Those with 100+ lbs to lose

missyjg99
missyjg99 Posts: 246 Member
in Getting Started
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the prospect of losing so much weight. I mean, I started this at 270lbs, lost 60# then gained it back with my pregnancy. Now I'm still looking at losing half of my body weight. I try to take it day by day, but wow, wrapping my brain around such a big goal is tough. Sometimes just thinking about the end goal makes me question myself. IDK, one day at a time I guess. So I make mini-goals but it's frustrating. Blah, help me out here. Is this a normal feeling? How do you overcome it? Anything that worked for you to keep your motivation up. I'm not quiting b/c honestly it's not in me to quit. I've learned to be a fighter but it sometimes feels like an endless exhausting battle. But I'd rather be happy/content and losing weight then discouraged/struggling and losing weight KWIM?

Replies

  • pawsnpurrs
    pawsnpurrs Posts: 39
    I get on the scale twice a week, but in order to not get frustrated I use my tape measure, you weight loss will show up
    more by the inches you loose then on the scale..so many factors on weight gain, too much salt, body mass, but the inches you
    loose off your bust waist hips thigh calf neck upper arm show success faster. the most I weighed was 285 then I began dropping
    10 pounds here and there. I am still obese but at t now 225 ..I blew out my knee cap last year hauling trimmed tree limbs ( grew up working summers on farm) so I love planting and yard work, weed wackers, anything with John Deer on it grin
    but I would sabotage my exercise routines by eating too many carbs.. I just keep journals log in my thoughts, hope my knee\
    holds up and keep plunking along.No matter what happens today..tomorrow is a fresh start..
  • downndirtytn
    downndirtytn Posts: 9 Member
    I've tried several times to lose significant weight. Two hernia surgeries in 2012 (one in May, one in December) set me back pretty bad. I have restarted this once again. I weighed 397 on Sunday for my official weigh in. I'm making small goals to get to my bigger goal which is to be 225 pounds. And that 225 is not even the ultimate/ultimate goal - it's just the preliminary goal - I want to be 200 pounds. But 225 is what I really would like to get to again as I carried that weight just fine in college and was in good health at the time.

    My first small goal is to be 370 by the end of this month. I always tend to drop a LOT of weight the first month so that's why I've got such an aggressive first month's goal. Then in February I'll make a new goal which likely will be 20 pounds. When you don't have that staggering number out there it makes it easier to hit the smaller goals IMO.
  • willingspirit
    willingspirit Posts: 15 Member
    I am very overwhelmed- at my highest I was 372 lbs. I dropped down a LOT with a lot of deprivation, and then plateaued at 250 for a while. I was incapacitated for over a year after a car accident- my left hip and femur were removed and needed to be rebuilt and replaced, and I had to wait for an infection to clear up before they would do it. I got back up to 350. Now I'm at 300 and desperate to make progress. I just turned 36. I have the job I always wanted (used my recovery time to return to school) and I'm happily married. I just have this weight obstacle to overcome. It's like standing on the shore and imagining myself swimming to England! I can't fathom being successful, and that's a HUGE part of my problem. It's why I finally decided to try out the "community" part of MFP- I need to be able to be accountable to someone- anyone- other than myself, because I've pretty much demonstrated that I'm not the best person to hold myself accountable to!

    I am setting 10 lbs at a time goals. But wanting to lose 150 lbs is still looming over me, and I feel defeated already most of the time.
  • leelo2003
    leelo2003 Posts: 30 Member
    I know how you feel i started end of September weighing in at 316 i'm now down to 285 but have for the last 2 weeks been fluctuating between 283 and 288, have just started using my stationary bike every night for 15 minutes or so and the way I get back on track when i feel unmotivated is to look at the success stories with pictures and it motivates me to want to do the same and be able to post my success story and encourage others to keep on track.
  • Aquabird
    Aquabird Posts: 38 Member
    First, congrats on losing the 60#...that is awesome! Honestly, I don't think about it because I know I will get overwhelmed and derail myself. Instead, I look at small things (pre-pregnancy weight, then pre-surgery weight, then my blue jean collection weight, then cute skirt weight, then riding rollcoasters weight, then college weight, etc.). Each of those is about 10-15 pounds away from eachother. Once I meet one goal, I then I start thinking about how great the next one would be. This has been helping because instead of looking at a big number in front of me, I focus on the cool stuff I'll do when I meet the next goal.
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
    Baby steps. I lost 130 pounds in about 15 months, and I've been maintaining for 16 months.

    When I started here my goal wasn't to lose 130 pounds, it was to lose 10. Then 25. Then 40. And so on. In fact, I didn't tell MFP my ACTUAL goal until I was about twenty pounds away. It was all about the baby steps, because I felt that even being down 20 pounds was better than continuing on my path of weight gain.

    Another thing that really helped me was this quote:

    A year from now you will wish you had started today.


    It is very overwhelming thinking about having to spend more than a year of your life losing weight. I often thought "It will take so long, is it even worth it?"

    But the thing is, January 8, 2015 is going to get here whether you make a change or not. You can choose to continue down this same path and weigh 20 pounds more next year. Or you can keep doing what you're doing here, forge ahead despite the longer road you're facing, and end up smaller and stronger next year.

