MK 5’10” is wonderful!! At 5’3″ I really am a ‘short arse’!! Be happy you got the brains beauty, after all, is only skin deep!!!

Well I’m having a more relaxed BSD time at the moment. I have started logging my calories and carbs again but not seriously trying to restrict my intake. On the other hand I’m not going over the top. So the results over the last week have been quite interesting. I have averaged 903 calories with the highest day being 1060. Similarly my carbs have been 43g on average with the highest being 66g. I’ve lost 4.4lbs!!!!!

Maybe just going with the flow, within reason, is better for my body than the ‘obsessive counting’ merry-go-round I was on before. Or maybe it’s just sheer coincidence. Either way I’ll take the loss without too much analysis !!

Have a good day!

5’1″ is indeed wonderful!

Verano – if you’re a “short arse” at 5’3″ a friend of mine must have been right when she called me a “dwarf” – I’m 5’1″! LOL.

Great result. 4.4 pounds 😀💐

Okay so I beat you all, I am 4 foot 11 and a quarter inches. That quarter is very important to me, so at 11 stone 6 lbs you can see why I am classed as obese. Although I seem to have lost most of my weight around my barrel stomach and bust so look so much better than I did. I have very few wrinkles except a few around the eyes and quite a hooded low brow but that is a family feature. I would love to get rid of my wattle turkey neck but hey ho we cant have everything.

I’m starting to feel like a giant at 5’3″!!! Actually, I’ve not had my height taken for a while and so with ‘age’ I could be a little shorter now!!

The clothes problem again. I have trousers that are now too long but because they are stretchy they still fit. Do I shorten them and then maybe have to do it again in a few months or just send them to the charity shop now? I remember Krysia saying that people really noticed her weight loss when she started to shed her ‘clown’ clothes. Even though I still have quite a lot lose many of my clothes are now ‘voluminous’ and really not flattering, but I’m just not sure I’m ready for the ‘have you lost weight’ comments. I’m rather shy when it comes to my appearance and don’t like the spotlight.

There are quite a few shorties on these fora aren’t there? But so far, I think sunshine-girl is the queen at 4’11”. I’m now 5’1″. When I was about 20 (OMG 52 years ago!!) I was 1/2 inch taller. I tried mightily one day to stretch to 5’2″ so I could be an air hostess…..they just laughed at me! Hopes dashed for lack of half an inch, for heavens sake….oh well, I can laugh at it now 🙂

At last I have won something, short arse of the century. Well done me. Although I am bound to get shorter, my mum was 4 foot 10 inches.

LOL Well done sunshine-girl. I’m sure you’re not the only vertically challenged person here. The others are just not owning up.

Marsie … the lack of half an inch …. the story of our lives!!

Marsie forgot the quarter of an inch so has made me even shorter.

Ooops, sunshine-girl, careless of me to lose your quarter inch…. 🙂

Ha Verano, too true 🙂

These posts have really made me smile today.

Sunshine Girl, my mental picture of you has always been of a tall, leggy, blonde and tanned person, always smiling. Verano, i see you as about 35, 5’5 , quite bookish, probably with glasses, and the organised person that everyone turns to in a crisis. Captain Lynne – you WRITE like a tall person – my mental picture of you is tall and slim with a short dark pixie haircut and lovely clothes. Marsie, , smaller because people with ie as part of their name are sometimes diminutive, but I think you have a mop of curly hair and a big smile.

Surprised you’re all titchy, but envious of ALL of you because I have always wanted to be the sort of tiny petite person who’s never allowed to carry their own suitcase ! Though tbh, probs best for me to be taller since I seem to have spent my whole life absolutely determined to be chubby… Mkx

LOL Maharani…. I’ll take the 35!!!! I do like books and yes I’m usually good in a crisis and it’s contact lenses!!!! Definitely not petite though!!!

And you …. always conjured up a picture of the exotic ‘petite’ Indian partner of a maharajah! Obviously wrong there then!!!

Funny how you get a ‘picture’ of people.

