623lbs, Trying to Get Going Again

Congratulations on staying under 4k calories. Don't give up your favorite foods, just try cutting back. The nurse who leads a local weight loss group here says "if you have 6 pieces of toast, maybe today have 5 1/2 and soon that will be enough." Make your changes gradually. I wish you loads of luck.

Take small steps. I often tell my friends on here about how to eat an elephant-one bite at a time. In other words, just focus on one small ting and it is less frightening than trying to solve the whole big picture all at once-especially at first. Set yourself up to succeed. Make a small goal each day and rejoice when you meet it. Get that one thing so ingrained that it becomes second nature-a healthy new habit. Then change up something else. And celebrate the two successes. Repeat as necessary.

I have been struggling myself for the last few months-I've lost just over 80 lbs and it's taken me just over three years to do it. I've done well and done badly. The difference between succeeding and failing is whether you keep trying. As long as you don't give up-there is always hope.

Get some friends on here and let them help support you when you can't support yourself. You CAN do it. An ounce at a time if neccessary!

Like so many others are saying, it can be overwhelming to look at the big picture. Every day I tell myself TODAY I will do this. I try very hard not to worry about tomorrow. Although we are all looking for a physical change in our bodies, over all it is more of a mental change that we need to make.

Hi Dani - changing your life is tough. Making the decision to love yourself more than you love destroying yourself can be one of the hardest parts of losing weight. Congratulations for making steps in that direction.

You've gotten too much advice already, but that never stopped me before.

0) What you're doing for yourself right now has to be the single most important thing in your life right now. Engage family, friends, and all of the other resources in your life towards accomplishing the goal of health. It is ever lovin' hard, but you can do it.

1) Log EVERYTHING. No excuses on this front. Just suck it up and do it. The business BSers have a saying - you can't manage what you don't measure. This is one situation where the business BSers are right.

2) Sugar is your enemy right now. A little sugar isn't gonna hurt anybody, but hundreds of grams will kill you. Do whatever you have to do to reduce your sugar intake. I think step one on this front is to eliminate every single drop of sweetened liquid from your diet for at least 6 days out of 7.

Message me if you need a hand up or a kick in the butt.

Congrats Dani. Ftr coming back on here, for deciding to lose weight and for staying at 4K. All of these are wonderfull NSV's

Everyone has already mentioned starting with small steps and moving and believing in your lifestyle change ( not a diet). There's so many great ideeas on here and so much support. We are all here for you and are ready to celebrate all your NSV's and your scale victories too! We are also here to help when you''rer feeling, alone, fustrated, bored, lonely, frightened etc. We have all been there!!!

Just remember you have taken the hardest step by deciding to lose weight, the rest is just time and unfortunately patience.Good luck on your journey

I will echo what everyone else has said here. Pick ONE thing that you KNOW you can do, and do it consistently for a period of time. I find just the act of logging EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth -- even on a bad day, which today was for me! -- helps keep me conscious of what I'm eating. Transitioning from caloric drinks to water is also a fairly easy change. Just pick one thing and focus on that one thing. Then when that's established, pick the next thing. You can do this.

Any thoughts on how to turn this into a long term success?


-Dani

They key to long term success is short term manageable goals What's short term? It can be just a daily goal or even your goal for the morning or breakfast. "For breakfast I am going to eat XYZ and then when it is lunch I can eat again"

So this hit home for me because I'm a big girl myself.

I know how hard it can be. I started January 14th, 2013 at 543 pounds. I'm now 520. I know I still have a long ways to go, but I'm looking at this as a life change, not a diet at all.

You need to know that you can do this. We both can.

I started out with controlling my eating habits first. I put myself on a 1500 calorie plan to start me off. For me this helped me make better choices and surprisingly it helped me lose 23 pounds.

But you have to be willing to really set your mind to it. Then it comes easy to adjust.

But I wasn't just watching my calories, I also told myself no fast food what so ever. And I mean never! I also gave up my sweet teas, juices and soda, all cold turkey. Plus I don't allow junk food in the house. No more chips, cookies and so on.

I was a big eater! I ate so much!

When i first started out I had to be strict on myself. if you can get past a week, you got this!

There are times I rewarded myself, but not with junk. I would get a small meal at subway. I don't reward with junk food because me personally, I love food. And I don't want to chance falling off track.

But you can still eat your foods just use moderations and try to drink more water. Its all I drink now. Plus don't even think of fast foods. You can make everything a fast food joint makes and make it healthier.

I'm still learning and I have a long ways. You learn as you go.

Today I did up my calories to 1800 and one day will probably up them to 2000. But for now it's what I'm doing.

Some say 1500 is low, but for me, it helped me start out so I could fix my bad habits. Now I'm at 1800. I'm never hungry. You can make it work.

I also added in exercise daily. It's hard doing exercise at this size, but I started small. You can do little things at first. Baby steps.

I don't know how your daily day is, but if you want to talk or need motivation I can do that! Just don't give up.

Also remember just cutting 500 from your daily intake on calories can be a good start.

It's all about good choices. You can do it.

Tackle the eating habits first, then work on the exercise. Don't overwhelm yourself.

consistency is key. don't try to do too many drastic things at once, but start small, and let those small things eventually compound upon each other. read and read and read some more, you can do this.

I agree with everyone just take small steps and change one thing at a time. Someone said tomorrow is fresh with no mistakes in it, I don't agree with that! Just cuz you have one bad meal doesn't mean the rest of the day has to be bad. each meal is a new start in my eyes. If you have a really bady breakfast then it's okay set a goal and make lunch a healthy one.

I find if I pre package my meals ahead of time I also keep to my good choices. I try to weigh my cheese to 1 oz baggies and my meat to 2 oz baggies so when its lunch time I just grab and go. I also do this with left over dinner stuff. I hope that helps you. I also limited my carb intake more in the evening since I have PCOS which makes my body have a hard time to process my carbs. After 4 PM I do not have carbs unless they come from fruits.

Good luck hon you can do this!