Here goes! I'm Daisy, of the Lazy Daisy Quilts podcast and blog. I'm 36 years old and I have been overweight my entire adult life. With every passing year, I'm heavier and heavier, and I've decided enough is enough! I once promised myself that I'd lost the weight before my 30th birthday.. that came and went, and so did several diet fails. My husband decided two years ago that he wanted to lose weight, and stayed on track with what seems like very little effort. I could just slap him. He lost 125 pounds with diet and exercise. He simply counted calories, always making sure to stay within the range of what his body needed to maintain or lose. So, I've seen up close that this can work.. it's just a matter of sticking to it. If it's important enough to me, then I will make time to exercise and eat right. My goal weight is 150 pounds.. we'll see what happens after I get there. (I can't even tell you where I am starting from because it's too embarrassing) I am staying away from the scale for the first several weeks, at my husband's advice. I know that I have already lost a pants size.. well, they aren't cutting off my circulation anymore.. I can't imagine what it would be like to shop in a normal store, with normal sized clothing that doesn't say "plus", but I am certainly looking forward to finding out!

Hey guys! I'm Lori...I'm not on the messaging boards that much, usually just using the app on my phone to log and record stuff. I've lost and gained more times then I can count. My lowest was 125 (too low for me to maintain, even when I was in my 30's). My highest was 202....I'm currently at 198.2. It's amazing to me that I can be an intelligent, professional person (I'm a veterinary dermatologist), understand the math and science behind weight loss and STILL not get my *kitten* in gear and make the healthy choices for myself. this is such a mental battle...I'm a stress eater, happy eater, comfort eater, bored eater. I guess that makes food my drug of choice huh? Sigh....

Oh, I'm 44, married for 23 years, have 3 dogs, 4 cats, and 2 horses. I'm headed off to work in a few, but will try and check back more frequently If you want to friend me on myfitnesspal my user name is "ltdermdvm"

Lori

Hello All, :flowerforyou: My name is Maragret and I go by the username MaggieMcfly. I am so glad to have found this group!! Like many of us over weight people, I tend not to pass it around to my friends that I am attempting to lose weight. That so often ends up with embarrassment when my success wanes. I would rather be SUPER successful and suprise everybody!! :happy: This does leave one kind of lonely through the process. So this group was such a joy to discover. I am a quilter and I listen to Katie (magnoliafly) on Katies Quilting Corner podcast and when she mentioned this site I had to check it out. Daisy, I listen to you too and love your podcast too When I saw that Katie had started this group on my birthday I knew this was the place for me. I am a Christian and I do look for the voice of God in all the small details
I am 54 years old, Happily married to my husband Rodney for almost 28 years. I have 3 adult children ages 19 - 25. My daughter (the middle child is soon to be 22). I am a nurse and have been for almost 13 years. For most of my career I have been a pediatric nurse, all the way from the NICU to 18 year olds (I love the babies the best). For the last 4 years I have had a 2nd job (like many of us have to do now) and it is at a nursing home. It can be alot like pediatrics there too, just bigger diapers.:laugh:
I have battled my weight for most of my life and 7 years ago at 300 pounds I decided to take the plunge and have gastric bypass surgery. It was the best thing I have ever done for myself. I got down to 155 and I felt great. I luckily have had no bad side effects from the surgery. I know many others have not been so lucky, it is definitely a risk. In the 7 years since I have put on about 50 pounds and I have crept over that 200 line that I said I would never be near again. So I have got to jump on this!!:explode: It will be interesting to see how losing weight will be for me now. I am also now in the menopause phase of life. I don't know if it will come off fast (after gbs I lost the first 100 pounds in 5 months) or slow like it used to. I guess we will see. I am shooting for the end of the year.
Now for my fun side. I have been a quilter ever since we made the move to Connecticut in 2006. I was a quilter want-a-be for much longer than that. I never could find the time for it with my busy schedule. While in nursing school I worked at a fabric store and would help customers pick out fabric for their quilts and I wanted so badly to try it. I was also homeschooling my eldest son at the time and it was all I could do to pass my exams in nursing school. So I had to be content to drool over other peoples fabric (they really did have to pre-wash their fabric to remove remove the drool stains). I made my first quilt with the help if Quilt University, which was a great experience. I had done a lot of sewing previously, so the basics were not new to me. I didn't know as much about YouTube as I do now, and I am currently learning lots from tutorials on there. I listen to almost all of the quilting podcasts, while I drive, grocery shop and even at work on breaks. I feel like I have so many "sisters" that I have never met.
Tomorrow will be my weigh in day for my first week and I am hoping for a really good number. Using my phone to scan the bar codes rather than having to write out a food diary has made it so easy. I was on Weight Watchers MANY times and it was the food diary part that I hated and never did. Since I can post on the message board and reply to others with my phone I hope to communicate a lot!! Good luck to ONE AND ALL!!! Great to meet you!! :flowerforyou:

MaggieMcfly

Hey All! I'm a little late to the party, but I just met Katie a week ago, so I didn't know this group existed!
I'm Bree, and I co-run the quilt blog at Distant Pickles. I'm 26, and I've been overweight as long as I can remember. I have a lot of "old habits" to get past - my mother always pulled out the "finish all the food on your plate, there are starving children in Africa!" thing, and I still have difficulty leaving a plate with food on it, even if I'm full! My worst weight gain has been in the four years since my son has been born. I lost the pregnancy weight in a snap, but it's been just piling back on since then.
I hit my heaviest on June 1, 2012, at 252 lbs. I have a total goal of 97 lbs lost - down to 155 lbs. My primary motivation for weight loss is my son - it flat out sucks not being able to run around with him on the playground without getting winded. I can't lift him and swing him around and just play, like I would love to be able to do.
MFP has been key in connecting the dots for me. I'm a math person, and seeing the numbers really help put it in a language I can understand. I'm down 21 lbs right now. I get my exercise primarily on an elliptical but hope to be able to hit the pavement for real runs soon. I'm signing up for the Color Run in Tampa this December!

Hello, I am Jennifer Kosco .
I first found Katie thru stitchers radio (which I thought was a sewing radio at first, haha). I have reached the podcast in which she discusses her weight loss and this group.
So here I am.
I got heavy, 225, the most I've ever weighed. Plus, I was battling some health issues. From reading and listening to radio, I learned that going vegan had the most impact on diabetes, type 2.
So, amid protests from husband, I started us on a "leaning toward vegan diet".
A year and a half later, I have lost 39 pounds, and broke under 200! (must have been closer to 230, haha).

I think my biggest secret and help has been breakfast. I eat Kashi Go Lean cereal with a cut up banana and soy milk.
My first big challenge has moved in with me. My son and his two boys moved in with us 2 weeks ago. they are eating me out of house and home, haha. I forgot how much little boys eat. So, I'm cooking again. And it's SO hard to not eat what you cook! And I
do love to eat! So, I've been really trying hard to stick with my meal plans.

I'm eating vegan-like for my health, not coz it's "cool". I can't afford to eat like I did before. High blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, etc. So wish me luck! And gobs of willpower, ha.

Nice to be here. Thank you for letting me join.
Oh.. And I do quilt, haha. But that's been cut back as well, with my new caretaking job.
Jennifer