Hey everyone
Well I read over what has been posted so far and I can relate to several. I feel exactly as Thin does right now, the "today is the first day of the rest of my life" syndrome which blends into tomorrow, and so on and so on. I know this feeling. It is what I have been struggling with for years, too. I too haven't been to Curves in about a week and a half and every day, I think okay, today I am going, but I talk myself out of it because I figure, "What's the point. I am never going to be able to do this"
I once heard, I think on Oprah, that you shouldn't make the committment to do this until you know that you can keep with it. Otherwise it is just like lying to yourself. The more you lie to yourself, the less likely you are to believe yourself the next time you think, "Okay, this is it!" - in the back of your mind, you are saying "Yeah, right!"

I think that the dialogue we tell ourselves in the back of our mind is very powerful, and I find that that is one area that I have a lot of difficulty changing. You know, the believe in yourself, I'm worth it,

, etc.
And so, I started working on this in January and have made minimal progress and, yes Thin, I too feel like time is passing me by. I head back to work in a week (full time after a year and a half leave

) and I think to my self what the

have I accomplished. Not a **** of a lot! I had really hoped to have lost a significant amount of weight so that I could feel a bit better about myself going back into the classroom

but here I sit battling the same 5 - 7 pounds for the last several months. I take it off, I put it on, I take it off, I put it on, you know the drill!
Quote:
My mind is so bogged down and my heart is so heavy that I can't seem to care enough to make some progress. I feel like such a failure
I too, feel like a failure and I feel like it is never going to happen for me.
Someone mentioned previously, I think it was Tina, about stomach stapling, and let me tell you I had it done when I was 20 and it was a huge mistake for me. I respect the right of anyone else to decide to do this but it is a huge step and it will change your life forever - or at least it did mine. In March of 1990, my Dad died of a massive coronary and although you have never seen me, I am the spitting image of my Dad and I am blessed with his never ending battle with weight. When my Dad died, it scared the **** out of me and I panicked!

I look just like my Dad, I have his weight problem, I even sound like my Dad and I figured I was headed down the same road as him. I had already looked into the surgery and my Dad felt (about six months before) that it was dangerous and I shouldn't do it. Then he died and I was terrified that I was next. I didn't get the proper counselling I needed to make such a life altering decision and I ended up in October 1990 deciding to go ahead and do it. At first it was good and I lost weight rapidly, but then when I tried to resume normal (read healthy - not my old "normal") eating habits, I couldn't. Everything, made me sick. Literally, I was throwing up all the time. I discovered the easiest thing to eat after this surgery is - you guessed it - junk food (it doesn't required a lot of chewing and alot of it melts in your mouth) - that was the end of my weight loss. And for the next seven years I bounced around the scales up and down like a yo-yo and developed the worst eating habits I have ever had in my entire life. In '97, I had the surgery reversed and gained more weight, but I still have trouble eating a variety of foods. My capacity to digest hard-to-digest foods is not good and I have completely cut out pork and beef out of my diet because that is just asking for it. I often feel sick when I eat and still throw up sometimes. This is the result of the surgery and I am stuck with it for life. I know that some people are very successful with this procedure, but I was not one of them. I feel it is important for me to let you know what I went through so you can make an informed decision. Whatever you decide, please make sure you get lots of counselling and make sure that you really want to go through with this, because once you do, there is no turning back.
I'm sure you are thinking, "well, if she is throwing up all the time, how come she has a weight problem!" It's the damn junk food - and my need to protect myself from the world. Yes, I know this is the problem, I just don't know what to do about it. Between the ages of about 9 and somewhere in my teenage years (read around 18) my brother physically and emotionally abused me. About a month ago (I am 33 now), I finally got up the nerve to confront him about all this and tell him that I have had enough and he is not going to bully and intimidate me anymore! His response was that it never happened, I made up the whole thing - it is all in my mind! What is worse is that my mother (she died in October) also doesn't remember any of this happening (even though she witnessed some of it). Yes, this is why I have been in therapy for the better part of my adult life - because I made it all up and I have nothing better to do than to deal with an issue that didn't really happen. Yes, I know I sound angry, and I am. This is probably making a lot of you uncomfortable (I am very sorry for that), and I don't even expect anyone to respond, I just need to get this rage out! I need someone out there to know that this happened to me and 15 - 20 years later, I am still trying to deal with it! I really am very sorry to be so negative, but I want people to know where I am at right now - maybe you can offer incite - but as I said, if you are uncomfortable with this, I understand.
Thank you for the positive and inspirational posts from others (pjk, barb).

I know this isn't one of them, but as I said, I needed to get this stuff out.
Thanks for listening
Laura
