similar position here chuck - ive just finished week 1

im male, 32, 6'2 and now 337 pounds after 2.5 pound loss the first week.
it will be a long and slow journey for us thats going to see a lot of
tough times but if we accept that it'll be easier for it.

one thing i think ive finally realised is this:-

"life is all about the journey, not what we'll feel like once we've
finally lost the weight"

if that means anything to you then you know where im coming from,
otherwise im just thinking out loud and just ignore me. i pretty much
got to the stage where i opt out of a lot of things just because of the
weight, im just now starting to put that right after several years. ;)

good luck

What's up Chuck?,

 Bet you've never heard that one before huh?  Hey man I'm 39, was 300, wore
a 48X30 sometimes 32.  Last August I decided to start losing my weight and
cut out the junk food, started walking, and used a stairclimber in my home.
Six months later I'm walking four miles a day five times a week and use a
stairclimber/elliptical machine for one hour a day and five times a week.
Anyway, I've lost 93 pounds so far and have another 32 pounds to go.

 Going to the gym sounds like a good thing for you to do, but $40 per month
sounds like a lot to me.  I joined Bally's Total Fitness for a year for $99
a year.  I guess it depends on where you live though.  Just wanted to let
you know you can do it if you really want to.

Good Luck,

Paul
300/207/175

Greetings Chuck:

You've taken several first steps on your journey to improved health.
Here are a few things that I've found have helped in my recent and
ongoing effort:

Get medical guidance. If you're taking meds and you get "out of breath
from doing simple tasks," your first objective is not cause yourself
harm.  Going on a fad diet, exercising improperly or too much or too
intensely can leave you worse than you are now. Ask your health care
provider what you can safely do, both with diet and exercise.

Count calories. Know how much you're eating. I'm not familiar with the
Palm software you mentioned, but use whatever you like – just use it
consistently. Make sure you record EVERYTHING you eat and drink.

Portion control. Besides obsessively recording my food intake on
fitday.com, the second biggest factor in my WOL has been smaller
portions. I started by cutting my "normal" portions in half.

Eliminate a few of your worst excesses. I stopped eating in fast-food
burger restaurants and gave up Dove ice cream bars.

Be patient. This is a life change. You will make mistakes. You will
need to make adjustments. You will find some days are more difficult
than others.

As always, YMMV.

Kasey
365/288/???

Hi Chuck :)

yeah, what they said!
I haven't much to add really, just to say hi and welcome and good
luck.  

For me, it works better to make change in many small stages, rather
than everything all at once.  So rather than completely changing what
I eat, I looked at how and what I was eating and looked for ways to
change that to make it healthier and lower in calories.  Not keeping
anything 'tempting' in the house works for me too.

Exercise-wise, try to find something you enjoy doing and/or can fit
easily into your routine.  Personally I prefer to do a mix of
different stuff.

Good luck
Clarrie x

I have a question. If someone kidnapped you, held a gun to your head
and demanded that you follow a relatively sensible diet, you would be
able to stick to it and not discontinue, under that threat, right?

If the answer is yes, then your present situation is not very
different. You won't live that long at 5'7" and 305 lbs. Think of it
as a gun held to your head.

Good luck and stick around.

i

You've already received some good advice so I'll just say welcome to the
group.  You'll find lots of info and support here.

I'm also a Curves member and like it.

Hope to see you posting often.

Beverly

Hark! I heard "Wharffrat" <cwebber@wharffrat.com> say:

<snip>

Greetings, Chuck, and welcome to the club. :-) I can only speak for
myself, but yo-yo weight loss seems to be a fairly common thing -- it's
happened to me more than once. The big difference this time is that I'm
truly committed to getting healthy! If you can make that commitment,
then you're on your way, regardless of your past efforts.

Right! I'm a couple of years older than you, but I can't wait to do
the activities that I've sat out on because of my weight. Kayaking
and river rafting come to mind first.

So, congratulations on making a really positive step in your life.
You'll find the people here to be supportive and friendly, but they'll
be the first to point out your mistakes too, something friends and
family have a hard time doing for us. Good luck, you're gonna do
great... :-)

Welcome to a.s.d Chuck!
Sounds like you're on the right track

Susan
260/199/140