Nope, the Amazonian partner of a landscape gardener….! Long curly dark hair, contacts, Scottish, just about to turn 50, communications consultant, outgoing and gobby at work but in real life quite serious and quiet.
My first marriage was to an Indian guy, though he was not so much a maharahja.. More of a…..tax inspector! Mkx

Hey, MK, that made me laugh. 🙂

Funny how we all conjure up images of each other, which are very rarely accurate. I too imagined you as a very exotic creature – far too exotic to be married to anyone as mundane as a tax inspector! 😉 (Apologies to any tax inspectors on this forum, I’m sure you are all very nice people 😉 )

And your mental image of sunshine-girl matched mine precisely – a long-legged, tanned Australian blonde who should spend all her life on Bondi Beach!!! Sunshine-girl, my mother is only 4’11” tall, and she is VERY precious about her extra half inch, (was recorded on her WWII forces record as eleven and a half) even though it no longer exists, and hasn’t done for many a year – she is 92 and, to be honest, probably wouldn’t even actually qualify for 4’11” anymore 🙁

And Verano, wouldn’t we all take the 35 😉 (well except those younger than that, of course) I’ve always thought of myself as being vertically challenged and have always claimed that I am not overweight, just under tall 😉 However, hearing so many of you on here talk (MK excepted), I am beginning to feel like a giant, at 5’4″, so bang went that excuse!

MK – so I write like a tall person. Will settle for that 😀

As for the rest – short. Slim – size 10. Short, wavy, white hair. Clothes – some lovely, some mundane (but improving!)

*slim -size 10’*
These words are like a magical mantra to me, knowing your journey, Cap’n L.
Mkx

Maybe we shouldn’t be discussing tax inspectors on a beautiful sunny day like today!!

Looks like we have some shattering of illusions going on here. Sometimes fantasy doesn’t live up to reality and I think we all need s bit of fantasy in our lives!!!!

It’s now two weeks since I started this thread and I’ve felt very much as though I’m standing still these last few days. I looked back in my journal and low and behold I’ve lost 4.2lbs since reaching my first goal! So despite feeling a bit glum earlier I’m now quite happy that I’m heading in the right direction. I guess we can’t expect to lose every day …even if it would be great to do that in an ideal world.

Ok, so the daffodils are out so seems to me like a perfect day to make a start on a ‘spring clean’ … of house and body! Time to start dumping the ‘clown’ like clothes, even just a few, and drink more water, my nemesis!.

Hope you are all well. Have a good day.

Oh, lol, I’m sitting here on a bench in the middle of a shopping centre, using some of their free WiFi, saving mine for a couple of big downloads, and chuckling enough that people walking past are looking sideways at me. Don’t we all have great imaginations!

MK, you’re subterfuge has worked. I absolutely had the wrong picture. Pretty sure I’ve got the sterling character pegged though.

In my teens I remember saying to my friends that I only had 3 wishes 1. to be tall 2.to be blonde 3. to be sophisticated. 1. Definitely didn’t make it, talk about wishful thinking! 2. Thanks to a good hairdresser, I was blonde for a long time, (also had the curls for a while MK). Now, for the last 5 or so years I’ve embraced my grey, use shampoo for dark blondes which gives great highlights and lots of compliments. 3. depends on your definition. 🙄😉💖

Hi all, funny that you should think me as tall and blonde on Bondi Beach. When I was in my 30’s I worked in a personnel office (showing my age as it is HR now) and spent a lot of time on the phone helping a guy relocated. On the day he started work he call me to reception to give me a big bouquet of flowers. When I arrived he said ‘no, you must be the wrong D….. the one I want is tall and blond’. I said sorry but it is just me, he said I had a beautiful blond voice then spent the next half hour apologising. I took his flowers reluctantly and he never spoke to me again.

