Hey, guys, that avatar is actually a single slice of angel-food cake with berries. Diet-wise, that's about the best dessert you can choose!! Lneal, leave it up!! :-P :-P

wow you really did good....not easy

Thank you, Charlee and everyone else for all the helpful suggestions. It's nice to see there are "sane" and healthy ways to lose weight. I'm so impatient I want to try all fads and "quickies" out there. You are all so encouraging.

Can we keep encouraging one another, please? My friends and DH are skinny and it's hard to stick to a plan around them. I appreciate all your comments and help.

Wow to you, thanks for posting your pic. You are an inspiration to all of us.

Charlee ~ {{{{{{{{{{{{{{applause}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
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I use portion control but I need to get back on track. My weight has gone up because I'm looking for a job or trying to make a home business work. I just need to kick myself in the butt and just do portion control and really work at this home business thing. The reason we gain weight is usually there is a problem we need to work on. Find the problem and start working on it.

Charlee, you look awesome. Way to go. Thank you for the website. I have lost 6 lbs since the 15th. You ROCK!!! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Thanks Ladies! It really DOES feel good when I see those pictures together! What's weird is that I never saw myself as being that heavy! Looked in the mirror and KNEW I was heavy, but not THAT heavy! Those jeans in the Christmas and bike pictures are size 28W. I was laying on the bed to zip them up!

The jeans in the pictures taken yesterday are a size 14, and they're not only comfortable, if I pull on them, they'll come off without unsnapping or zipping!

I can shop now at regular stores. I don't have to go to Lane Bryant's or Catherine's....it still amazes me!

The thing is....it's taken me less than a year. I am 5'9" tall, started at 290, and now as of yesterday, weigh 188. I still want to lose another 10-15 pounds. Am still losing, but it's much slower now.

I have faith that anyone who wants to do it, can, and I'll be your biggest cheerleader! When that picture from Christmas of 2008 was taken, I couldn't walk a city block without huffing and puffing, and it was painful. I started this in March...qubby bought me the bike in April after I asked for it, thinking it would be so much easier than walking. Uhmmmm....not so much as I thought, but still fun!

I guess where I'm going with this is that while it's taken me 10 and a half months to get to where I am now...(remember that in the beginning, there was a LOT of edema (water weight)) your weight loss journey might be faster or slower than mine. Doesn't matter. What matters is that you get healthier for both you and your families! One of my incentives was the fact that I have a younger husband that is handsome...that man loves me unconditionally, a good thing, but I was thinking one day that with my weight the way it was, and the history of heart problems in my family (and I have a murmer myself) that I might not be able to be with him as long as I liked. I tried to imagine his life without me...did NOT like that picture, "she" was gorgeous!! :lol: :lol: :lol: Decided at that point that Yep! I'm a bit of a jealous type, and "she" whoever "she" was, is going to have to wait a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGG time before I'm gone so "she" can have him!! ~grin~ (of course there is no real life "she"...)

There is no quick fix. This last 10 or 15 pounds is going to take me much longer to lose. For one reason, 1% of total body weight only lets me lose a pound and a half a week safely. My allowed calories won't let me lose it that fast. (Remember not to go below 1200!) I won't do anything to lose it that I'm not willing to do the rest of my life. But I figure that in six months time, I can still weigh what I do now, and be unhappy and still want to lose it...or I can keep at the slow but sure way and weigh what I want to weigh.

Oh! And one of the best calorie burners? (I hope your husbands don't hate me for this) SHOPPING! You're on your feet and walking! You're reaching and bending! Probably my favorite form of exersize!! :lol:

I have a rule' No Diets'! I HAVE been on Weight Watchers since 2002, lost 80 lbs, could've been at my goal weight before this if I really 'worked' it. Most weeks I do it in 'theory', and go to visit with my friends.
In that time I have become healthier than I EVER was at 120lbs.
I eat better, healthier tastier food, whatever I want, plus in reality, I maintained my weight, within 5 lbs, for the last 3 years; I'm not at goal, I still have, as of this week 22 lbs to go, maybe one day I'll get serious and decide I need to be there, but, untill then , I'm pretty happy.
The main thing about losing weight, and keeping it off is you have to eat realistic portions, food that's 'processed ' less, and move more. that's the whole secret. Good luck

Goal weight is a questionable term. Is it what some chart says? Is it some idea of where you want to be realistic or not? Is it what your doctor thinks you should weight? After being overweight all my life, I do not expect to at the low end of the charts. I do know that each pound I lose make me healhier. My doctor has given me a number (above the weight chart numbers) that I am shooting for. But I know I am a sucess with each pound I loose.
Carol