Giving up too soon

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  • britt7797
    britt7797 Posts: 27 Member
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    This was soo good for me to read... I had a really rough weekend and I needed something to help shake me back to the core of why I am doing this. I want to be healthy. I want to run around and play and go zip lining and lay on hammocks... Thank you so much for this.
  • csk0018
    csk0018 Posts: 219 Member
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    Such an amazing post! Thanks for the great read! :flowerforyou:
  • retropactum
    retropactum Posts: 75 Member
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    bump for later
  • farfromthetree
    farfromthetree Posts: 982 Member
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    Your post was exactly what I look for in these forums. That was so inspiring. Thank you!
  • LVCeltGirl
    LVCeltGirl Posts: 473
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    So well worded and is quite the reminder for a lot of us. Thank you for sharing your story!
  • FattyFatsoMcTubby
    FattyFatsoMcTubby Posts: 170 Member
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    What a wonderful and hopefully inspiring post for young people. I can confirm much of what you are saying.
  • kjurassic
    kjurassic Posts: 571 Member
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    Wow, you are so wise and you have such a wonderful insight with every post I read of yours.
    I love the positive feedback so many gave in response to this post. Your words are so important....for so many!....
    Thank you, lovely lady....:heart:
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
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    Wow I definitely needed to read this! I was thinking this is just too much trouble, probably put the weight back on anyway. You see I just want to do what I jolly well please like the 19 year old. I have always struggled with my weight since age 16, I am 60 years old now. I did pretty well up, had neglectful abusive parents who give me a hard time about my weight and shamed me so that I did try to keep my weight down to feel any value at all.

    I also married an abusive man, he was just like my parents, very neglectful and putting me down all the time. I am sure I ate to get happiness also. With all these people being critical of me I watched my weight but I am sure they were a lot of the cause of me gaining weight. Somewhere along the line I am remarried to someone very good and supportive and I sort of let myself go and then began to feel bad about myself. Got up to 208,now 155. I guess I relaxed a little too much with someone good to me and I needed some discipline to get back on track.

    It is so easy to pick up the bad food habits. Yep, I have friends my age who are crippled and fat and in bad shape, we forget about the consequences don't we, glad you reminded me. All that choc cake is good but is it worth it, just one piece! We have to respect and love ourself not to get in that kind of predicament! You said it well.
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
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    Great text
  • PinkyPan1
    PinkyPan1 Posts: 3,018 Member
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    Thank you Sue for sharing your story. I am sure you have motivated many with your heartfelt words. Hugs :)
  • Hanfordrose
    Hanfordrose Posts: 688 Member
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    It is so easy to pick up the bad food habits. Yep, I have friends my age who are crippled and fat and in bad shape, we forget about the consequences don't we, glad you reminded me. All that choc cake is good but is it worth it, just one piece! We have to respect and love ourself not to get in that kind of predicament! You said it well.

    The real problem for the 19 year old friend is not the curly fries. It is the "I don't want to log my food...I don't want to count calories or even care what I eat...I just want to go crazy with food, because I don't care what will happen."

    An order of curly fries or a piece of chocolate cake is NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. I eat many things that are 'treats' for me, like 1/2 of Ben & Jerry's ice cream or a few Skittles; but I can't afford to stop logging my food or counting my calories, if I want to keep losing weight or even maintain my weight now or in the future. That honesty and the calorie limit for each day is critical to my progress and my future. I am 69 years old, but I am not dead. I want to enjoy the time that I have left in my life as a healthy senior in a normal size body, not an old, fat lady in a wheelchair.

    My friend could have logged those curly fries, stayed within her 1200 calories; and I would have never made a comment. However, she talked about GIVING UP ALL TOGETHER on calorie counting, logging her food and even caring what her future would hold. I couldn't ignore that. I care about her and all my other MFP sisters who are in this battle for a healthy life and happiness in a body that we can love.
  • attybell
    attybell Posts: 81 Member
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    This needs to be where everyone can read it. What an eye opener
  • ezloshead
    ezloshead Posts: 167 Member
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    I've read your posts before and you always have the most beautiful words. We all have a lot to learn from you. Post, and post often, please.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    Thank you for that. It resonated for me because after yoyo-ing (by up to 100lbs at a time) for years, this time I'm doing it for health, not aesthetics. Dammit, my knees hurt. My ankles hurt. I "oof" when I get off the couch. My back aches. I have heartburn all the time. I have other gastro issues which I believe are due to weight.