So here goes, I am 64 years old, I am 4.11,1/4 with reddish gold hair (not quite ginger) and I have blond streaks, it is just a bit longer than shoulder length with a casual fringe (not too straight). As I am 11 stone 6lbs I am a little dumpy but looking better all the time. I wear glasses most of the time but contacts when I go out. I am not bad looking but age is starting to catch up around the eyes and neck though I dont have any other facial wrinkles. I used to be a nurse until my late 20’s when I had my daughter and couldn’t do shift as i was a single parent (by choice) so I went back into secretarial work which I hated but stayed until I took early retirement at the age of 52 – lucky me, when we moved to France. About Bondi Beach though, I did live in Australia for 5 years in my youth but Bondi was not my favourite place as it got too crowded, I preferred either Coogie Beach or La Perouse. I have very pale skin as a redhead so never tan but use fake on my legs. Obviously living in a hot country I do pick up a bit of a tan on my arms and face but no more than the average Brit living in the UK.

The only person I have had thoughts about in terms of occupation is captainlynne (having seen what she looks like in the DMail). I thought she would wear a uniform and be a policewoman, then I changed my mind and thought she might be in the clergy.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Mmmm …. reddish gold isn’t that strawberry blonde!!!!’

I guess we get a ‘picture’ of people as much from their chosen name as we do from what they ‘say’. Hence tall leggy blonde sunshine-girl!! I actually ‘saw’ you as a brunette of medium height but hey that was wrong as well!!

sunshine-girl – if we’re going in to more details, here goes.

I’m 66, 5’1″. With short, white, wavy hair. Always had to keep my hair short because as a child, when it grew it was so thick and heavy I had headaches, and the hairdresser always had to use thinning scissors. Oh – and now, if I try to grow it, it’s either the ‘Freddy Boswell’ look or the ‘finger in the electricity socket’ look – it doesn’t grow down, it grows out! So short it stays. At just under 8st 7lbs, I’m not a stick insect, but wearing size 10 clothes (with a few size 8s finding their way home with me). I’ve been wearing varifocal glasses for many years. After the DM photos I decided to try contact lenses again. Strangely, only my left eye needs a correction (for distance). I wear daily disposable contacts when I’m out, but glasses the rest of the time.

Originally from Manchester, my working life is varied. After leaving school I worked in the Tax Office, Labour Exchange and Prudential (accounts office!). After marriage and having children I worked in the local corner shop until my neighbour got me a job as a barmaid. When my son was 11 I decided to retrain and went to college to train as a Medical Receptionist and Practice Administrator, lots of exams – shorthand, typing, and audio-typing plus other things. . Then I worked in hospitals, a GP surgery, and even the rooms of a private dermatologist. Then I did temp work for an agency – some I loved, some not. Then they sent me to a firm of solicitors, working for a Partner – conveyancing! Then somewhere else, but conveyancing still. Back to the solicitors (a different Partner but still ….. conveyancing. That became permanent. Then, just as I was due to get benefits – pension scheme, health care etc, I left.

That was 2003. The reason I left? To move to London to train as an Officer (Minister/clergy person) in The Salvation Army. Since being commissioned (ordained) I’ve served in Central London, Devon, Cornwall and North Tyneside. Currently I’m in County Durham, not far from Durham.

So, sunshine-girl, you were right. I do wear a uniform but also am clergy. Strangely enough, our hat is the same type that female police officers wear, just different trimmings!

Captainlynne I must be psychic but I think there must have been clues in some of your posts also your nom de plume. Yes Verano I guess I am strawberry blonde with blonde highlights but I am more towards red than blonde (just Googled some piccies). However, if I stopped going to the hairdresser I think I would have quite a bit of grey, just never seen it except for the roots. I chose my name because I used to be called chubbychops and someone said it defined who you are (just as you say V) and I didn’t want to be known as that chubby person so changed it to suit my personality, I am always sunny and cheery, even when I dont feel it. One thing about me is I am always singing and dancing around, I love music but cannot carry a tune at all. My husband says it is time I changed my tastes in music as I love Maroon 5, Lady Gaga, Adele and Lady Antebellum but anything with a beat. He thinks I should now like Perry Como and Frank Sinatra, nothing wrong with them but you cant do the hump to them.

