Son's gone away to college, now it's time to focus on ME! I never really paid much attention to my weight, even though I knew I was overweight. Always too many other things to focus on. Now it's my turn. They say life begins at 40. Well, I'm 43, and I realize now that it doesn't come to me, I have to go and find it. Losing weight and getting healthy are just one of the many changes that I am making, but it's the most important. I believe the rest will come easy. Update 7/14/08: My target weight was 144 by 1/27/08. SP's suggested minimum target date was 3/31/08. My weight on 1/28 was 148, so I didn't quite make it, but was not upset at all. I had come much further than I ever expected to. My weigh in on 2/18 (143) gave me what I was hoping for. I have a large bone structure, and although was very skinny when younger, felt that the 145 range suited me. However, my body seemed to want to go back to that teenage physique, and continued to lose, even though I raised my calorie intake for maintenance. It took me to a worrisome 123 before levelling off in the 125-128 range. (That's why my ticker shows 125 as goal). I had been trying to no avail to put some back on, and was just resigning myself to being 125 , but this past couple of weeks had shown an increase of 10 lbs. It's what I wanted, but that was too fast. It seems I'm never satisfied, right? I don't mind this particular weight coming back on, but it's how it happened that's important here. I was most definitely not eating properly. I was still tracking, and not always going over the calories. I'm here to tell you it's not all about the calories, but what makes them up. Looking over my logs, I see there was a high fat content and very low nutrition. Yes, I wanted some weight back, but the object was to do it in a healthy way. I'm going to go into more detail in a blog, but I felt it was important to put this much on my main page as a warning to everyone. It is most definitely a lifestyle change. Good choices need to be made every single day, even after you've met your goal. At the rate I just put some back on by eating unhealthy in general, not just minding calories, I would be right back where I started in just 14 weeks. That's about half the time it took me to take it off in the first place. Some of you will work much harder at it to take it off, but you can be pretty certain, it will come back on much easier. Use the tools that are available to you here on SP. Track your food, and pay attention to more than just the calories. The content is important too. Allowing yourself small indulgences from time to time is one thing. Indulging completely up until you meet your calorie quota is not going to do it for you. In fact, it may even be better for you to go over a bit by indulging. At least that way, you'll have the healthy stuff in first. Anyway, we all have to find what works for us individually. I still want to put some more back on, but if it doesn't happen by doing things right, with the proper balance of nutrition in comparison to the proper amount of calories, at least I'll know that I'll be where I should be, and I'll be healthy.

Imagine carrying around 5 Thanksgiving turkeys with you everywhere you go, then imagine just dropping them. Due to illness, I lost significant weight that felt exactly like that. I've since put 2 turkeys back on, but this time, I'm going to carve them away a slice or two at a time.

My weight mostly comes from an addiction to soda. Thanks to SP's nutrition tracker, I realized that eliminating the soda from my calorie intake left me with only 600 calories or less of fuel per day. I'm using the nutrition tracker and the menu planning to help me balance my diet to a healthier lifestyle.

My name is Tracy, and I live in the far north suburbs of Chicago. I work in real estate investment and tend bar on the weekends.

I am a music fanatic and enjoy reading. My music tastes run through all genres and my taste in books tends toward fiction. Once I start reading a book, I will not read anything else until I finish it, no matter how long it takes or how bad it is.

Add a Link Tracy Fridge pickers wear bigger knickers. Opportunity only knocks occasionally, but temptation hammers away all the time.
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