Dear Santa, I'd like a fitter body, a more active life, health, no cravings for chocolate, ...

GoldenOctober

... and a pony, of course.


Hi everyone!

I joined MFP in early October, but I guess it's not too late to introduce myself now. Maybe it's even better because now I know I like it here.

So yeah, as far as my goals, the list above sums it up pretty well. I don't want to become skinny fat. In high school I played volleyball and did strength training at home to be a better player. That was my motivation back then, and it worked. I liked my strong arms quite a bit.
Then I was an unhappy college student, who lost her will to be pretty and let herself go. I just didn't care most of the time. There were only rare occasions where my weight gain bothered me. When someone tried to take a picture. When I tried to do something active, and it just wasn't as much fun as it had been. Mostly though I didn't care. And I stopped caring about myself entirely. I didn't like myself very much, didn't think I was worth a lot. Not just because of how I looked, but because of all the poor decisions I made. I believe the weight gain was just the tip of the iceberg, the thing everyone could see.
I withdrew from people in real life, but found great friends online. And then the unspeakable happened. I fell in love, and he fell in love with me. And he's made me feel so great that I learned to like myself again. I started to lose weight because I started to care about what I put in my mouth and I started to work out. I didn't really track anything for months, just felt my clothes getting looser. And then my family noticed. So I stepped on a scale, and was pleasantly surprised. I have kept the new weight, which still isn't ideal, for almost two years now, I think ...? And now I'd like to make an effort to build myself the best body I've ever had and use it to have fun outside of what now is my comfort zone. I'm really quite excited.
I would like to play volleyball on a team again. That, too.

Oh, and I understand what happens next is not exactly up to Santa.

I don't usually talk about myself this much. Weird.

A good day/night to everyone!

odusgolp

Embrace your love of chocolate...

GoldenOctober

Yeah, you may be right about that one.

ankdworak

Happy to help in any way I can. Would you be interested in joining a Holiday Slim Down Challenge group on facebook that will take you through the holidays? Message me if you're interested in hearing more. ankdworak

ViolaLeeBlueberry

What a great story! Having a supportive partner is so, so helpful. My husband has never once said "you could do to lose some weight." (Although he talks about what his own goals are, like keeping that middle-aged paunch at bay LOL.) He even puts up with my constant stream of ridiculous questions now that I'm logging food, like "how many grams do you suppose this is?" He's my human scale

What I want for Christmas is to be able to eat holiday goodies and maybe even survive putting on a few pounds (is it sacrilege to say that here?) without it being a big honking depressing deal. I want to get within my "healthy range" so that I have wiggle room in my weight (as well as my jeans) and have generally good habits so that if I do gain, I'll still be at an OK weight and can lose quickly again. Don't need to be perfect, just better!

One of those days, maybe I can actually put on the fancy dress my husband got me as a gift a few years back that, unfortunately, made me look like a sausage. Although he kindly (very kindly) said I looked sexy. Uh huh. It's very pretty but I'm afraid I've never worn it ... being able to wear it would be a nice gift for both of us!

GoldenOctober

Thanks, guys! Sorry for replying so late. I was trying to figure out what I actually expected by posting this thread. I guess friends requests ...? Except I don't know. I'm not sure I want to be a "friends collector". I think I'd be more comfortable with just a few who actually talk to me once in a while (don't need to be babysat either though ).

Ankdworak, thanks for your offer. I *think* I want to stay away from any challenges for now. That puts a lot of focus on immediate goals rather than longterm ones. Even though I do set myself midterm goals to reach to just have something to keep me going. I'm still undecided!

ViolaLeeBlueberry (cool name!), thanks for your reply. And yeah, not making a big deal about overeating once in a while sounds like a good approach. Considering we want to be on this path for, I don't know, a really long time still.
Good luck with you and your dress!!


Now to everyone, if you read something in my posts that sounds familiar and you think we'd make a good MFP friends match, I'd be happy if you dropped me a line.

Good day/night everyone!