    This is trite, but make this journey matter more than the destination. Celebrate each ten pounds gone. Create new, long-lasting habits, not fad changes you can never keep up for a year let alone a lifetime. Become an athlete.

    The day I hit my goal weight on the scale was great but frankly pretty anticlimactic. Nothing changed. I kept on keeping on. It was what I did along the way that mattered and changed me, inside and out.

    So, keep on keepin on.

    Shannon
  • Mother_Warrior
    Mother_Warrior Posts: 44 Member
    What is keeping me motivated (all of 8 days in!) is that I spent ALL of last year saying I needed to diet, even "trying" to watch what I ate a couple times.... and in the end gained over 30 pounds.

    I like the quote "Dieting is hard. Being overweight is hard. Choose your hard."
  • Mother_Warrior
    Mother_Warrior Posts: 44 Member
    Oh and I also agree on the mini goals... I've broken the year into three mini goals with deadlines. It's what is going to keep me on my toes! :)
  • mightdomightnot
    mightdomightnot Posts: 181 Member
    when i started on MFP I chose the name mightdomightnot because i didn't feel at all confident that i could lose 1lb let alone the massive amount i need to lose. Now I'm in a different place and feel determined to achieve my goals. I find having the long term goal in mind helps as well as having short term goals. One of the main things I've learnt is that you don't have to be perfect 100% of the time to reach your goals and if I have a bad day or even a bad few weeks I try to get back on track as soon as I can. The support on here is fantastic and I have joined a slimming group for additional encouragement and accountability.

    let's do this.
  • sarabethclark1
    sarabethclark1 Posts: 9
    I'm in the same boat and have said (too many times to count) I'm going to lose it. I was always a secret dieter. I didn't want people to know that I was trying, because if I failed...well I didn't want the questions. Well, not anymore. I posted it on my FB page and some private groups I'm on. it's because I know that they are cheerleaders, not neigh sayers. So, I decided to change my outlook and do small changes at a time. Right now it's no soda - if I have a craving, then diet. I wish you all the best of luck on your journey, I know my road is going to be long - but as they say, Rome wasn't built overnight! :)
  • Tracie524
    Tracie524 Posts: 65 Member
    I am breaking my goals up into mini goals (I am doing 20 lb increments) even though my end goal is always in my mind. Sometimes it seems like it will take forever to get to my ultimate goal, but it took time to get this big so it will take time to get smaller. I keep reminding myself why I want to do this and I also put motivational quotes and a list of why I want to do this on my refrigerator to remind me every time I open the refrigerator. It helps me make better choices. I also plan to celebrate each mini goal (not with food). I take it one day at a time. I also think it is important not to beat yourself up if you have a setback. That doesn't help. I am trying to learn from what went wrong, find the thing that caused the setback, and find a way to prevent that the next time.
  • LA_proud
    LA_proud Posts: 162 Member
    bump
  • Ladybiggurl
    Ladybiggurl Posts: 3
    :flowerforyou: I can truly relate
  • x_cinder_x
    x_cinder_x Posts: 118 Member
    A weight loss goal has never been enough to keep me motivated. After putting some thought into it I came up with a crazy physical activity I really wanted to try before I die. The majority of my weight loss has been a side effect for this goal and not to just "look good"'.

    My crazy goal is Roller Derby. Which really is/was just fantasy land when I started. Heck, I probably would have had issues just getting the skates on back then! Still, I shelved the idea in the back of my mind and kept it there while I started doing baby steps towards it.

    Baby step one was just walking, this turned into jogging, which turned into doing the couch to five K program. I was pretty happy with myself when I finished it, but needed something new. The new thing was Jillian Michales 30 day shred. 3 different levels to work through and I wanted to be able to do that last level with ease. I got through that and moved onto a gym with a smorgasbord of fitness classes. My next goal is to do a Run For Your Life 5k this summer (zombies and obstacles-woot!).

    I do not know if I will ever try out for Roller Derby, but I do know focusing on having fun while accomplishing things I never thought I could do is what has kept me motivated.

    Good Luck!
  • FreedomSand
    FreedomSand Posts: 30 Member
    How do you eat an elephant?

    One bite at a time.

    Keep the steps small, this helps you be successful. And success is encouraging! So you continue.

    10 pounds at a time is a good goal. Forget the 'big picture.'
  • SharonNehring
    SharonNehring Posts: 535 Member
    I just wanted to add that I'm in the same boat with you. I'm trying not to even think about the long term but in 10 lb increments as many people do. I've decided to treat myself with something as I get rid of each "decade" like a new shirt or CD.
  • Linda09189
    Linda09189 Posts: 80
    I am just getting started myself, and I to feel way OVERWHELMED
  • Gingerspice45
    Gingerspice45 Posts: 137 Member
    Taking it in small chunks is a good way to tackle it. I also have over 100 lbs to lose.
  • missyjg99
    missyjg99 Posts: 246 Member
    I truely appreciate the comments! Great advice. Thankyou for taking the time to answer my questions. Feel free to add me as a friend. I think doing this together will help.

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