Well, I didn’t know what I’d started but I would never have guessed from your posts even half of what is revealed here. What interesting lives people are leading/have led. You all must have such a sparkle about you because you write like youngsters! Sunshine Girl, I love your playlist! Cap’n Lynne, I was in Durham earlier in the week, at the Cathedral, organising a Caol Service for December, if you can believe such a thing!

So here’s a question that was posed to me on a training course today. What advice would you give your 25 year old self? We had 10 minutes to think about it. I said ‘find a fitness activity you love and keep doing it’ BUT. If I’d been a bit braver and less worried about what people thought, I’d have said ‘get thin, and work out how to stay thin, because people will judge you for your size every day of your life’. Honestly, that’s what I think. Quite sad, really.

Oh wow, I’m enjoying reading this thread, my turn!
I’m 57, 5’6 1/2″ (mustn’t forget the half!) and was born and bred in Sydney, Australia. My Dad was born in Wales & emigrated to Australia 67 years ago and married my Mum who was born here of Irish ancestry. I inherited her pale skin and strawberry blond hair and it still remains that colour with help from my hairdresser and is kept short. I’ve have many and varied careers including working as a retail manager, police officer, telephone sales/accounts/management in Qantas, HR consultant, admin, real estate agent and currently now down to working 3 days a week doing admin in a small family owned air conditioning company close to home.
My first marriage lasted 7 years and I had 2 kids who are now 28 (boy)and 23 (girl).
15 years ago I married again to the love of my life and he has a (now 24yo) daughter and we all live together. Her Mum died when she was 6 of cancer so I say I have 3 kids. (The girls were 9 when we married).
I was nearly a size 18 when I started on the BSD and now mostly wear size 8 bottoms and 10/12 tops or dresses as I have broad ‘swimmer’s’ shoulders and still weigh myself every day to keep an eye on what’s going on.
I play competition softball twice a week and walk every day, often up to 3 hours through the bush on my days off.
It’s lovely finding out about the people that I now consider my internet friends. Even though I’ve been maintaining since September, I still get a lot of joy and inspiration hearing from everyone else and chime in when I can if someone is looking for help.
Enjoy your weekend everyone!
Cheers
Linda

What advice would you give your 25 year old self? Now there’s an interesting question.

At 25 I was married had had my first child and was planning a second. I guess if I was 25 again I would tell myself to live life with a glass half full! I do tend to be quite practical so often look at the worst scenario first. Sometimes that’s good because it helps to keep the feet of those around me ‘on the ground’. At other times I miss out on the joy of the moment. Maybe it’s not too late to take my own advice!

Maharani I think you’re advice to yourself could have been ‘don’t worry about what other people think of you’!! Nine times out of ten it’s probably the same as when we worry about what people think about what we eat, or not, when we’re out …. they don’t they’re too busy thinking about themselves!!

It’s lovely to hear all your ‘stories’ mine is really mundane.

Married at 21, nearly 22, had two children, a girl and a boy. Spent many years as a ‘stay at home’ mum. Worked in admin on and off until I returned to education in my middle 30’s. Did a couple of ‘A’ levels, went to a ‘red brick’ university, graduated with a good degree and decided I would like to be an accountant. Got offered a job, at 40!, but turned it down because my daughter was coming up to important exams and I thought my time was better spent with her than doing accountancy exams every week! I never regretted not taking the job because I think part of me was happy just knowing that I could have done it.

As with everyone my life has had it’s ups and downs. I’m still married after 47 years …. not sure if that’s an ‘up’ or a ‘down! We have travelled extensively, an ‘up’, but losing the best part of my mobility ten years ago is definitely a ‘down’. We do still travel but have had to tailor our trips slightly. My philosophy has become that ‘ I do what I can do, and what I can’t I don’t’. Frustrating at times but such is life! My glass at the moment is definitely ‘half full’!

