I deprive myself of, it usually feels like a fair trade-off, because I still so many other wonderful things in my life. When I stripped myself of everything good, because I didn't deserve it, when the weight loss slowed I lost every shred of hope.

And ironically, I was "on" the deprivation train more often than I was off - for over 30 years. I just could gain much faster than I could lose.

If only I hadn't been so terrified of fat. If only I could have had just a little more patience and compassion for myself in getting it off. If only I (and my parents and pediatrician when I was a fat child) had been willing to take less away from me, over a longer period of time, I think I would have conquered this so much sooner.

Instead, I learned to diet as if I were "strip mining." I'd tear every bit of joy from my life. It took some of the fat, but it always took more of my self-respect, physical health and capacity for joy. The weight loss was never enough to compensate for the losses.

That's easy! I'd definitely sell my body. Out of fun.

I'd also sell my soul... if I had one

Of course, I have conditions! - the "instant weight loss" would HAVE TO BE PERMANENT.

Ah, per chance to dream.

I would give up cake...completely! I am a cake addict, lol. I have a hard time saying no to it, that's why I worked it into my plan as an occasional treat...but if I could eat anything else I wanted and wake up with a rockin' bod tomorrow I'd give up cake in a heartbeat!