Hi There - I am new here and want to share my story. I have been overweight pretty much all my life but my weight really started to creep up in my early 20's. I met my husband, had kids and the next thing I know I'm 38 years old and 274 pounds (I'm 5'8). I never really had any motivation to lose weight before, I just kept telling myself I didn't look too bad. Recently I looked in the mirror and thought "oh my god, I need to do something about this" and so I started my journey. For the first time I REALLY, REALLY want this! I have started doing my own version of the Dr. Bernstein diet. I say my own version because I am following his book and his recipes but I add a few things during the day because I think 850 calories a day is too little to survive off of. So far since I started on Jan. 21 I am down 15 pounds. I don't have an exercise routine I follow but I have two young kids that keep me moving and I also play hockey 1 night a week.
I know you aren't suppose to but I weigh myself every morning. I need to do this to keep myself motivated. As long as I see some change for the day before I know I can get thru another day without all my favorite things in life (coffee with cream & sugar from Tim Hortons being the biggest).
My goal is the get to 175lbs. Technically all the charts say I will still be considered overweight at 175lbs but I really can't see me being 150lbs which is what my "ideal" weight is. Only 84 more pounds to go!
I can't wait for the day I can walk into the mall and buy an outfit at any damn store I want. I want to try on clothes in the same stores as my girlfriends. The day that happens I will know the struggle was worth it.
Thanks for reading my story. I look forward to sharing this journey with everyone and hearing everyone's stories.
Glad to hear about your success so far! I'm also glad that you've decided not to follow an 850 calorie a day diet, because you're right; that's way too little to survive. I've heard of some medically-supervised diets that will go below that, but that "medically supervised" part is very important.
This site will actually calculate how many calories you need to maintain or lose weight, which you can recalculate each time your weight drops. I personally would never dip below the "extreme weight loss" number and try to aim for regular "fat loss" if you can.
I know you aren't suppose to but I weigh myself every morning. I need to do this to keep myself motivated. As long as I see some change for the day before I know I can get thru another day without all my favorite things in life (coffee with cream & sugar from Tim Hortons being the biggest).
I have weighed myself every day since I was 281lbs. Yes, there will be days you are up. But if the motivation in losing (most) days works for you as much as it did for me, then I say go for it!
Good luck! It can be a lot of fun. You will look very different 100lbs down. And that is emotionally...interesting. We'll talk about that later.
Welcome and way to go on the weight loss thus far! The beginning is FOR SURE the toughest to get through so congrats.
Yes, it's important to keep our goals in mind especially when temptation and cravings rear their ugly heads. Whenever I'm feeling particularly weak or tempted, I remember the quote, "The only person you're hurting when you cheat, is yourself." For some reason, that helps me!
Thanks IanG - I'm already starting to notice a different in the way my clothes fit so I am really looking forward to being about to actually see the change in the mirror. Congrats on your weight loss, you look fabulous!
Mariam892 - the quote that gets me thru is "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels". I can't wait to actually say that and KNOW what skinny feels like.
I weigh daily as well. Tells me a lot of things. For instance, a restaurant meal, will shoot me up, sodium. A heavy lifting day, I'm up. But, as long as I stick with it, it drops right back down.
There is nothing wrong with weighing daily, as long as the plus's, which will happen, don't drive you crazy. It's data!
If you are keeping a food and weight log, it can be helpful, long term, to look at the info in both. Helps to spot trends, like the effects of TOM, eating out, more veg, less processed food, illness, etc. It can also help you to figure out how to tweak things, if need be.
Thanks everyone. Glad to know im not the only daily weigher. Now I just have to learn to jot get down on myself for the small gains. So far the small gains have always come off the next day so I know this is just normal fluctuations of daily life.
Need to loss 100 pounds
WTG on the 15 pounds! Sounds like you have a great plan in place.
