I'll turn 49 this month, and I want to lose weight--lots of weight. I've been overweight my entire adult life, and I'm ready to change that. I usually "diet" two or three days and then slip back into my regular bad habits. But this time, I've been eating very well since May 31st; that's SIX days--pretty much a record for me

In 2004, I married the man I've loved since I was 12. Between us, we have six children (we've both been married before) and six grandchildren with one on the way. Also in 2004, I was diagnosed with diabetes. I'm very lucky in that so far I have no permenant damage from it, but I know that can change quickly. My doctor says that, if I lose the weight, I will probably also lose the diabetes. If I don't, I'll eventually develop complications and die.

So this is life or death for me, and I choose life.

I went to my first Weight Watchers' meeting today. I'm hoping the weigh-ins and accountability will help keep me on track.

My first goal is 195 pounds; I haven't been under 200 pounds for over 15 years. I'm looking forward to it and to getting to know all of you along the way

Silver Sonnet, Weight Watchers is great. I know you can do it. One day at a time will get you what you want.
If you blow it, a meal, a day, week. Don't quit, keep remembering how far you have come.

Chip

Thanks for the support, Troutman Your loss is impressive; did WW help with that?

I'm a little worried about today. My mom is coming and taking all of us out to lunch. She tends to make me nervous and insecure, and I tend to eat more when I'm nervous and insecure. And we're going to one of my favorite places (actually one of the ONLY places around here since the storm). So I'm planning to just eat a small breakfast this morning and save the calories for lunch.

Ya'll keep your fingers crossed for me.

Silver Sonnet, Its all about the points with weight watchers, so you will do fine. The one thing I do when I go out (I usually have a salad) is I take my own fat free salad dressing. My family about died the first time I did this. The calories in a lot of condiments will destroy a diet.

I did not do weight watchers. I made up my own diet called the 2 week diet plan.

Chip

Two weeks? That's my kind of diet! Care to share, Chip?

Lunch turned out to be easy. I was starving by lunch time, so I ate 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries before I went to the restaurant. It turned out to be a perfect decision because I was not too hungry when I got there.

I had a Key Lime Salad (not sure why they called it that): mixed greens with carrot and red cabbage, red grapes, a little bit of pineapple, a grilled chicken breast and some highly-seasoned fried tortillia chips. (I asked that the fresh grated Parmesan be left off--I was SO good!) It came with "Key Lime Dressing" that tasted like Miracle Whip with some herbs, so I just left that on the side. I asked for a to-go box when my order arrived and immediately put half the chicken in it. THEN I gave everyone at the table a taste of the very good tortillia strips so I had only a few of them to eat. By the time I finished, I only ate about 500 calories, so even with the blueberries, I'd had fewer calories (and points) than I'd have had at home!

I had a diet Coke at lunch and my usual ton of water, and I was not really hungry by supper time. I had a V8 and whole grain bread with some reduced fat peanut butter. Before bed, I'll have some watermelon, and my calories for the day will be just under 1000.

So far, this has been almost too easy. I've been officially on my diet for a full week now. Not only have I not gone over my targets once, I've also not eaten any "bad" foods, and I've not really struggled. Maybe it's just finally my time to get this right

Today seems a bit different. For the past week, I've been struggeling to reach 1000 calories for the day; I just haven't been hungry. But today, it's 1 pm, and I'm at 814 calories:

--Raisin Bran with blueberries and 2% milk for breakfast.

--4 oz pork tenderloin, 3 roasted new potatoes and 1 C cabbage sauted in reduced-fat soy sauce for lunch.

I'm planning to have watermelon for supper tonight, and, if I can manage it, yogurt and tomato juice. That should put me closer to the calories I'm supposed to be eating.

I can't WAIT for Monday and weigh in at Weight Watchers!

Sounds like you are on track! Keep up the good work. Your positive attitude is contagious!

You seem to be doing great, don't worry about being hungry, everyone has days like that. Keep up the good work!!!

Thanks for the support, ya'll. It isn't so much that I'm hungry, really, as that I want to eat. My hubby is sitting here eating chocolate. *I* want to eat chocolate. But I'm not eating it until at least Monday evening after the next weigh in.

Even though I'm finally having a bit tougher day, I'm still pretty excited. My blood glucose is lower than it's been in years, and I just plain feel better already.

If 8 days make this much difference, how great am I going to feel in a month or six months?

I can't imagine why I didn't do this years ago.

I found Blue Bell mini ice cream sandwiches - 100 calories each - really satisfy my chocolate cravings (even during PMS) and as a bonus, they satisfy my ice cream cravings, too. And they don't blow my calorie count for the day!

I can stand to go without the chocolate if I know there is an ice cream sandwich that I love waiting for me in the freezer if I really have to have it!

(Bonks on the head for your hubby, though! )

Silver Sonnet, What you said is right on, you want to eat chocolate. I have actually had my wife say are you really hungry, I'm ashamed to say that I would say yes I'm hungry. Knowing I really wasn't. I wanted it!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOst likely it would have been ice cream or candy.


Chip

Hi Twinmom (my daughter uses that name; her twins are 4 now; how old are yours?). Those sandwiches sound GOOD. I'd be afraid to buy them, though. If they are in the house, I'm likely to eat them ALL!

Chip, yes, I've done that, too. And I've snuck food, eating it in secret so my husband didn't see. That's so silly, but I did it pretty often. That whole love/hate, desire/guilt thing, I suppose.

Funny thing is, I'm not a big sweet eater. My weakness is fried/greasy food: potato chips, popcorn with a stick of butter and Parmesan cheese, even toast and butter if nothing else was around. I don't miss that stuff now, but I CRAVE chocolate.

I'm even thinking about trying some chocolate yogurt, although I think it will have a hard time measuring up that the giant Hershey bar with almonds you posted about somewhere :P

"Supper" was vanilla yogurt with cinnamon stirred in. I'm still low on calories, but it's 10:30 pm, so I'm going to bed. I have company coming for a BBQ tomorrow, so I want to spend some time tonight planning a menu that won't cause me problems.

See ya'll tomorrow!

Im also doing ww and love it. Make sure you eat all your points though or you will stop loosing.

Silver Sonnet, I thought I was the only one that had popcorn with butter and Parmesan cheese. Also I'm a huge closet eater.

Chip

Yeah, Chip--it takes a pretty huge closet to hold me AND my bowl of popcorn

Rosered, I know eating less than I should, especially consistently, is not good, but this is the first time in forever I've been able to put food down and walk away from it or to simply not eat when I'm not hungry. I'm having problems deciding how to deal with this. Do I eat when I'm not hungry? Isn't that how I got in this condition in the first place? Or do I eat higher-claorie food when I DO eat? For me, that means adding butter or cheese or sour cream--and those foods don't exactly fit with my new eating style.

I'd really love some advice on how to deal with this issue since it seems to be ongoing.