Verano, I think you’re right – but so am I!
There is a really interesting article in The Guardian today by a woman who went from 27 stones to 11 in four years which talks about her irrationally losing her temper at a petrol station when a guy held the door for her and gave her a smile when she was in properly ‘thin’ clothes for the first time outside.
All the years of rage at people ignoring, insulting, patronising her and letting doors slam in her face , physically and metaphorically, when she was still the same strong, bright, funny woman inside, whatever her size. The fact that she knew that a couple of years ago he wouldn’t have bothered pushed her over the edge!
Since she lost the weight she’s realised how hard she’s had to work to be accepted, and how easy things are now – people smile at her, they don’t scowl and talk behind their hands, she got promoted, having been passed over many times before, etc, etc.
I’ve been fat – not in the same league, but well covered enough to have people describe me by my weight – ‘the big girl’ rather than any other feature, and I’ve been thin enough to pass for ‘normal’ – and It’s soooooo much easier. People are nicer, kinder, more helpful and you don’t get that slightly pitying look. You know the one I mean. ‘You always dress so well’ – unspoken comment ‘for your size’. ‘Oh. You swim? Unspoken ‘if I were your size, I wouldn’t be seen dead in a swimsuit’ Or my special favourite ‘don’t you have lovely …skin. ‘Thought bubble ‘I can’t think of anything nice to say and the fat must plump out your wrinkles’
So yep, my advice to young ‘uns is to take care, stay slim, not just for health, but because no matter how we like it, being ‘normal’ sized smoothes the path through life.
It shouldn’t matter what people think, but it does. Oops, deep for a Saturday, but hunt the article out online, interesting head stuff from someone who’s been there.

I would give advice to my 35 year old self and that would be ‘just do it, forget about money, fulfil your dream’. Like Verano, I went back into education in my 30’s and gained a BA in psychology and sociology, although I had to do it part-time because I was a single parent. When I graduated I had the opportunity to take a job as a trainee clinical psychologist at Leeds University. Hey ho, do I give up my secretarial job paying £8,500 p.a. or go to something new at £5,000 p.a. I decided I couldn’t afford a 25% drop in salary and stayed miserable in my work until I retired. Maybe it wasn’t the money, maybe I was afraid to take a leap but I needed security for me and my daughter. Regrets, yes I have a few but I am happy in my life in France and that is in the past but I would tell any youngster not to think short term money but long term satisfaction.

Maharani

Do you have the title of the piece? I’ve looked the Guardian online but can’t find it.

Just a thought. Do you think WE behave diffferebtly when we’re overweight, especially if we’re very heavy? I think it’s so easy sometimes to become over sensitive when we are insecure in ourselves. I have to be honest, that whilst I don’t like my weight, I’ve never felt ‘demonised’ because of it. Maybe I’m just thick skinned!!!!

Sunshine-girl you’re life probably would have taken a completely different course had you taken that job …. may have been better but maybe not. You will never know and as long as life is good today you can ask for no more!

Hi Verano

Sorry can’t get the link to paste properly, but it was by Stacie Huckeba.

I read it but it is clearly the work of a fantasist with an agenda. As I said in one of the comments ‘to quote Dilbert “How vivid is this false memory? – Does it involve unicorns?”‘ ‘.

She comes across as a deeply unpleasant person. If it did happen, at no point does she express any remorse for her unacceptable rudeness to an individual who was doing nothing but offering courteous assistance.

YMMV

MK – if you’re in Durham again and fancy meeting up, give me a shout. I know a great cafe near the Cathedral.

If I was giving advice to my younger self (at most ages) I’d say not to be concerned about what others are thinking.

Thanks JM

Yes an interesting article and having read it I stand by my original thoughts that lack of confidence caused by gross over weight, often leads to insecurity and over sensitivity. The writer admits that she … ‘…was not confident. I was uncomfortable’.

Yes JM she didn’t appear remorseful apart from saying she’d ‘lashed out at a perfectly polite stranger’ sort of suggesting she was wrong. But her mission to help people to ‘….realise their true beauty and strength; right now in the body they occupy’
is tantamount to giving them ‘confidence’ in who they are, which is where I came in!

Another point worth making is that many people these days no longer have the manners and social graces of yesteryear so they wouldn’t open a door etc. anyway, irrespective of a persons appearance!

Translation please YMMV??

