Ok, this is the LAST time I will start a diet. It is the last time because I actually and honestly think that it is going to work now. So far I have lost 25lbs, the most I have ever lost.
So first let me tell you about myself. I am 19 years old and a full time student in Texas. I have been overweight since I was about 12, and my weight just kept skyrocketing after that. I came to college weighing about 240lbs, after 1 1/2 years, I was up to 280. I was fed up. On January 11, I became a vegetarian. I had tried vegetarianism before, not for weight loss, but for ethical reasons, but I had never stuck with it for more than a couple of weeks. I have now been a vegetarian for 6 weeks, and I have actually lost my desire for most meat. I did not start being a vegetarian this time around because I wanted to lose weight, however, a few days after I declared my vegetarianism, I realized that this was my chance to make another life change. For the first few weeks, I was not as strict with my eating. I ate pretty healthily, but I ate a lot of things with hidden calories (whole wheat pasta with olive oil). But I have become more strict and have managed to lose 25lbs in these 6 weeks. I dont count calories, but I keep it in the back of my mind. I bought the book "Eat to Live" which has helped me tremendously. Simply by learning and reading more about nutrition, it has made it easier for me to resist things.
I have a few reasons why this is now so important to me. I am studying abroad next semester in Scotland. I want to go there and be able to really experience adventure. I want to get on the plane and not feel horrible the whole way for the person who was forced to sit next to me. I want to not be incredibly self conscious for once in my life. I could go on forever listing the reasons why I want to lose weight SOOOO badly.
I am new to this site, so I have not had the chance to look around that much. My favorite section so far is the before and after pictures. I am so looking forward to finding out what my face really looks like. I have not seen any other posts on here from people who are vegetarians, but I would be willing to talk to anyone about it. I think it has actually made "dieting" easier for me.
Thanks for reading!

I realized I forgot to post my goals. I know that they are some pretty big goals and some would say that they are not possible while still remaining healthy, however, I would have to disagree. My goal to reach before I go home for the summer is to reach 210lbs. That is 45lbs in the next 11 weeks, which comes out to about 4lbs per week. I dont think that is impossible for someone like me who is young and who has so much weight to lose. It will come off quickly. I weigh myself every wednesday and from last wednesday to this past wednesday I lost 9lbs. I wasnt even exercising then because I had way too much schoolwork to keep up with. Anyways, I think I could lose more than those 45lbs before then, and I am going to try, but that is my official goal. My main priority is to lose weight before I go to Scotland. I will leave for Scotland around August 28th. So the time between when I go home for the summer and the day I leave for Scotland is about 15 weeks. I want to weigh between 160-170 by then. This makes the amount I want to lose between the beginning of summer and my trip to Scotland 50-60lbs. This comes out to 3-3.5lbs a week. Again I think this is possible.
Well, those are my goals, let me know what you think!

You should be able to do it easily enough.
Just stick to your diet, exercise intensly 1 hr 5-6 days a week (make sure you have a day off) and presto!

Hey something new!

I am so excited about your upcoming experience in Scotland! Believe me,it will definately change your life. I am a foreign exchange student myself and it has changed me in so many ways. You broaden your horizons and learn so much about the world, but even more about yourself.

Keep us posted about your successes,ok?
I am here if you need me.

Take care.

Thanks Freshstart, where are you from and where are you studying?

I am from Europe and I am studying in L.A.

That's awesome Freshstart. I cant wait to explore Europe, I already have like 8 cities that I want to visit over weekends when I am there.

Yesterday went kinda well with the eating I didnt eat as much nutrient rich food as I try to usually, I ate more processed/bagged healthy food. I'm actually nervous that I didnt get enough calories in. I woke up late (Saturday) so I didnt eat breakfast. Then for lunch I had a big salad with lite ranch dressing. For a snack at around 3 I had a 100 calorie pack of cookies. Then I got home and ended up staying on the phone with a friend for 13 HOURS!! lol I have never done this, but needless to say, I missed dinner. But, weirdly enough i wasnt hungry. I made myself eat a banana and a Kashi cookie (they are really amazing for how much nutrients they have). But that was about it. I'm guessing I didnt break 1000 calories yesterday which i know is bad, but it kinda excited me that I didnt get hungry at night. I think it has to do with the kinds of foods that I am eating.

I am having trouble getting back into exercising. I go in and out of it. For the last 2 weeks I havent done it. The first week I didnt do it because I am having this weird thing with my head where I can look somewhere and then glance somewhere else and my head does this little pulsing thing and it makes my eyesight jerky. At night it gets so bad that it just feels like my head is constantly pulsing, not in a painful way, but in a weird way thats really hard to describe. Sometimes the pulsing is in different parts of my head and sometimes I can feel it in my shoulders. This has been going on for a couple of months, but 2 weeks ago I skipped exercising because this pulsing would end up making me dizzy and weak as the day went on. I went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with Ocular Migraines and gave me some samples of medicine. The medicine seemed to work, but it still comes every day and the medicine only stops it for a few hours. But it hasnt been as bad as it was that one week. I have an appointment with a neurologist, but not for another 4 weeks, but hopefully I can figure out what this thing is once and for all. So that was my excuse for not exercising that first week. Last week I didnt exercise just because I had SO MUCH due in school. I know I could have made time if I had wanted to, but I didnt. But today is a new day and the beginning of a new week, so hopefully I can get back on track with exercising. I weighed myself this morning and it looks like I have lost 5lbs since Wednesday, I am not sure if that is accurate, but if it is that would be pretty awesome! lol

diet is 90% of the problem usually. Dont stress about the exercise - ive taken time off for various reasons - including lazyness - several times and it doesnt affect the loss overly much if the diet is in control.
If you stress it tends to become a huge mountain thats impossible to get over and makes you loath to start again. If you dont stress you can just slip stuff in like a short walk or something.

