I made it ,5 pounds lost during 1 month. Awesome!
Award to myself:

Just revisiting and taking it TTT. If it's something I need to reread, it may be something someone else needs to read too

For the longest time I kept telling myself I wasn't fat, even though the sizes on the clothing tags kept going up. Sure I knew I was packing on a few pounds but I quit smoking and Hey, I felt entitled (stupid I know). It didn't really hit me just HOW fat I was until I picked up some photos that I got developed at Walgreens. I was quickly sifting through them and found one I didn't recognize (being that I am the camera person). At first glance I was like who is this fat woman sitting at my table...after looking closer at the picture, to my horror, it was me!!! What a reality check.

I quit smoking nearly 7 years ago - when I weighed 139 pounds. I now weight around 180 (don't weigh in until friday) and while slipping back into my lazy rut for awhile, I have been back at the exercising for a week now (why is the longest I've done it consecutively in YEARS). So over the course of the past 6.5 years I've packed on over 40 pounds...disgusting! I never had excuses because I lived in denial that I was fat.

Great thread!

Thank you for bumping this thread. I needed to read it. I have made every excuse in the book but now that I have actually started losing I realize I was just lying to myself.

I need to read this thread and see how many I have used. I think I'll start a sister thread for reasons to lose.

Sounds like a great idea Mary.

It's that time of year again. I had to dig this up and read it as a wakeup call.

For those that don't know, the "harshness", the stern talking and the name calling was directed towards myself. I didn't want to sugarcoat it... because I would have wanted to eat it. If this rings true for you and hits home, or strikes a nerve... good. As long as it can push you to make a change in the right direction.

I have since went back to my excuses. I got comfortable and guess what? I got fat again. When I bend over to tie my shoes, my gut gets in the way and I lose my breath. All of this is my doing, or undoing, depending on how you look at it.

I have a slew of excuses I could come up with:
1) I've had a back injury (boo whoo whoo, my back feels fine now, that's no excuse anymore)
2) I broke a toe (no excuse, while my foot isn't 100% and may never be, it's good enough to put some miles behind these shoes)
3) Stress (Building a house can be stressful but I can't eat my way to completion of the house)

So if you are new here, or never read this, give it a whirl. Good, bad or ugly, it is what it is. I hope this will touch at least one more person to make it through this journey!

Great post, Mike. Just what I needed.

Over the years, I have used many excuses as to my shape and size but the truth is I am fat.

I always say that I am short and round but it is also just an excuse. The fact is that while I will always be short, I don't have to be round.

Thanks for the wake up call. No more excuses!

Amen Brother!

Time for me to start again!

"Tough Love" doesn't work for me
 

I tried that. Talking to myself like an army sergeant would work in the short term, sometimes, but it never lasted. And in the end, when the backslide came, it just made me feel like more of a loser (and not in a good way! :) ).

I've read a lot about coaching and, as counterintuitive as it may sound, positive reinforcement gets far better results than either negative reinforcement or even just pointing out where an athlete is going wrong. I know - it surprises me too, but then, we humans are complex.

Don't get me wrong: I don't kid myself or make excuses but I also talk to myself in a kind, supportive way now. For example, instead of saying, "Oh, you've had such a bad day; I understand why you want that chocolate; go for it" OR "Get your head in the game, goofus! Put down that chocolate!" I will say, "I think you're feeling is tired and stressed, not hungry. How about a bath? No? how about a cup of tea and phone a friend?" .... and so on.

If I overindulge, I don't beat myself up, not because I'm so delicate that I can't take it but because it is utterly counterproductive - it actually wastes energy. I ask, "What can I do now to move in the right direction?" I heard this the other day, which just seems genius to me: Losing weight, like so much of life, is a journey. If you get a flat tire on a road trip, you don't get out and slash the rest of the tires. You get the flat fixed and keep going.

This seems to be working a lot better for me but I know that becoming healthier is a dynamic situation. You never "get there." While I can have markers along the way, I am never going to reach a finish line, where I can say, "There! I've done it and now I can relax (or gloat!)." It's an ongoing process, day after day, year after year.

I think THE most challenging thing for the vast majority of people is to overcome inertia, to transition from doing nothing to doing something. What has worked for me is to find a couple of positive things, TINY LITTLE positive things, small enough that no matter how bad the day is, I can still do those things. And just keep on doing them. It seems useless at first but it's not: it builds self-confidence and restores faith in oneself. It gives me evidence that change is possible. And of course, when I do those tiny little things, 80 percent of the time, I do more than I set out to. But on the days when I can only do those tiny things, I've still succeeded.

Best wishes to all in your journeys.