first post

Raewave

Hi All, I'm Ribs123 - a name that goes back to high school, and I am having sooooo much trouble staying motivated!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know how my ND motivated me to actually track calories back in April, but she did. I don't know how I agreed to use a computer program to do so, I hate to be toting technology to every meal (thanks fitness pal for making the program easy to use - that's been a help), but it worked for a while, and now I'm not that into it. Back in August I had strep and couldn't eat for a week. I lost 6 pounds, and since then, I've just not been reliable, and the pounds are inching on, and the jeans that I squeezed into are squeezing me out of them (sorry if too graphic). Maybe someone else has had this experience? I need support! Anyone out there able to give me a "you can do it!" of some sort or another? I've "dieted" most of my life - which is to say I've watched what I eat at least part of the day, almost never lost weight, but wouldn't buy myself "nice" clothes because "i'm going to lose the weight soon so I don't want to waste the money." I really need to do this, for myself, for myself esteem, for my closet, for my 2 kids, for my husband (poor guy is so patient with me whining about it). Even now I'm thinking, hmmm, after this post, and before calculating a recipe, what's in the kitchen that I can eat. HELP!!!!!!!!

Mybabie

You can do it. Feel free to add me.

iwannaloose

I can tell you it will be very hard to stay motivated until you are really willing and wanting to loose weight! I learned this the hard way. It doesn't matter what kind of diet you go on, as I have found it will not work unless you are truly wanting to loose weight. I have struggled the majority of my life with weight, and my own doctors told me I needed to loose it, but I wasn't going to loose it until I really wanted to. As of 12 weeks ago, after struggling for 3 days on My Fitness Pal, and then telling my husband I couldn't do it, and eating everything in the freaking house, is when I just stopped it all, and said, this isn't going to work until I really want it to. Then for some strange reason my lap top kept calling me back to it to log in after those horrible days, and then it was one day, then two, then a week, then 3 weeks and so on. And before I knew it, it was 12 weeks later and 14 pounds less. Like I told my friend, you can lead the horse to water, but you can't make it drink! It is the same with dieting. Actually I choose not to use that word, because it really isn't dieting, it is making a life style change forever. I found that with each and every pound that I lost, that was a motivator for me. I cried the first time I stepped on the scale and it was 8 pounds less. Don't set your goals so high, that you can't reach them. Take a pound or two at a time, and when you reach that goal, then say, how about another pound. Take baby steps at it, as I have also found that helped me a lot. I can tell you I have 100 pounds that I need to loose, and it will take me at least a year or better to do it, so I'm not in any real big hurry, as the doctor told me, slow is way better because the faster you take it off there is a good chance once you've reached your desired weight loss and come off the plan you will not only gain all the weight back, but plus some. My doctor is having me loose 2 to 4 pounds a month which is safe, and this way I don't become frustrated with it when I don't loose like 2 pounds each week. You need a good support person, who can also help you reach what ever goal you have set up for yourself. One who will not judge you, but will show support and encouragement. I will tell you it should be someone who you have no emotional ties with, as your support person sometimes might need to be honest with you, and sometimes it is harder to take if it is from someone your really close to. And one piece of advice I can give you, is don't throw in the towel if you have a bad day and go over on calories! As you are always given another day to correct the wrong and get back up on the horse to do it all over again the right way. Also find a photo of yourself say when you where at a weight that you liked, and post it where you can see it to give yourself encouragement. What I do is when I weigh in I stand on my scale and take a digital photo of my new weight loss and I post it for a day or two as my profile photo. This way my support person can actually see that my scale is going down, and so can I because it will save the photo's you use as your profile picture, and you can always go back and look at the progress you've made on your own site. That keeps me motivated in a big way! I hope I was able to help you in some way, and I wish the very best for you in your journey to weight loss!