A TON of Weight To Loose...

Hey Everyone,

My name's Tom, and while I'm not too sure about this whole message board thing I thought that I would introduce myself nonetheless.

I'm about a month into this journey of changing my life style, my eating habits, and hopefully my relationship to food. I have about 150 lbs to loose - I say about, because I'm not sure. I don't want to set a goal that size because it feels like I'll be setting myself up for failure. So, I'm starting out with intermediate goals that seem to make sense and once I get there I set another one, but I know that the mountain I'm climbing is a high one.

I had pretty much lost hope and given up.

I've gained and lost 50-60lbs at least a half-dozen times over the years - HUGELY unhealthy, I understand. I had started another regimen of Atkins 4 or 5 months ago and a month into it was not having any success, not enjoying what I was eating, and was pretty much miserable. And so, I pretty much gave up. I couldn't see a solution that I could actually do, a strategy that I could try where I wasn't miserable and that seemed like it had a reasonable chance.of success.

I had considered surgery, something I never thought I would do. I had tried this, tried that, etc etc. I know, a familiar story.

I hadn't tried calorie counting. Weird, huh?! Let me explain. My image of calorie counting was (APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE PLEASE!) skinny women obsessing over 5 lbs they needed to loose, eating celery sticks, and just being plain miserable. I was so far past that on a downhill spiral that I couldn't even start to look at that option intelligently.

Then a friend introduced me to myfitnesspal, and immediately after that to fat2fitradio.com. So... here's a thought... how about figuring out how you much you would need to eat and how you would need to live as a healthy you at the weight you would like to be - then begin eating at that level NOW. Theory being that eventually you would BECOME that person. Makes sense to me!? I started calculating BMR, trying to figure out the calories I need to eat - NOT to starve, NOT to loose weight quick (that does work short term, but my failure rate was 100% - I gained back every pound I ever lost).

So, to make a longer story short, my wife and I have been giving it a go. I'm eating healthier, I feel good, I'm losing weight, I'm enjoying the foods I'm eating, and most of all - I have hope again. Every diet I've ever been on in the past I knew in the back of my mind that I could NOT live long term like I was eating at the time. This is different. I'm not on a diet, I'm just trying to change the way I live, and move, and eat.

I think I can do this - really! That is so huge. I get discouraged, as all of us do, and I know I will again. My biggest challenge right now is that I have to MENTALLY WRENCH myself away from a quick-fix mind set and into a LONG TERM mindset. If I focus on the right behaviors, every day, and eat and move like the healthy person I want to become, I'll get there eventually. (OH, BTW, I am 55 years old, 6 ft. tall, started at 342lbs.)

I have discovered the term "Morbidly Obese". Ouch. It is so hard to write those words, but it is what it is, and my denial doesn't fix anything. Owning the reality of what I've done to myself is part of my journey to change. That's where I am, but that's not who I am, and that's not where I'm going.

I have hope again. And I'm introducing myself because I know there will be days when I don't.

Thanks for reading,
Tom