I've set a goal for my 40th birthday (which is about 5 weeks away) to see a 1 in the first digit on my scale. I'm about 15lb's away and I'm working out everyday and eating somewhat better.

I've set a goal to read my Thrive newsletter each month and to respond to the polls.

Andy

Hi Andy -

So 3 lbs a week? Well, I may not be a dietician, doctor or nutritionist but I think you can do it.

Remember, losing weight is really a math game. Burn more calories than you consume and you lose weight. It's so simple how can that be a multi-billion dollar industry?

Simple doesn't mean easy. We've programmed ourselves for desserts, and lattes and late night snacks with negative nutritional values but high emotional contentment. It all feeds into (sorry for the pun) our short term vs long term happiness factor.

"I know in 5 weeks I want to weigh 199lbs, but I want to eat 6 oreos now."

Take a minute before eating the oreos and think about the real value in hitting your goal. You might just step away from the cookies and towards a happier you.

Good luck Andy! Let us know how you're doing and what we can do to help.

BTW - You can read the newsletter and reply to the polls every week! Wow, did your life already get 4X better or what?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jim Hill,

Andy, good for you for announcing your goal to the world (or at least those of us who THRIVE!). Just make sure you're being healthy about it. I'm all for controlled weight loss if it's appropriate for you, but you don't want to go too far.

That being said, do you have a plan of how to reward yourself for your progress along the way? A wise coach once told me that it's important to give yourself rewards for reaching goals, and I've found that it helps me a lot. (Thanks Matt!)

This is going to sound corny, but just feeling and looking better is part of my reward. I initially said a new Ipod, but there really doesn't need to be any reward to this..... that being said, I'm going to think about it a bit before saying no reward. I'll get back to you.

quote:

BTW - You can read the newsletter and reply to the polls every week! Wow, did your life already get 4X better or what?

Oh yeah, it comes out once a week. The sun is now shining brighter in my world.

Andy,

You've set a clear goal, you've documented your goal in writing, and you've shared your goal with those who want to help you succeed. That puts you ahead of 99.995% of the people on our beloved planet.

Please let us know about your successes and failures along the way (I'm certain there will be both.) We are here to help you succeed in any way we can.

For example, I think Jim's planning a healthy recipe for an upcoming newsletter. I don't want to give too much away, but I think it involves legumes.

(Okay, that may not be entirely true, but we're proud of you and we're here to help!)

Thanks so much for sharing!!

UPDATE: (1 Month and 3 days to go) Diets like life can be really weird. This was crazy week, concerts, grades, taxes, stress, cats and dogs sleeping together. Needless to say diet and exercise were on the bottom of my list of important things (right after watching 24).
It got so strange that after Jim mentioned not eating those dreaded OREO'S, Deb brought some out last night after dinner. She hadn't read the post and we haven't had OREO'S in our house for 2 years. Coincidence------I think not!

So enough rambling, after eating poorly overall, late night snacking, crappy food etc. my weight has changed. I was 216-7 last Saturday. This morning I jump (actually I stepped gently, my scale is fragile) on my scale and ................212.5. My body is probably responding to the exercise I've been doing the past couple of weeks, and my poor eating habits will catch up to me in a week or two (hopefully when I'm not wearing a lower sized pair of pants). I'll check in again next Saturday. It's great to have a place to chart attempts and success.

AJT

We all get hit with crazy weeks. the important Thing is to stay disciplined. It may seem impossible to get your exercise in. Maybe it's only 10 minutes that day, but it keeps you in the habit.

Good luck this week and stay focused!

After having a huge craving for DoubleStuff Oreos last night (we didn't have any, so I avoided that binge-fest), I realized I hadn't checked for a while. It's less than three weeks now, right? How's it going?

Vacations change the pace of everything, particularly ones where you're going to be in the car for 12+ hours in more than one stretch. That being said on the way down I did awesome (carrots and bananas all night until we hit a greasy spoon for breakfast). The week was not the best for eating. We were in North Carolina and I think southern cooking is latin for greasy and fatty. It truly is Fast Food Nation (an excellent book I'm reading right now) down there. But in truth where isn't it? Temptation got the best of me, and needless to say there was Hot Dogs, Cheeseburgers and some really fattening food, that I enjoyed immensely. But on the scale this morning I paid the price. Back to 215.
Realtically I don't think that 200 or under is going to happen in 3 weeks. I don't think losing 5lbs a week is very healthy. I okay with that, but I'm still going to work it and see how close I can get and then get there at a later date.

I know it's better to be honest in your goals than to get discouraged, so I'm not going to get discouraged. I'll get to my goal, but it will be a little later than planned.

AJT

Vacations can throw a monkey wrench in to the best laid plans. Glad to hear you're not giving up and getting discouraged. So let's focus on the positive.

You know that you need to be disciplined in your eating habits. You know you need to make exercise a daily habit. You have a goal.

These are the ingredients for success and reflects the message in the GGW newsletter from 4/26.

quote:

Change your mindset > Change your behavior > Change your results > Change your life.

In my opinion, your real goal is to manage your weight every day of your life. If you manage to hit 199lbs around your 40th, great, but more important is the lifelong practice that leads to better health.

You're realy doing great. Don't let the arbitrary deadline throw you off course.

How goes the goal? Maybe some extra walking at school this week?

Andy,

Congratulations on your success so far! Wanting to make the change is an excellent first step. Don't worry about falling off the wagon. We all do it once in a while. The key is to wake up the next day and say, "well, I'm not going to do THAT again!"

One thing I can offer from my own weight loss experience is to try to fit in some muscle-building. Nothing burns calories like more muscle on your body. strength training has been, for me, the real pounds-dropper.

Best of luck! Keep it up! (Or..down...well, you know )

Ok Andy, you haven't given us an update in a while. Even if it's not going well, isn't looking for support from other THRIVE!-ers part of the plan? So what are you up - or down - to with your goal?