i'm listening. how much are they worth to you?

I've been a size 32 waist forever. Five years ago, I was welcomed to 33 waist land and can't seem to get back to the 32 waist I long to be. Damn these Sicilian Portuguese hips!

I feel so left out . . . I've never met Heidi. Do I love her?

I'm currently on the "parking trams are for suckers" exercise plan. I think I may need to upgrade to the "park across the street from the Boardwalk and hike into EPCOT" plan.

I have not always been heavy and I hate it. I hate the way i look. I hate buying clothes now and I hate that my bra size is a 36DDD...*sigh*...when it used to be a 34D. All through JR high and high school I was 5'5" and 110 pounds. (and I thought I was fat.) Then I got a car and gained 15 pounds. I went into a huge depression and ended up loosing it the anerexic way. I had my child at 19 and of course gained 25 pounds. After having her I weighed 155 and felt horrible. It took me longer to loose that and a divirce...LOL...anyway. I got to 125 which was alright, but I wanted to be thinner. I then met my current BF who showed me how to cook and make things like mashed potatoes with real butter and heavy cream, alfredo sauce and lemon chicken fired in real butter amongst other things.....well, after 11 years on this type of food and fighting my weight constantly I'm now alot heavier. I'm getting serious about loosing weight now, but I tend to get anerexic when i diet...finding the balance is difficult for me. I have self confidence, but I still hate being this way....so I'm finally doing something about it...:)...withour diet pills, and fad diets....the hopefully healthy way...:)

And good on you all those who have shared their story - At the risk of sounding a little the Richard Simmons of the LoT, "You Can Do It !"

I think my biggest memory growing up especially in my early teens is my mom telling me that "when I was your age I was a size 4". I was never a size 4. In fact I passed size 4 and went straight to 8. My mother was basically critisizing me for being "big". Considering that my mom was 5'2 (I'm 5'5") and was once a size 4 up until her 30s it gave me a complex.

Now looking back I'd be happy to be a size 13 or a size 9. What's amazing to me is that I was a size 9 when I was a Jr in High School!!! I didn't crawl up to the 13 size until I was probably 19 or so. Since then I've crawled up to 18. There isn't an excuse for it and I'll admit laziness. I hate the great outdoors, I hate exercise, I hate lifting weights, I hate walking/running/swimming or any form of exersion but I'm trying to make the effort to do something about it. I'm 37 and I can do it.

Now if someone could just give me a dose of energy...

You crack me up. Yeah, I think I was your age when I got 'moving'. And, yes, my mother also always made comments about her size compared to mine and how I must take after my fathers side. :rolleyes:

But, the energy thing. It takes energy to make it. That is where I got started. I so much rather enjoyed sitting out in front of my friends house watching the traffic, chatting, enjoying her company. But we realized we'd sit for a couple of hours and get up TIRED. So, we started walking and talking. That was it. I don't think I'd have walked the 'hood alone, at first. Weird to walk around your neighborhood, ya know? We learned which houses had dogs, etc. I eventually was comfortable to walk alone, on the days she couldn't. From there I was getting energy and I gradually did more.

Good luck with it, even if you don't lose a lot of weight, the feeling of having energy will be great. Oh, and also, it helps relieve stress for me.

Well, no bones about it, I've been heavy from about age 8 to the present.
When I was doing Atkins, I was working out and saw some results (I believe more from the exercise than Atkins). I stopped Atkins because I did not feel good eating all the meat/cheese and other stuff. Promptly gained back weight.

I've been trying to do something about it but this year has been a total bust.
I joined Curves and promptly injured myself (I should have known better, everyone I know save 1 person joined Curves and injured themselves). to make the long story short, it took 6 months to heal from that injury. When I was in SF, I was rudely awakened to how desperately out of shape I am by the simple fact I was practically incapable of walking around the city I lived in for nearly 20 years. After 5 years here in a car and walking nowhere, I've put on more weight than I'd care to admit.

So I am starting back at the gym here at the office treadmilling and weights. Squeezing in regular mealtimes is a hassle and I need to get a control of that. I do not want to eat late at night since I do not get home until almost 8pm on average (the commute here is horrible, horrible, horrible). So anyway, I'm on an onward and upward trend, I hope. everyone else here is certainly an inspiration and a boon for me to encourage me on in times of Oh dear God don't make me go to the gym despair.

Donna