By Beth Donovan aka ~Indygirl

It has been a long journey from 460 pounds to 316 (check out my before-and-after pictures above), but one that's well worth it. It has taken me since January 2005 to lose that much weight. I was a member of SparkPeople.com under a different user name when I started. When I got super serious, I became ~Indygirl.

When I first started my journey, I felt truly hopeless. I had tried everything before. I had tried five diet clinics (a few of those more than once), gym memberships, prescription diet pills, books, tapes, videos, supplements, and fad diets. Nothing ever lasted, and I always gained back more weight than I lost. I was convinced that my metabolism was broken and that the only way to lose weight was to torture myself and starve through yet another diet. Reasoning, however, told me that it was only a matter of time before that diet would fail and I would be fatter than I was before.

There is a heartbreak that comes with gaining weight back. It is hard to suffer it alone, but the world, your family and friends also watch you do it. That was an unbearable pain for me. Every time I would fail, I not only failed myself and suffered my own admonishment and disappointment, but I also suffered the looks and comments of those around me. The wondered “Why did I do that to myself? Why would I regain the weight?” Well, it wasn’t as if I set out to do it, it slowly happened because I couldn’t keep up with the diet.

I’ve now successfully kept 100 pounds off for two years and have even lost more. How, though? I was never the one to lose weight like that; I was the friend or the person who heard about the person who lost the weight. I credit SparkPeople for teaching me how to make true lifestyle changes, rather than how to go on a diet. I knew how to diet. Lifestyle change takes time and patience and is a very emotional journey, one that is never really over. As one of my blogs said, “Fitness is a journey, not a destination.” That mindset made me realize that I needed something that was so individualized that I could live with it for my whole life. There could not be a “wagon” to fall off of, so to speak.

I don’t set typical goals. My goal this year is the same as always, to do better.

That leaves open so much more possibility than setting just a number on a scale. Another standard goal is a higher fitness level. I’ve come from being bedridden to a wheelchair, a walker and now a cane due to all of my disabilities. I want to spend more time using the cane and walking more. I do start with a minimum goal, however. My minimum goals are 30 pounds a year lost and 10 minutes a day of exercise. That is what I consider my springboard to launch myself higher. I like having the challenge of outdoing myself and breaking my personal bests. Open-ended goals leave me room to run free and exceed what I even might have thought possible.

If you are having trouble with “diet and exercise,” my advice would be to set minimum goals for yourself that are EASY to maintain. Those are your go to goals on stressful or busy days, or even days when “You just don’t feel like it.” Next, toss out the concept of a diet. Diets are things to go on and off of, not something that sustains you. Start thinking of things you can do in your life that will permanently fix the problem.

• Could you eat on smaller plates most of the time?
  
• Could you usually order small?
  
• Would switching to less processed or whole foods suit your palate?

You have to make an individualized plan that suits your needs and likes. Planning around someone else’s likes or goals may not work for you because we are all so unique. That’s why so many "one size fits all diets" fail us. This truly is a journey of self discovery.

My career goal this year is to keep working. If you read another of my blogs, you know that I went from disability to part-time work. It is challenging and exhausting but very rewarding at the same time. It is wonderful to feel like part of the world again after a long medical hiatus.

This year, I have an exciting event planned. I’m involved in planning a Spark Rally in the Cincinnati area on May 2, 2011. It is keeping me very motivated. We have a great team of people working on this project, and you are welcome to join our team or come to the rally. The nice thing about being involved in planning or attending local rallies is that you get to meet other members and exchange ideas and motivate one another. Find more info here.

Another goal for the year is to write more blogs and articles that I hope will relate to people in a significant and helpful way. Many of you have written me and told me that my words have really touched you, and I am grateful for that. When I write, I try to do so from the heart. I hope this year that my blogs will be better and my writing much stronger. I enjoy being creative.

Evolving is what 2011 is going to be about for me. I want to do some self discovery and find what truly makes me happy. I want to connect with people, find creative outlets, let go of inhibitions, reach a higher fitness level and get further toward my goal weight than ever before. This year I think I will explore organic and whole foods a little more than I have before and take a plunge into a few fitness endeavors that I might have thought impossible in the past. That tree pose in yoga that I thought I couldn’t do last year, well 2010 was the year I did it. Now it’s on!

What did you do last year that you never thought possible? What will you do this year to top it?