    I remember you from when I first joined MFP and you have done such an amazing job.
  • Courtney4805
    Courtney4805 Posts: 71 Member
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    A 19 year old friend on MFP posted today that she was ready to give up. She tired of counting calories and went so far as to say, "Recently I'm just thinking I'm gonna die in like 70 years time and who the hell cares about eating healthy all the time, I don't need to be the thinnest girl on the beach and I don't wanna waste my life eating 1200 calories every day...duh. Already squandered five years of my nineteen alive. Also I haven't weighed myself in like almost a month, and I need some curly fries."

    I responded to her post, but I believe that my response may be needed today for someone else who is thinking about giving up. Here is my advice to the teenage who doesn't realize what she is giving up.

    "I am 69 years old and have lived most of my life on the other side of the 'curly fries'.

    I spent my 20's in low 200's. I starved for one year in my mid-30's just to get to 170 pounds and immediately went back to eating like it didn't matter. So, I got up into the 240+ range and just kept growing, until I was in the 280's after age 50. I finally got up to 290 pounds and spent years in a wheelchair, because my knees could not bare my weight any longer.

    Sure...It doesn't matter, if you want to eat without concern for calories. You could be just like me in fewer years than you could imagine. Along with the food will come a horrible price. In your 20's, you may give going to the beach, because you won't want to let anyone see how fat you look in a swim suit. You will probably start making jokes about yourself and your weight to cover up the pain. You will begin to see yourself as "fat, ugly and unworthy of love". You will not care, if a man disrespect you, because you will have lost respect for yourself.

    That's how I wound up with an abusive husband that I didn't love. I thought, "Nobody wants me...fat Sue, so I might just as well marry him, a man I don't even love." 22 years later, I was divorced, alone and fatter than ever.

    Today, I weigh less than I did at age 19, because I lost more than 110 pounds in past 14 months. My health (not just my appearance and self esteem) was destroyed by carrying more 250+ for most of my life, because food was all I had to make me happy.

    You have to make your own choice right now. Do you really want to give up your life to food, before you have even had a chance to live it? That is just a few words of experience from someone who has lived a life squandered on 'thoughtless eating'...letting food be more important than life and real happiness.

    It is worth it. My health was destroyed by carrying more than 250+ for most of my life, because food was all I had to make me happy. You have to make your own choice. Do you really want to give up your life to food, before you have even had a chance to live it?

    That is just a few words of experience from someone who has lived a life squandered on 'thoughtless eating'...letting food be more important than life and real happiness. Stay strong, little sister. It is worth it." :flowerforyou:

    I NEEDED to see this tonight. Thank you.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    Thank you for endorsing a healthy lifestyle. You are the voice of experience and can put the future into perspective for younger people. I'm glad you've been able to turn things around, and you are proof that it's never too late. Living a healthy life is always worthwhile, no matter what stage of your life you're in. I've always tried to live a healthy life and it's always great to hear from others who share this value. :heart:

    This is my philosophy, and it reminds me of you, too, OP:

    mylife_zpsa7c1872f.jpg
  • Hanfordrose
    Hanfordrose Posts: 688 Member
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    I was asked to bring this post back up.

    I am glad that so many folks have found this post and the matching blog helpful to them.
  • lollipoprincess
    lollipoprincess Posts: 117 Member
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    Yep. I will probably reread this the first time I think about giving up. Thank you for this.
  • grandmothercharlie
    grandmothercharlie Posts: 1,363 Member
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    Wow! Very moving and very true!
  • SoosannahK
    SoosannahK Posts: 238 Member
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    Bumping for when I need motivation and a kick in the pants. Lovely lovely post. Wish I knew in my teens what I know now in my 40s.

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