Friday- New Members

lmalear01

Hello.  I have been lurking for a while and maybe commenting here or there so I thought I would introduce myself because I am finding that I come to this board a lot. My name is Lisa I am getting married in October.  Obesity is a family issue for me and I was ex tremely overweight in my ealry 20's and went from 262 to 143 in a little over a year with a strong desire and motivation for a healthier life. I can say that I have kept the majority of this weight off for almost 10 years but  I do struggle with 20-40 pounds. I am up a little right now even though I have lost a lot of It I would still love to lose about 15 pounds before the wedding.  Just happy to know there are supportive people out there.  Support makes things easier because doing it alone SUCKS!  Glad to be here!

raynes

Welcome!  Your weight loss is inspiring!

[Deleted User]

That's amazing!!!!  How'd you lose all that weight?  So inspiring.  Great job.  I just wandered over here today so hello   I'm working on my last 10lbs now (although who knows, once I lose the 10 I may want to lose more!).  I am 25lbs down from my heaviest and I thought that was hard!

Hellokatie0517

262 to 143 lbs. in a year? We need to be friends.    I agree with Raynes, your weight loss is inspiring.

Please tell us how you did it.  Any specific diet and exercise routine?

wawasees

Hi Lisa, it's nice to meet you!  I am new as well and figured I would introduce myself as well.  My name is Meghan, and I'm getting married in June 2012.  I am trying to lose 60 lbs total by the wedding, and I have lost 6 lbs in 2 weeks with weight watchers (1/10 the way there!).  Now, I'm trying to incorporate exercise as well and joined a gym, signed up with a personal trainer, and ready to go.  I love these message boards because I get so many great ideas and motivation.  I think that you losing all that weight is awesome and proves that you can accomplish anything you put your mind and heart into.  Hopefully we can all stay in contact and motivate each other to reach our goals!

lmalear01

Thanks ladies.  I just woke up one day (seriously) and decided that I didn't want to be the " fat" girl anymore.  I made a whole lot of drastic life changes in about a week.  I completely cut out fast food and pop.  I had found that with working and going to school I was eating fast food everyday!!!  I started brining my lunch to school and when I was at work ( I worked in a local family restaurant chain that specializes in burgers) I would bring a can of pineapple and pick at that instead of the fries.  The weight initially melted off but looking back now I was so emotional charged and driven.  I was not doing things the healthiest way and when I graduated and moved away from my family and friends those old habits popped back into my life and I gained 30 pounds back after college. this is the  same 20-40 that I battle with when I let good habits die.   Thats when I took a nutrition class and realized a couple of things. First, I am an emotional eater. I tend to let good habits die in emotional situations or when I have big life changes. To control my emotions I took up running.  It truly is my therapy.  Its my time alone and my anti depressant 2. Even though I lost all that weight I was Skinny fat.  I learned about eating clean and about macronutrients and minerals.  I started incorporating lots of high fiber  and high protein foods and veggies into my life.   I also started lifting weights. Ladies... You NEED to lift weights.  I don't mean sitt on the leg machine throw on 20 pounds and call it a day.  Use heavy free weights.  You will not look like a man but you will build a base of a body that will put you ahead in the game of maintaining your weight.  If it weren't for learning how to lift and going heavy and building a sound muscle base... I am convinced that in my periods of ups would be more than 20 pounds. 
What got me to where I am now is a knee injury last summer.  I have trained for a fall marathon every year up until last year when I developed such a severe tendonitis that I was told If I wanted it to heal I had to stop running for a month..that month didn't work and it turned into 16 weeks of complete rest because the elliptical and bike were stressing the knee also. . By August of last year.. I had gained 20 pounds.  I let bad habits creep in and my outlet was no longer there.  I hit a breaking point where I was at what I call my trigger number...the number that sounds the alarm and causes wide spread panic that if I don't get my SH*t together I am heading for a disaster.   I am down that 20 but really want to lose 15 more before the wedding.  I know what I need to do.  Its just doing it that is hard!

wolfsmagic13

Hi Lisa,

I'm new to the boards to and my biggest down fall is the exercise. Like you I was at my heaviest close to 300 lbs and am now 138 lbs.  I started to take the weight off in 2008 and it took two years to get to the weight I am now.  I have been the "fat one" too most my adult life and like I said just need to dust the free weights and use them.

Tina