A new normal! Lena that's good!

I'm a college student, I have 2 jobs and I am in various student orgs so what makes it hard for me is just simply the fact that I don't feel like working out. It's also easier for me to eat fast food on the go. It's funny that I found this thread because I was just telling my friend the other day that I am lazy and a procrastinator when it comes to this stuff and I need to stop being like that and just discipline myself. It's so hard to practice self control esp. when I've eaten this way for years but now I am looking forward to a change!

I think it is that all or nothing attitude. Last year, I was going good, but I was tired of going to the gym, and my car broke down, and I didn't have it for two weeks so couldn't get to the gym, and I had to clean up my yard.

Instead of just giving myself permission to stop the exercise for a while, and maybe go less often during the summer so I could still work on the yard, I just stopped. If I had kept going, at the worst, I probably wouldn't have gained any of my weight back.

And then I had to wait for New Year's to start again. Why????

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and I hope I don't repeat my pattern this year.

Like several others here, once I changed my mindset about just DOING it, it hasn't been hard. Getting that mindset was the hard part.

Don't get me wrong, some days I just want to eat the fridge, but on the whole, it has been easier than any other attempt I've made.

I found it hard to ADMIT to myself for real that I had a weight problem. People would say, "You're big boned" I believed them, although outwardly I said I didn't but DEEP DEEP down I believed them. I also thought that because of my age 47 at the time I was too old to get back to my smaller sizes and that I was stuck at a size 14 and uncomfortable...

Yea, like Susan and Tani, I got in the way of myself, I was my own worse enemy not any more ...

It is a real job to lose weight if you have let yourself get overweight.

*Physically you have to make changes you are not used to, and this can be a real challenge.

*More than half the battle is mental-- so then we also have ourselves to contend with.

The good news is, when you come to terms with the fact that you want to change yourself and you are willing to strive to do so -- you can do it. For me there was a "hill" I had to get over before it got any easier. Once I said goodbye to the first five pounds I understood I was making the right decision. So, yeah- it is hard especially in the beginning.

For me it was sort of the laziness, and putting everyone else first in my household. I make lunches for one of my sons and my hubby every night. And forever, I would be so tired after doing that--I'd skip myself! So every day at work, guess what I would eat? You got it. Pure junk, either from a manufacturer's vending machine or fast food. So I had to retrain my brain to putting myself at least 2nd on the list. Now making my lunch is easy. And it doesn't take the time like I thought. I would throw some lettuce into a small lock n lock bowl, dressing in another small container. And then after I put the kids to bed, I will bake some skinless chicken breasts. And before bedtime, they're cooled down enough to wrap up and throw in the frig. Then I can easily throw my lettuce, dressing and chicken into a plastic bag and go on to work in the morning. Baked potatoes...same thing. I will bake like 2-3 after dinner and then they're cooled enough by my bedtime to throw in the frig too. I'm one of those "oven baked potato" snobs. LOL I hate my potatoes cooked in the microwave, but I don't mind heating them up for a minute or two the next day at work. :-) So I guess it's just finding the time to make sure you do something for you. You'd be surprised how many "pockets" of free time you can find in the evenings once you search. ;-)

Like many others have said, I just like food! And I also get lazy! When I come home from work I tend to crash instead of getting stuff done at home... including things like cooking! Also, our society is so food oriented... huge restaurant portions, enough for 3 people! And at work or wherever there is nearly always cake or junk food around... where I work we have that kind of thing all the time! It takes a bit of will power to say "no thanks" and just stand around and participate in the birthday celebration or whatever and not eat. Of course now I am paying myself 50 cents for every "treat" I skip so instead of the junk I think of the more $$$ I will have to blow on my cruise coming up in May!!

My crazy work schedule! I work till 7 everyday except till 6 on Sunday and till 9 on thursdays. I barley get in brakes and a lunch time and by the time I get home, I'm very hungry and it's too late to be eating....very difficult!

Well for starters, I have a huuuge sweet tooth, and I'm a recovering carb junkie. I loooove cereal-- I used to have Lucky Charms for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because I didn't feel like cooking. And I thought that heaping bowl-fulls was normal. I'm still breaking out of that. I love chocolate. I love bread. I looooove soda. All things I'm trying to break myself of.

