first time I ever stuck with a New Years resolution

I'm in the same boat. Wanting to achieve my current goal by NYE. My original goal was to lose 80 lbs in one calendar year. It will be 2 years come NYE, and I'm still plugging away at it. So, I'm going to do my best to get to goal weight, and I also know that the world won't end if I don't make it by Dec 31st. Worst case is I'll be closer to my goal than I am now. So what if it takes me a couple extra weeks or months? I'm not going to stop working towards it because I "failed" to make an arbitrary, neat, deadline.

The last 10 pounds are hard. The last 5 pounds are even harder. Having gotten to within the last 5-7 lbs before, I know all too well that you can do everything "perfectly" and still have your body refuse to cooperate and plateau. Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones, and this setback won't happen to you. A more realistic timeframe for the last 5-10 pounds is a loss of 1/2 pound a week.

You know yourself best for what motivates you - just don't set goals which if you miss them, make you feel like you've "failed". Look instead at what you have achieved so far!

Congratulations on your weight loss from another 2014 New Years Resolution Gal!

You can do it, but you know that now that you are so close, it is so much harder. You want to be healthy for the holidays so do your best, but be careful.

So what will your 2015 Resoution be?

Congratulations!

I just read a blog about a clothes diet, that sounds similar to what you are talking about. This woman decided not to buy new clothes for six months. She said it was super hard and one of the weirdest things was that because she couldn't buy new pants she didn't try as hard at weight loss/maintenance. As soon as the six months were up and she started buying new clothes she lost 5 pounds. LOL.

Something she did earlier that she wrote about really intrigued me: she decided that however many hangars she owned would be it and she would only buy as many clothes as she had hangars to accommodate. So, if she buys something new, she tosses something old in order to hang it. Of course she could cheat and fold it on a shelf but this is a discipline thing. She may sell what she gets rid of or give it away, but it leaves the house and is placed in her car immediately when she buys something new.

I was successful with starting in January too, although I had been "watching what I eat" in an effort to lose weight for a few months before I joined MFP and started counting calories. My accurate weighing and logging foods began a few weeks into February. Love this website. I tell everyone that it has changed my life.

You can totally do it. Also, I just have to say, what an inspiration. I so often find myself thinking, if I hadn't stopped I could be so and so pounds lighter by now. I'm glad you were able to be consistent and are now just in the home stretch.

If for some reason you don't lose the 15 in 14 weeks, please don't be discouraged. You've accomplished so much and will most likely just be a couple pounds shy. Doing it in 55 weeks instead of 52 doesn't make it any less of an accomplishment, but I do think it's totally doable.

About the new clothes thing. Every pay cheque, I put $40 cash into a jar. That is for my new wardrobe when I achieve goal weight. I'm up to over $1500 by now (haven't counted it recently). Great motivation to keep working towards goal, and there will be no financial impact on my monthly budget when I do start shopping.

I love the idea of putting money in a jar to collect for the final wardrobe. What a great motivator to know that you can have a shopping splurge of a full wardrobe... instead of going a few outfits at a time as we lose...

Can we get an update? Congrats on what you've accomplished so far! That's great to stick with a new year's resolution!!