Hello!

brandyosu

After a couple days of stalking, I thought I would go public and ahead and introduce myself. I'm 36, married to the most tolerant (and loving, although he wouldn't admit it) man in the world, have 2 awesome and amazing kids and 2 pounds ago I weighed the most I've ever weighed in my life without having just had a baby (my youngest is 2). It's taken me a few years to get here and a lot of turning a blind eye to what was happening, mostly with help from thoughts like: "oh, it's just one pants size, I can lose 10 pounds no problem and fit right back into my old ones". 10 pounds here and 10 pounds there, and now HERE I am.

At any rate, I could say that my driving factor to lose weight is that I want to be around to experience my children becoming adults and get to see and spend time with my future grandkids, and that I want to grow old and bottled brunette at my husband's side. That the phone call I got from the doctor's office telling me that some of my test results were in the "scary" range should be enough enough to keep me in line. And that would be true, I suppose, to some degree. But they aren't the main reason I've decided to undergo this journey.

My real motivation, at least for now, is that I just flat hate the way I look. I see pictures and realize just how horrible and old I look. And that I don't have to look like this. There are many things in this world I can do nothing about - but how I look isn't one of them. I know that I'm going to have to come up with something more solid than that as time goes on, but for now it's at least what is getting me over the hump of actually DOING something that means I'm working toward a healthier version of myself.

I've lost 2 pounds so far, and including those 2, I would like to lose a total of 87 pounds. That seems like a lot to me...and it seems insurmountable. Don't get me wrong. I've been stalking the last couple of days, especially in the success stories section and there is lots of inspiration and motivation to be had there. I KNOW it can be done. But looking at a journey of 87 pounds is just intimidating when it's me standing on the starting line. So, I've determined that my best plan of attack is to ignore the total and work on those blasted 10 pound chunks that got me here to begin with. In 8 more pounds I'm going to treat myself to a much needed pedicure. The 10 pounds after that I will celebrate with some new highlights. Another 10 sounds like a good time for some new jeans since those I have now will definitely NOT fit at that point. And so on.

I would prefer to not be on this ride alone. My husband is here for me and will support me in any way possible - I think he perhaps got a scary glimpse of the future without me in it when I was telling him what the doctor's office had to say. BUT, as someone who is tall and slender and has never struggled with eating, he will never truly understand where I'm coming from or know what to say to get me over the hump. To him, food truly is fuel. It isn't "so good that I just can't stop" or comforting when I've had a bad day. (And yes, I know those are pitfalls I will have to overcome.) So, I would really like some buddies that are either in the trenches with me...or have dug themselves out. If that's you, please feel free to add me as a friend.

melonsss

hi and welcome. I have about 100 1lbs to loose but setting gradually targetsas this amount seems too daunting. I shall send you a friends request.

brandyosu

Hey there melonsss! Yes, definitely add me.

brandyosu

Just bumping because, well wow, this board moves fast. Lots of us newbies out there! I am still looking for some motivational buddies and I make a good cheerleader, too - so feel free to add me!