Boredom. Sitting around, watching tv, feeling the need to do something with my hands and mouth. One candy soon becomes 5, then 10, and so on. I've been trying to substiute sugar-free gum for constant munching, and it works about half the time. The rest will just have to come from sheer will power.

Self-consciousness. I don't mind going to the gym, but I HATE going alone. I feel like everyone stares at me. And lately my bf (my usual gym buddy) has had weird work schedules, so instead of getting off my butt and getting over my self-consciousness, I stay home.

Those are my major set-backs.

I would like to turn this around. What makes it easy for me to lose weight is Atkins. Eating healthy solid, good, satisfying filling foods, but avoiding junk, makes it SO easy to drop weight. I told a guy at work about it and he has already lost 17 pounds! I think he has only been doing it less than a month.

For me, I'm down 20 or so. I'm pleased to be losing so rapidly and so well. What makes it easy is setting small goals. Reaching them and then setting the next one. I CAN and WILL do this. I refuse to dwell on the negatives. THIS time I'm going to lose all the weight I want, and I won't give up until I'm satisfied.

Of course it is hard to lose weight. If it was easy, we wouldn't be here, would we?

For myself, there are a lot of things that make it hard. I am tandem nursing, and I am slow to catch on that this apparently has a huge impact on my ability to lose weight. You'd think I'd have figured that out the first time around! But it really took me this long to figure out that the biggest difference between losing 30 pounds between pregs #1 & #2 and only 10 pounds (not counting pregnancy weight) between pregs #2 & #3 wasn't eating or exercise, it was nursing two kids at once. Not that I would change it for the world, of course, but finally figuring that out has removed a lot of pressure.

Also, for myself there is the reality of scoliosis. I've been told that the curve in my spine is readily visible when I'm shirtless. I've also been told that I have a bunching up of muscles on one side of my spine, which further complicates matters, and yet further a twist in my spine. Which means that I have a bad back, and sometimes I wake up in pain and go to bed in pain and it's just impossible to exercise.

That's the physical stuff. Mentally:

I am self-indulgent. Got the habit from my mother (not that she indulged me, mind you!). I have a sweet tooth and I tend to feel entitled to that candy bar. I deserve it, I tell you!

I also love food. Especially Mexican food. Mexican food and pastries. Especially Mexican pastries. And barbeque. And American-style Chinese food. And fried things. Chicken fried steaks, Popeye's chicken, McNuggets. You name it, frying it makes it better. Adding cheese and bacon makes it heavenly. Oh, and I hate cooking. I mean, I enjoy cooking in theory, but in practice it's boring as heck and there's zero recognition for it (yes, I need constant petting).

I'm also rather lazy. I am used to being limited in what I can do, and most of my skills frankly are in things that involve sitting down. I'm far better at writing and crocheting than at playing soccer or softball.

And on a practical level, I have three small children to take care of, including one who really cannot be left alone any length of time when she's awake, and who lately's been sleeping only half an hour at a time during the day. Which means I have to deal with my children's schedules and my husband's schedules and all the stress that comes from my relationship with him, with being so far away from friends and family, and with what is right now an incredibly uncertain future. Quite honestly, exercise is often the last thing on my mind, and I love activity when I can motivate myself to do it.

For me, there are two things that make it hard to lose weight:

1. Lack of Patience
2. Force of Habit

The losing weight part isn't hard. Having the patience to wait for the results I want, and to keep doing what I need to keep doing is a bit harder. Breaking habits that I spent 33 years developing is a challenge. When I can address those two things and get stuff working, the weight loss comes fairly easily.

I agree it is hard, Sabra, and otherwise I would not be here LOL. And for me one problem is I do play on my too much instead of moving my butt! That is what is neat about 3FC... I still get to play on my computer but certainly not INSTEAD of moving!! It challenges and inspires me to get out there and do it more!!

I think what made it/makes it hard for me to lose weight is comparing myself to other people. I see people who are as tall as me who weigh things I don't think I'll ever be able to achieve ( anything under 130 ). It gets discouraging when you see people who seem to so effortlessly achieve what I work so hard to come close to.

Another stumbling block for me is resenting the changes I Have to make. I spend so much time lamenting my hatred for yogurt and my strong distaste for most vegetables that I fail to concentrate on what I can have and can do> Actually, it's not like I have to do anything. It's all a choice. If there is somthig about it I don't dig, I am the only person I can take it up with.