Let's hear from 1 year (or more) members

Just curious, how many have used this site for a year or more? What have you learned? What have you succeeded at? I would love to have an idea of what a year of keeping track of calories and exercise accomplishes. Yes I like to read the back pages of a book first.

Thanks for sharing.

I'm Lisa's DH.

In addition to what she said. There will be a lot "rules" that get discussed way too much on this site. With the excpetion of calories in/calories out concept, you need to figure out a plan that works for you and ignore everything else. Read and do research. Understand that media will almost always mis-report what was said in a weight loss study. If something doesn't make sense or is too good to be true there is a reason.

Be patient, and don't put too much stock in the scale. There will be a morning you weigh yourself and will have gained 3 pounds. Weight fluctiates, you're looking for a downward trend line over SEVERAL WEEKS. Come up with goals that are not tied to your weight. I'm going to do this amount of excersise...I'm going to have this number as a deficit this week. Something you can control and measure. The scale will only discourage and frustrate you.

80% of being healthy is nutrition. A trainer once told me you can't out excersise a bad diet. Even after I heard that I didn't listen. I had always been pretty active. It wasn't until i started counting calories and paying attention to nutrition that I made any progress in losing weight. If you have limited time and recourses like most of us, and you want to devote some of those resources to this lifestyle change put a priority on nutrition.

I'm training for a Half Marathon in October, but I started out by walking to then end of the street. You can do this, you just have to want it.

Tagged.

Hi

I've been here for 2+yrs...lost 27 pounds.....
Gained about 10+ back...recently lost about 5....
My advice is to not get to cocky and comfortable....don't let one cheat day or bad eating day turn into a week, a mnth...the weight piles back on faster than u think
weigh in weekly!
I know some think of the scale as the devil but I thinking weighing in once a weeek can keep people accountable

Kim

I've been on MFP since January -- so not yet a year, but will add my two cents. In addition to consistency think moderation. Set goals, they don't have to be lofty. My first goal was a 5K, then a triathlon, then a 10K. I never would have made it to the 10K from the start. I surely would have given up in failure. Let youself relish in the successes you have, no matter how small. Did you turn down a piece of cake to stay within calories, did you exercise 5 minutes longer cause it just felt good -- these are successes, celebrate. I got to a comfortable weight (30 lbs down) and stopped tracking my calories for a while so I could focus on the triathlon training. I would have thought that was failure in the past. But today, I look at it as a choice. I haven't gained anything back. Now, I'm starting to notice that I'm not really comforable at this weight anymore and I would be a faster athlete if I lost 20 more pounds. So, I'm making a plan to get back to tracking calories. If this is going to be a lifestyle change then you need to give yourself time and make changes moderately -- not in a sprint. I'm not at my goal weight, but I'm 30 lbs lighter than I was in January and I'm a trithalete! What little goals will get you to big ones?

I'm not absolutely Positive but I THINK I started MFP in May of 2009.

Making Small Changes and setting 'Small Goals' can lead to HUGE Changes. You CAN learn to be consistant with exercise, and you are never too old to learn new Habits. Tracking your Food and Exercise are LifeLong habits now. I cannot imagine ever NOT tracking what I eat or how many minutes I've been active that day.

I started in April of 2009. Using MFP was life-changing. Logging food was an eye-opening experience.

In my time here, I have completely changed how and what I eat, eliminating most all foods with artificial ingredients, and discovering that artificial sweeteners, including Splenda, produce carb cravings for me that I can avoid by simply avoiding foods with artificial sweetener. I use Stevia as a sweetener now, and don't miss the other at all. Also, I discovered that drinking alcohol, even if it was factored in to allowable calories, would stall my weight loss, so for now, I am foregoing even a glass of wine.

Exercise can be a pleasant experience if you do something you like to do. When all else fails, walk. If the weather is not cooperative, go to an enclosed mall and walk there.

If someone had told me 65 lbs. ago that the day would come when I would weigh less than I did in 1990, have a blood pressure of 100/74, WITHOUT BP meds, and be more than halfway to my ultimate goal, I would have said they were dreaming.

Besides the logging of food and exercise, I think the one thing about this site that is most beneficial is the community itself. Most posters are positive and supportive. I have participated on one thread almost from the time I started using the website. I have seen people come and go, and I have also seen people come, disappear, (life or some circumstance intervened) and then come back, stating they missed the support of the people on the thread and were ready to get back on track.

The one thing that makes this journey for me very different is that I never gave up. This is the only life I have and it is up to me to live the rest of it as healthy as I can. There is nothing that is off limits to me, if I choose to eat it. The secret is to P-L-A-N for it. either with extra exercise, or going easy on calories somewhere else.

I started this site a year ago. I've learned that this site is a successful tool if you are ready to be healthy. Unfortunately I wasn't ready and only stuck with it for a month. A few months later in April I was ready for a change. I started researching what will work for me to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Most importantly I've learned I can lose weight without some crazy diet.