Someone ought to carve this paragraph in granite and hang it on the
"door" to this newsgroup as a constant reminder that first and
foremost to a healthier life is accepting personal responsibility for
one's actions (or lack thereof).
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960222.html
Lift well, Eat less, Walk fast, Live long.

And I'm *particularly* glad that you don't seem mad at me for my gross
mischaracterization!  :-)

I'm so sorry, I never even considered what your weight might actually
be, nor did I consider that anyone would care if I exagerated the
situation.  I've never ever looked at you and thought, "hmmm, she must
weigh X!"  I just don't think in terms of numbers.  My original
characterization was by way of saying which general category you fell
into.  We've got a number of very large people here, but we've also got
a number of people who really want to trim down from 145 to 120.

In fact, one of the lessons I teach here is the value of ignoring WEIGHT
and concentrating on losing FAT.  I care a whole lot more about body fat
percentages than anything else.  I'm at 176 pounds today and getting
pretty close to goal, yet most woman would consider 170 an awful goal
weight.  But I'm strong, have strong bones and I don't want to lose
weight just to lose weight, I want to lose fat.

I don't know if you were offended by the term "obese", but we use it in
a clinical sense here.  There isn't any perjorative sense, because we're
all here just dealing with the hand we're dealt from where we stand.
It's one of the things that is really refreshing about this group.  We
help the people who want to be helped and leave the other ones alone.

And that's the next point I'll make: a few of us know each other in real
life and I don't know exactly how they do it, but I'm not the Diet
Police and I won't be judging your progess or shaking a naughty finger
at you at fellowship hour or peering in your cart at the grocery store.
 (Okay, I might peer in the cart, it's a peeping tom problem of mine.)
 :-)

I'm not here to judge (and I hope you won't be judging ME, either) but
here for community and education and support and affection.  No one can
make you choose to do this and we absolutely know it won't be easy, so
no one will blame you if you decide the pitfalls outweigh the benefits.
 That's your personal choice to make.  And my experience is that I have
to choose not to be fat EVERY DAY.  Over and over again.

This morning I had my neighbor and her two kids interacting with my
three kids and we had car problems and... finally I threw up my hands in
disgust and announced that my workout was NOT going to revolve around 7
people's schedules and I was just going to WALK to the Y and leave all
the kids home alone.  Which I then did.  And no one died.  :-)  But the
point is that I had to choose to work out today and it was just as
difficult a choice as it ever gets.  No one would have blamed me if I
stayed home.

We're all on different diets, we all do different exercises, but the
recurring theme is our methods all boil down to the same four steps:

1. Eat less
2. Exercise more
3. Repeat
4. Forever.

Each step has it's own issues and struggles and that's where this group
comes in.  I'm on steps three and four, but it took me 3 whole months to
make exercise normal in my life and another three months after that to
really start eating less.  Six months just to learn how to do this.
During the first three months I lost 5 pounds.  During the second three
months I lost 15 pounds.  It all seems so pointless when you look at
that pace.  But over the two years since I decided to do this I've lost
nearly 70 pounds.  Step by step, and along the way I figured out how to
live so that I maintain this loss.

So welcome to the journey, and once again, I apologize for what must
have been a disturbing intro to this group!

My name, here, by the way, is an old nickname of my actual first name,
Wendalyn.

I recommend you get a name that isn't as easy to link to you via google
just for anonymity and an account to use a spamtrap.  You'll also want
to use a different newsfeed than google.  The google newsfeed is so
horribly slow - the rest of us see posts almost immediately after we
post them and get responses in real time if someone else happens to be on.

Find another email account at www.mail.com (there are lots of other
places, but that's where I got my free account) and after you've got a
valid address you can sign up for free usenet newsfeed from
http://news.individual.net/ and link it to the news part of whichever
way you get your email (Outlook?) or download a free usenet news reader
from somewhere and we'll have you all set up in a jiffy!

Phew!  Was that information overload or what?  Luckily, you can always
google to recall what was in this thread.  :-)

I'm so glad you came here!

Dally
244/175.5/169

I feel for our new original poster! What you wrote exactly contradicts what I
wrote. I wrote that I prefer to have reasonable, rather short-term weight
goals.

How I find it works best *for me* is that I set reasonable weight goals and put
my goalposts out a ways so that they are always achievable. For example, right
now I want to weigh a set amount by the end of August . It's a fairly small
drop in weight (I'm hoping for at least 5 to 7 pounds), but it's been a
struggle for me, so I figure that gives me enough to time to do it without
stressing myself unnaturally. Having a number to aim at motivates me, and
having it be a *reasonable number* keeps me from getting too frustrated. And
when I hit my goal well in time, it gives me a sense of satisfaction.

Earlier, when I had more weight to lose, I would reach that goal and then set
another moderate, lower one. And move on to achieving that one.

So, everyone is different. The OP will be getting tons of ideas here, to sort
through and see what works best for her.

beeswing

iThanks, Heywood and everyone else who welcomed me.  I agree about the
al,omds, in fact my Dr. told me that they are one of he best snacks I
could have.  Right now I am allowed 33 points a day with WW, so can
fight the count in rather easily.  As my weight and point allowance
lower, I will try to adjust my attitude so I can still allow for these
healthy fates.
Carolyn

Piggy backing on a post - You seem to have snuck in there somewhere.
Welcome, pull up a chair and a tall glass of water.  :-)
Teri

Ignoramus wrote:

I agree with Igor.  If she's still interested after that long, it'll
probably be ok.  Otherwise she can just slink off and nobody will know.

I think I lurked for at least 2 or 3 months - and I was already on
maintenance!

One dark day on Usenet, Ignoramus14410 <ignoramus14410@NOSPAM.14410.invalid> said:

I usually lurk for a week or so, depending on the group; but time
limits aside, lurking is definitely the best start...