Yesterday went ok. On Sundays I have been letting myself cheat a little bit, but usually only for one meal. So yesterday I woke up at like 2P.M. so I just snacked on fruit and had 2 kashi cookies. On Sundays my school cafeteria is closed for dinner, but we have this "pub" where we can get stuff that you would find at a fast food restaurant. I just decided to go there for dinner rather than get out to my car and drive somewhere (and spend more money). So at the "pub" I just got a grilled cheese and french fries (still vegetarian lol). They usually overload on the fries, but I think they gave me a decent portion yesterday, so I didnt feel quite as bad because I wasnt taking is AS MUCH calories as I thought I probably would.

Today I plan on starting up my exercising again. Before I had my issues where I stopped exercising I was doing an hour of cardio (recumbent bike and elliptical) and about 15-20minutes of resistance training with weight machines. So hopefully I can still do all that without killing myself.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get more water in your diet? I realized yesterday that I probably am not getting enough. I am addicted to Diet Coke so I let myself have one of those (those little mini bottles) in the morning as my caffeine fix. Sometimes I am bad and have more than 1 in a day, but I usually am able to restrict myself pretty well. But other than that I drink about 2 bottles of water a day.

Hi,
Just wanted to make a mid-day post...mostly because I am bored lol. I have really focused on the water drinking so far today, I have only had 2 bottles (20oz each), but I am going to try to have 2 more before I go to sleep. Breakfast was a Zone meal bar, i know they arent the healthiest, or tastiest, but it works for getting something in me before classes that will last me for 3 1/2 hours until lunch. For lunch I had a salad, canteloupe, and an apple. For a snack I had an orange and a 100 calorie pack of Cheetos (they have 100 calorie packs of everything now). So overall I have been doing fine today.

Oh! I almost forgot, my good friend who I havent seen in a couple weeks (she is pledging a sorority) came up to me and said she could see that I looked thinner, especially in the waist area. This was really good to hear. I dont know if I have ever gotten to the point of having lost enough weight that someone noticed before, except when I got my tonsils out and somehow lost 15lbs by eating ice cream lol. But yeah, it was really nice to hear and definitely gave me more motivation.

I am worried about how the weight is going to come off me though. I have always had a very hour glass-esque shape. My waist is high and it is very defined, even at 280lbs. But my friend said she noticed it in my waist! lol. I am hoping that I dont lose more weight in my upper body than my lower body, cause my lower body is what I dislike more. Oh well, I guess only time will tell really and hopefully things will even out eventually. I am going to post some pictures soon.

I can't wait for you to come to Europe! It will so be amazing.

My tips of cities to visit:

Wienna,Paris,Belgrade,Amsterdam,London,Rome

I have more,but I can't think of it right now.

wow good on you for having people notice right away!
took 100lb loss for people to notice mine lol

Thanks for the tips FreshStart. I know that I am going to visit Rome, London, and Amsterdam, but I will definitely look into those other cities you mentioned.

I ate dinner just now. I had green beans, black beans, and granola with yogurt. Its so amazing that I am not as tempted by foods as I used to be. I ate dinner with people who were having macaroni and cheese (my favorite) chicken patty sandwiches, and cake, and I was actually not staring at their food the whole time!

Tonight I am going to the track with a friend and I am going to attempt running. I will probably just do a couple of laps with running the straights and walking the curves and then try to do a few more laps just walking. I would love to someday be able to run just for fun. Running "runs" lol in my family, my grandpa (77 years old) still runs half marathons. My mom used to be a runner, as well as my aunt and uncle. I think my sport of choice is swimming, which I get from my dads side, but right now I wouldnt even think of getting in a bathing suit. Maybe once I get down to like 200lbs I will try it. I LOVE to swim. I used to be on a year round swim team. I can swim for a long time, so I think if I can get to a decent size, that will become my exercise of choice.

heh -im still waiting for people to notice...

Wow, I just got back from the track and I am pretty proud of myself. I am pretty sure I did 15 laps, mostly walking. I didnt want to run cause last time I tried a few months ago I ended up hurting my knee and quit walking/running altogether. So I just ran a straight twice and half a lap once. I was really pretty surprised that I could run half a lap and not absolutely die. When I tried getting into running a few months ago it took me a week of running the straight before I could get up to running half a lap. Im hoping within a week and a half or so I can run a whole lap, but I will stick with mostly walking cause I think I hurt my knees cause there is so much weight on them. Once I lose more, I will run more.

I weigh myself every wednesday, but I am nervous about this week. I have been eating great, but I am just scared that the numbers wont be as astounding as last weeks (9lbs lost) and I will feel discouraged. I am sure it will be around 4lbs, but I am just so ready to get rid of this flab that 4lbs just doesnt seem like enough to me. Ugh, I am so impatient lol.