New and looking for support & friends! :)

Hello, stareted this diet just a few daays ago.. Im giving it all I got and hope to see results. You can to but is harder with little ones..

I will add you, I love having motivating people on here, it does help )

Hi Angelag2006, hows it going for you. The baby in my picture is my grandchild. But I know it will be harder for someone with small children..Good luck and talk to you soon to see how your doing...::bigsmile:

Do you mind if I tag along as well? It seems as though we have a lot in common. I also have 2 boys, one who will turn 3 in March and the other who's turning 1 next month. This past summer I also tracked my progress on this site and lost 22 lbs. However over the fall I got a little side-tracked and am now trying to get back into a healthy routine so I can lose at least 30 lbs, if not more. This is the first time I'm reaching out to the community for help/motivation, and I thought it was such a neat coincidence you had a similar story. I just started working out again today and am hoping to keep up with it at least 4-5 times a week. Here goes nothing!

Welcome Angela

Welcome Angela
Congratulations on the great results! I thought I would pass on some tips that helped me quit smoking. (I have been smoke-free for almost 4 years now).
I used a free website called www.whyquit.com. Go there and download the E-book "Never take another puff". There is a ton of excellent information in it. It explained a lot of things I had issues with in my numerous other attempts to quit in myprevious 2 decades. I tried many methods. Hypnosis, nicotine gum, the patch, zyban. Long story short: cold turkey is the best way to quit. Why? My belief is that the initial withdrawal symptoms are so bad in the first week that you will *never* want to go through them again. It will also give you an idea of just how powerful a drug/poison nicotine actually is.

I learned that nicotine-replacement methods (gum, patch) had a very high failure rate. All they do is drag out your withdrawal phase.
(I was very surprised that doctors are not very informed on how to quit smoking and will often just suggest pills and patches and not realize how ineffective these methods are.)

I also learned that your body will try and convince you that you need nicotine even long after it has completely left your system. Scary!
The philosophy to remain a non-smoker is you just have to focus on one simple rule: "Never take another puff".

What used to mess me up was I could never figure out why I still had cravings many weeks and even months after I had quit. I know *now* that these cravings will go on (much less intense mind you) for several years. When do these cravings completely go away? I have spoken with a few long-term ex-smokers and had various responses ranging from 15 to 20 years. Knowing this, I won't worry about the occasional nic-fits any more as this is normal. A few seconds per week isn't so bad. When I first quit, I used to have a nic-fit about every minute.

Just be careful not to replace smoking with a worse habit. I replaced it with eating. In the first 60 days, I gained 27 pounds - a pound every 2 days! At my heaviest, I was up about 50 pounds. I was thin like a rake initially but then soon had cholesterol issues (and a spare tire and man-boobs LOL). Thanks to mfp I am back to a sane weight and I now eat in a much healthier manner (smaller portions, better food etc).

You've already proven to yourself you can set a goal and get results so I think you can do the non-smoking thing too. It will be very tough but you will be rewarded with many more years of health (and life!)

All the best!