For me it was my health, and i was pretty sick of how I looked. My 16's were getting very tight, and I was facing going into an 18, which I'd never worn in my life. I was my biggest non-pregnant weight I'd ever been at 195. Last year I was diagnosed with RA, and I got a major lecture from my rheumatologist about how being at optimum weight would help keep me mobile. but it was a while before i tried doing anything yet. Katrina blew through, and I deployed to the coast for 2 months and was too busy to think about it. Its hard to diet when you're living out of a motel room, and i was one of the lucky ones, who had a motel room. I beefed up to 202 because of the junk i was having to eat. 202 is where I started in April. I really didn't think I'd be successful at this again, until I found 3FC. I've learned so very much from you guys, and it has given me the confidence to say, "i can do this, and I CAN keep it off too".

Mmmm...for me it is more about fitness also. I have particular exercise goals in mind...ones that are achievable and repeatable and that can grow into the next goal. I am also tired of junk food. The difference in my energy and how I feel is amazing when I eat healthy stuff rather than crap. I have no final scale or clothing number in mind...I am making consistent choices that support my goals and the weight is taking care of itself. I see no end in sight to this journey and I have not set myself up for hunger, frustration or failure.

I have dieted tons before...and gained back and more. Different diets. This is the FIRST time I have ever decided to make a life change. Everything just feels different this time and I have never felt like that before. Why didn't I feel like this before? I dunno for sure...maybe because I would see myself as on some sort of temporary diet that I couldn't wait to be done with. This is permanant. Even though I will raise my caloric intake to a maintenance level when I hit my goal weight, I will still continue the same habits as far as what and when I eat. I really feel good about this. I am not on a fad diet. Just good old fashioned calorie counting ~ burning more than I eat...no deprivation.

Yeah - that was also important for me. When I reached maintenance mode, I did increase calories, but I didn't just eat junk as a filler. I eat more of the healthy foods that helped me lose weight. Getting more calories for maintenance meant I could eat more yogurt, whole grains, lean protein, healthy fat. I can put avocado on my sandwiches now, I can make make home-made salad dressing with walnut oil, I can put peanut butter on my toast, I can eat yogurt as a snack and then trailmix later without having to decide (for caloric purposes) which one I wanted to eat. I didn't go back to the muffin/scone/full fat latte/mint milano/nachos/french fries/bloomin onion habit of eating that made me heavy.

"bloomin onion habit" huh?... sounds like you are cursing. hehe..

Good point about what eating a few more calories in maintenance means for you.

Oh, it's an appetizer at the Outback restaurant (at Chili's it's called the Awesome Blossom). I used to looooove it. It has about 2000 calories and 100 grams of fat (to be fair, I used to split it with someone).

If you feel like this is the time,
the time that your get healthy/weight loss/exercise/whatever efforts will work, I need you to tell me what brings you to that conclusion.
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For me, mostly I want to lose it to alleviate some pressure from my heart, I had a procedure recently to keep it from getting over 250 beats a minute, it still pounds though and it worries me a little. I have had high blood pressure and had to take medication for that, and cervical cancer too- still having problems with that.

I am afraid for myself sometimes --that what I have been putting into my body --(sugar,fat) is going to hasten something that might take my life. Growing up we were fed junk each and every day (McDonalds, BK, Taco Bell). Makes me wonder if that played a part in why I feel like an old jalopy and I'm not even 30 yet- still a young chick. I've never been on drugs or lived a risque life that would be more obvious to cause these kinds of problems- so either it's genetics or the fuel I use or both.

I think it will work because I am afraid. I am afraid if I do not change I will not live to 40, 50, or beyond. You don't have to get over 200 pounds to suffer terribly from a poor diet. I am convinced.

I think I "shared" one long long ago... actually I loved the sauce it came with more than the onion.

For me, this is my first time, and I know it's going to be my last. Because I haven't failed before I'm not even letting the thought cross my mind. I'm telling myself that I'm not the failing type. (Or I am most of the time, sometimes I do get worried, but I try to stamp those feelings out).

I know that I'll do it because I've changed who I am as much as I've changed what I eat. I have a different focus on my life now, on health and fitness. I want to run a marathon, I want my body to work as well as it can, and I want to nourish it rather than illing it with my food choices. I want to be able to enjoy life to the fullest, and I know that enjoyment isn't about how much fatty food I can cram into my life, it's about being able to get out there and do the things I always dreamed of.

OK, so there have to be some sacrifices, like early morning exercise and rationing chocolate and wine, but I've finally realised that the rewards are more than worth it, and that this is a way of life I chose. I'm comfortable with my choices, and if even if you said that I could eat the way I used to without gaining weight I'm not sure I would, I like the taste of healthy food now, and fatty stuff just doesn't appeal.

I didn't set out to change the way I have changed, but I did, and I know that that's what's going to make the distance in the long term. I'm 28 so I have a lot of years of maintenance ahead of me. I know that if I stop doing this at any point in the next twenty or thirty years (or indeed after that, but thirty years of maintenance is scary enough for now) I will put weight back on. But I don't think of my way of life as something that has to have an end. Of course I'll change what I do from time to time, but I just can't see me wanting to do what I did.

One of the things that really got me (one of my many reasons), was an external motivator. I don't know that this really applies as you aren't morbidly obese, but nonetheless, I think it is valid for any person who is truly unhappy with their size and may face greater physical challenges if they don't lose it.
I was watching Oprah this past spring (or maybe fall) and she had Stacey Halprin (I think that is how it is spelled) on. This lady weighed something like 500 + lbs and couldn't even leave her apartment during the WTC attacks. She went on to have gastric bypass surgery, and they showed her excess skin problems and talked about the plastic surgery she has had and what more plastic surgery was to come. I loved her attitude, and I thought if she can do this, ANYONE can. Also, what really got me was that she is unable to tell people her age yet (she can tell them her weight, but not her age) because she is very emotional about the amount of years she spent fat and unable to really live. I think that is what hit home, to have wasted to so many years not really living because of fat....
Anyway, that was one of the first things that really made it click in my head that something had to give - now mind you, it was then another several months before I started Optifast and I was slowly making changes, but nothing was working because I went into it with a defeatist attitude. I knew that if I were really going to do optifast and if I were going to make this work (and make this the last time I have to worry about excess weight), I had to change my attitude, be positive, and not be content to stay "safe" and not change.

Heck yeah! I used to split it with someone too. If I had eaten it all, I wouldn't have had room for the steak and tator.