Hi all,

Loving reading all the histories. Adding mine:-

Born 1944, with brother and 2 sisters, all younger. Poor as church mice, looking back, but did not ever feel as though we were missing out on anything. Parents with wonderful work ethic and community ethic. 2 years only of high school followed by 1 year at business college, so 2wks before 15th birthday was working in a large office typing envelopes all day, every day. Ugh! Soon moved to a bank job, still office but so much better. Left work when married in 1967 (22yo & pregnant), that was what you did back then. 2 sons by the time I was 25. Part time office work from when youngest was about 3, then full time when both were at school. Various jobs, finished up managing the State Office of a wholesale flooring company.
Threw it in as 35yo, spent a year at tech college to get mature age qualifications for Uni entry. Did that, then 4 years of study, degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences, becoming a speech pathologist. Difficult, learning to study, not just read for pleasure and learning to work it around our busy family life. Final exam on 40th birthday, symbolic? Worked for Health Dept for 5 years, then began my private practice, both in Perth then Sydney when we moved there for OH’s promotion to general manager of the national company he worked for. Boys had left home by then, although younger joined us in Sydney for a while. He met a Sydney girl, married her the year we retired back to Perth, 1997. They moved to Perth a few years later and we now have 16yo grandaughter and 8 yo grandson living 10 minutes away. Heaven:) Our 50th anniversary this coming May.
I started life as a chubby child, have yoyod my way to an often chubby 72yrs. Have had health scares ie. kidney cancer, melanoma, both far enough in the past. OH is 79, last year had 2 strokes which, thankfully, have left him remarkably untouched. I’m pretty much a one day at a time, expect the best of everybody, sort of person. Harder on myself than on anybody else and I’ve sensed that trait about several people on this forum.

I’m struggling to go further with BSD just now, but feel strangely positive than if I hang around, I will prevail. Previously the “dieting” would have just faded out of consciousness and the whole process would start again sometime.

Sorry for the long post, hope I haven’t sent too many of you to sleep.

YMMV = “Your Mileage May Vary” meaning that others may have a different opinion or experience.

Like a lot of the posters in the comments to the article, I grew up in a time when holding the door open for someone is just good manners, as is acknowledging the act with grace. And quite frankly a few minutes later I would struggle to describe the person for whom I held the door.

Whilst I agree people do treat others differently based on their appearance, that does not really excuse the entitled response of the author against an unknown individual. If, of course, the event really happened.

That’s a lesson for me, JM. I usually take this stuff at face value, would never consider for a moment that this person was an ‘entitled fantasist’, but reading again, yep, I can see that view too.

All I know is that whilst my own attitude to others might well be different at a higher weight, and I may well be more sensitive (I’d hope not, to much of a degree) , and potentially more confident when slimmer, people do treat you differently. They just do. There’s a level of disapproval that is out of proportion, i think. Mk

Ok, advice for my 25 yo self:
1. Wear sunscreen every day
2. Don’t skimp on superannuation
3. Shrimp and save and buy property as soon as you can manage it, particularly if you live in a city, you won’t regret it!
Cheers
Linda

In ref to people not holding doors open any more, I was on a very crowded bus the other day and noticed that there were plenty of men sitting while women were standing. I was fine with that, I think a woman of similar age and health is just as capable of standing as a man (both genders should give a seat to the elderly, infirm, pregnant, or with small tired children) but I was thinking at the time that it’s not so long ago that a man sitting while a woman stood on a bus would be completely unacceptable to most people of both genders.

Thanks for the ‘translation’ JM I would never have worked that one out!

I have hit a plateau, as I have explained on another thread, so it’s back to the drawing board for me but any advice gratefully accepted.

Wise words Linda. If only we could put an old head on young shoulders!

Absolutely with you on pension contributions, Linda. My dad was in insurance and it was absolutely the best advice he gave me. MK

I think this has started to work!!

My HbA1c came down pretty quickly to 5.5 and has stayed there for the last 4 months. So I suppose that would be called success because my aim was to get my BG into the ‘normal’ zone. Admittedly that’s with metformin and my original goal was to come of those but now I’m not that bothered really. It’s more important for me to avoid diabetes complications whichever way.

