I actually had a doctor tell me yesterday that I added 10 years to my life by losing 50 pounds.. He also said that medical research shows that when people reach 300 pounds there is very little hope for them and that I had proved them wrong!! Woo hoo!!

Is my weight loss obvious???

One thing I'm trying to do as of late is to think of changing my lifestyle; just overall, trying to be more active. One thing that has helped me is Fitlinxx. Have you heard of this??? It's a wonderful feature that my gym offers. I log onto individual weight and cardio machines and it keeps track of everything for me. I can also log in online at home and track my progress. One very cool feature is adding fitness done outside of the gym such as yardwork, hiking, etc. This is a great motivator! It sounds so silly, but it's just neat to see a record of all my workouts. It also gives you points for the length of time/amount of effort of each activity. You work your way up like you would if you were getting belts in karate! It's really a simple thing, but it really seems to help me. I burned 1500 calories one day just doing yard work! It's neat to think of something that would usually be a burden, like housework or yard work, as something fun that is actually helping me to lose weight!

Slow but steady wins the race.
Aesop

If you notice my ticker at the bottom of the page, I have lost 4 more pounds!! Woo hoo! I'm realizing all the more that the above quote is true. My whole life, any time I've ever tried to lose weight, I've been SO impatient. I wanted it all off today. This is the very first time that I'm just taking it slow and easy. Maybe in a few years I'll be to my goal. But I bet it will be so much easier to keep it off at that point.

Thanks to all of you who have left comments! I'm afraid I just came across them today. I've been out of blogland for a while. I'll try to do better about posting! Do you have weight-loss blogs? Give me the sites, if so!

Blessings!

Traci

I haven't written in a long, long time! I went through a period of not losing, not even trying actually. Then I got on the wagon again (which seems to be the story of my life; up and down, up and down). Honestly, my weight doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I value myself for who I am inside; for my gifts, and all I give to others. I realize the impact of the media on young girls, and I've learned to fight against the pressure.

However, I do know that being overweight is not healthy. I do want to have children and live a long life. I DO want to be more attractive for my new sweet husband. But the important thing is, I know my value comes from my core and not from my appearance.

I started losing again about 4 months ago. I must admit that I'm getting pharmaceutical assistance (with Phentermine). I know there are lots of varied opinions about the drug, or weight loss drugs in general, but it REALLY helps me. I've lost 30 pounds since 1 December. It's a slow loss, but this is a good thing I think. I wonder about the longrun; about how I'll do when I get the weight off. I know I need to learn to have a healthy relationship with food. I know I need to be more active (which I'm doing lots better at these days). But for the short term, I'm seeing the meds as a tool to help me advance a bit.

The secret is to keep on keeping on. Losing weight is SO hard. I've heard that keeping it off is even harder. My wish is that I'll just keep being persistant, even if I quit for a while; that I'll get up and try, once again.

I know there are so many on this journey. I wish you all luck!