Hi, I need some weight loss encouragement BADLY! May I join y'all? I hadn't been less than 150-something pounds in years. I retired Dec'07 and was doing great losing weight being really active. June 4,'08 my husband got hurt badly at work. 44 days of sitting in the hospital and eating, same thing after coming home. November last year my Dr. says I've lost 2" in height. So, I started eating 1 or 2 big bowls of reg. choc. ice-cream with lots of reg. milk at least twice a day. (I needed the calcium you know!:) My husband is doing great and started a new SAFER job last month. When I had to weigh at the DRs office last month when I had a sinus infection I weighted 187 pounds. The bad part is I just kept on eating. Sunday while getting ready for church I started having some pain in my upper back ,to my chest, and up my neck. I had done some yard work Sat and that may have caused the pain. Anyhow... It scared me. I dusted off my South Beach Diet book and started eating as well as I could with what I already had here. I don't have any scales here. I will try to go by the DRs office when I go out to pick up my son from track practice this afternoon. I'm sure I had gained even more after weighing last month, so I will just start from there. I jokingly told my husband that he got to have a physical therapist to get him back into shape, I didn't get one! Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to give y'all some background. I'm 54 years old Now 5' 4" Somewhere around 190 pounds(will let y'all know after I weigh). Weight goal: Somewhere in the 130s (One of the charts for my new height said 111 pounds) Who are they talking about? Not this adult!! Thanks for listening(reading!:) Harold, thanks for starting this thread. I had been reading all of the other threads trying to get motivated. BTW, I've never told anyone how much I weigh. Even my husband. Too ashamed. Betty

Hi Guys I couldnt sleep last night because its going to be weigh in day today. When I got up this morning, I checked my weight atleast 10 times to make sure what I am seeing is not a fluke number. My current weight is 142.2 . My last week's weight on Tuesday was 146 ( I knew it was all water retention) I am in training session today and tomorrow all day. Hopefully I should manage to keep my food intake to 1200-1300 calories. Eklektos I hope everything goes well with your daughter's Dr appointment. Just pray. You will feel better and stronger with every prayer. Also, remember we both will hit 139s very soon :-))I was thinking to treat myself with ethnic food. But now I changed my mind. I would probably make a trip to Spa and walk some extra miles on the day I reach 139. All you guys are doing good.

Harold, glad to hear the surgery went well. Recovery is pretty quick, isn't it? Don't strain your eyes while you wait. I had LASIK about 9 years ago and remember having to be very careful for a few days not to get poked in the eye or anything, wearing sunglasses even inside for the first day or two. Silversword! You are just rockin', girlfriend! I am amazed at you. 129--one TWENTY nine! Woo-hoo! Here's something some of you might be interested in. There's a site at www.weightview.com where you can upload a photo of yourself (in somewhat form-fitting clothes) and plug in your current and goal weights. Then they will adjust the photo to give you an idea of what you'll look like at your goal weight. It's free, but you have to have a Facebook account to log in to their FB page where they will post your altered photo for you. (They don't post your weight or any info about you, and even though there is a weigh-loss community there you can join, you don't have to do it.) I did it today (it's totally free) and got my photo a few hours later. Of course, I don't know how accurate it is, but if it is on target, then I might want to drop my goal weight a little more. I don't know. My body type is really weird. I wonder if I'll ever really be happy with my end results. I doubt I'll ever look sleek or svelte, always "matronly." Here is a link that might be useful: Upload your photo and goal weight for a preview

I need to follow your lead Karen and not hop on the scale daily. It's really discouraging. I still have 4-5 lbs to go and now I'm getting really frustrated. Someone just asked me yesterday "but you've reached your target clothes size, right?" and that put it in perspective. I am officially in a size 6 jean. I need to shut up and stop complaining. I have lost 3 sizes (I was a 12) since January. I'd like to be in a 4 but I don't think my body type is such. Big hips and booty no matter how much I lose. So, I've decided it's not the weight that I'm aiming for, it's the tone. I just need to keep reminding myself of that. I think I need to put the scale away. It's in my kitchen!!! I went out and went crazy buying snacks from the bins at Sprouts for my 6+ hour plane ride coming up with DD. I want to have tons of stuff to entertain us. Crayons, coloring books, books to read (for her and me)... and snacks. I got dark chocolate covered raisins, jelly beans, salt water taffy, sugar coated peanuts, yogurt covered raisins. And two outrageously expensive dark chocolate organic chocolate bars. I'm planning to take a bunch of protein powder with me too so I can use that when I get hungry instead of relying on take out for when I'm running around with the bride. The hard part will be not overdosing on my favorite foods while I'm there. I have some serious cravings for home food, and none of it is diet friendly. Anyone have any travel food suggestions? I want food that will last, take up time, and be interesting. I plan on eating a big breakfast so I'm not hungry, but I'm pretty bored on planes!