So the other benefit is that I am now getting compliments even if some are somewhat backhanded. I’ve lost 17.5% of my body weight and people are starting to ask if I’ve lost weight. I did/do have a lot to lose. Because I was in hospital people expect me to look as though I’m at death’s door. So now I get ‘Wow you look well’, ‘Not seen you look this well for ages’, ‘I thought you were ill’, ‘Your skin looks great’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered, even at the slightly back handed comments, but more than anything I think my journey is really starting to pay off in ways other than improved diabetes outlook.

I’m away in two weeks and will be seeing people I’ve not seen for three months so it will be interesting to see if they notice any difference in me!

Keep up the good work Verano. As long as you feel better I’m sure you will look better and your friends will be amazed with the new you.
X B

Only just seen this, Verano.

Many congratulations on losing the weight and improving your health to such a degree. Thanks for providing encouragement to others too by proving it’s possible.

So good to read Verano, you sound like you’re in a good place right now. Pleased for you x

Good Morning

Just wanted to check in as I really need to keep a check on myself at the moment.

I started this thread just five weeks ago when I reached my original goal. Now I have ‘hit the wall’, gaining 3lbs over the last four days, so only losing 6lbs in total over the last five weeks. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to carry on. The last 4 days have been a chocolate/biscuit fest and I realise that I need to take myself in hand NOW.

So this morning, thinking I’m suffering from ‘last of the winter blues’ syndrome, I’ve decided to draw a line in my journal and start anew with the hope of spring being just around the corner and a brighter and sunnier time ahead.

My new goal is to lose 15%, well 10% initially, of my current weight. No time limit as I don’t need the added pressure. I just need to get three or four good 800/40 days in and I know I will have jumped off the chocolate train which is speeding away with me on it at the moment!

Can I add my congratulations too, Verano? I am just starting out and it’s great to hear stories like this that are truly motivating. Being realistic, I know I will lapse from time to time and hearing of your great achievement in spite of the odd lapse is great to hear. Well done and thank you for inspiring us!

Good for you Verano. I found going right back to basic made me realise that portions sizes can get bigger, snacks can get more often or not really measured and going back to week 1 was a real eye opener. I think you are having nice weather in the UK so it should make you feel good, enjoy and keep on keeping on…

Best of luck Storm33 it really is the best way to eat but as with most things after a while you sometimes need a bit of a change.

You’re right Sg. I think we all become a bit complacent from time to time but yes it’s back to basics for me. No sun today, that was yesterday!!!!

Still on my journey!

I was wondering if anybody would notice my weight loss when I went away on holiday. And yes they did !!!! Well those who are only involved in their own lives didn’t but the others did. It was really inspiring to get compliments and I think they stopped me from going OTT whilst away. The damage was 4.6lbs in nearly 4 weeks, not from simple carbs, but from portion size and wine. Anyway 4 days back on track and 4 of those pounds have gone.

So the time has come to set another goal…..

My last goal set here a while back has disappeared into the ether so I need to set another whilst I’m on a roll.

My overall goal is now to lose 52lbs!!. There I’ve said it! Yes I know it’s a lot but here it is in black and white and strangely enough it does feel possible. No time limit but I am going to chop it up into smaller chunks. So it’s back to ‘What’s your next mini-goal’ for me.

I just have to keep thinking of the achievements of Captainlynne, Californiagirl, Mixnmatch, Krysia and JulesMaigret (and others) to keep me motivated. Many thanks to all the maintainers for posting hearing about your success helps so much.

So for the moment in sunshine-girl’s words …. I will just keep on keeping on…..

Sounds about right Verena, that some will notice and others not. And if you know them all well enough it’s fairly predictable as to who will or won’t.

What a wonderful thing you’ve done in setting yourself this new goal.. 52lbs. You’ll get there via your mini-goals and keeping on keeping on. More power to your arm, Verena, as my lovely old Pop used to say.

Hi Marsie

I only seem to be able to carry on by reassessing and setting goals all the time. Thanks for the encouragement.