Brag on

I just realized I deserve some credit, and really should brag about myself every now and then :p so here we go. When I was 14, I lost 66 lbs. I've always been fat, it's been a part of my identity. Even after losing all that weight, it didn't feel or look like I'd lost anything. People around me didn't really comment on it, and when I looked in the mirror I saw the same fat girl as I always had seen. This made me give up and let it slip. I gained everything slowly. In July this year, at the age of 18, I was back at the start - and didn't really care. Until I came across some photos of myself from the time when I weighed 66 lbs less. I couldn't believe how good I looked, and would give anything to look like that again. Now, after 2 months of healthy dieting and workouts 7-8 hours every week, I've lost 20 lbs. I'm not even near my goal, but it's a good start.

This time I WILL see the difference, not give up, but reach my goal weight and stay there. :)
 
krakefjes said:
I just realized I deserve some credit, and really should brag about myself every now and then :p so here we go. When I was 14, I lost 66 lbs. I've always been fat, it's been a part of my identity. Even after losing all that weight, it didn't feel or look like I'd lost anything. People around me didn't really comment on it, and when I looked in the mirror I saw the same fat girl as I always had seen. This made me give up and let it slip. I gained everything slowly. In July this year, at the age of 18, I was back at the start - and didn't really care. Until I came across some photos of myself from the time when I weighed 66 lbs less. I couldn't believe how good I looked, and would give anything to look like that again. Now, after 2 months of healthy dieting and workouts 7-8 hours every week, I've lost 20 lbs. I'm not even near my goal, but it's a good start.

This time I WILL see the difference, not give up, but reach my goal weight and stay there. :)
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Good for you. I have a daughter that is 13 and has been overweight for as long as we can all remember, I would love some insight as to how to help her get control of her binge eating, if you have advice to give. Our whole family has decided to lose weight and we all have but she, like you had stated, didn't seem to notice the difference even though I and other members of our family did. She got discouraged and just has seemed to have given up. She is also discouraged because we are all losing weight faster than she was. I'm unsure how to help her. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and again, good job and keep it up!
 
mommamel said:
Good for you. I have a daughter that is 13 and has been overweight for as long as we can all remember, I would love some insight as to how to help her get control of her binge eating, if you have advice to give. Our whole family has decided to lose weight and we all have but she, like you had stated, didn't seem to notice the difference even though I and other members of our family did. She got discouraged and just has seemed to have given up. She is also discouraged because we are all losing weight faster than she was. I'm unsure how to help her. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and again, good job and keep it up!
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Thanks! Some of this might sound a little obvious, but here are some of my tips:

What is really important, is to make it clear to her that she is not supposed to walk around hungry or feel that she needs to starve herself. Eat food that is high on nutrition, but low on calorie. If you can, make shopping kind of a "family activity" that you do once or more a week, planning meals ahead and where the goal is to choose healthy food and steer away from the bad food. I do this with my mom and dad once a week now, it is really good for me to have control over the food we buy. My dad loves fat cheeses. In the start I had to tell him: please hide it, because I like fat cheeses too. Now my willpower is so strong that I can avoid it, but in the start I think it's best to just cut it out completely. Make dinners with interesting salads, she'll end up loving vegetables in the end. I know that personally I hated salad before, because I thought it was only the green stuff.

Make eating an own activity; not something you do in front of the TV, and don't eat right out of the fridge. Take time to prepare meals, and really cherish the food. Make her look forward to your planned meals instead - they actually taste better when you can't have unlimited amounts, at any time you want.

Losing weight is something she has to want for herself. She needs to understand that results won't come for free, but results DO come if she puts in the effort. Also comfort her with the fact that after eating a certain way for a certain amount of time, her body will get used to it. It won't feel like it's a struggle every day. Some days it WILL slip, and she'll end up feeling bad for it - but tell her it's okay to let it slip sometimes. She'll get back on track again, no harm done.

Exercise speeds up weight loss, so if she has a favorite sport, encourage her to play it. If she hates working out, slow/moderate walks help too. I walked a lot with my mother in the start, when I was completely out of shape. It was an hour every day where I spent quality time with my mom; just the two of us, walking and talking. I didn't see it as exercise. The support from her was so important at that stage. She said: "I know you have tried many times, but this time I really believe in you. This time, you will make it."

Oh, and tell her that the reason why she can't see progress is because she sees herself everyday. Being her mother, you also see her often, so taking lots of photos can help. That is a mistake I did, I didn't take enough pictures. A fun thing to do is to take one picture straight on, one from the side, and one from behind. Let her stand in the same place in every picture, wearing tight fitting clothes. Let her keep a little photo journal if she wants to, make collages and be creative with it. And remember to encourage and compliment her when she is doing good, that is something I wished I got more of in that period. :)
 
krakefjes said:
Thanks! Some of this might sound a little obvious, but here are some of my tips:

What is really important, is to make it clear to her that she is not supposed to walk around hungry or feel that she needs to starve herself. Eat food that is high on nutrition, but low on calorie. If you can, make shopping kind of a "family activity" that you do once or more a week, planning meals ahead and where the goal is to choose healthy food and steer away from the bad food. I do this with my mom and dad once a week now, it is really good for me to have control over the food we buy. My dad loves fat cheeses. In the start I had to tell him: please hide it, because I like fat cheeses too. Now my willpower is so strong that I can avoid it, but in the start I think it's best to just cut it out completely. Make dinners with interesting salads, she'll end up loving vegetables in the end. I know that personally I hated salad before, because I thought it was only the green stuff.

Make eating an own activity; not something you do in front of the TV, and don't eat right out of the fridge. Take time to prepare meals, and really cherish the food. Make her look forward to your planned meals instead - they actually taste better when you can't have unlimited amounts, at any time you want.

Losing weight is something she has to want for herself. She needs to understand that results won't come for free, but results DO come if she puts in the effort. Also comfort her with the fact that after eating a certain way for a certain amount of time, her body will get used to it. It won't feel like it's a struggle every day. Some days it WILL slip, and she'll end up feeling bad for it - but tell her it's okay to let it slip sometimes. She'll get back on track again, no harm done.

Exercise speeds up weight loss, so if she has a favorite sport, encourage her to play it. If she hates working out, slow/moderate walks help too. I walked a lot with my mother in the start, when I was completely out of shape. It was an hour every day where I spent quality time with my mom; just the two of us, walking and talking. I didn't see it as exercise. The support from her was so important at that stage. She said: "I know you have tried many times, but this time I really believe in you. This time, you will make it."

Oh, and tell her that the reason why she can't see progress is because she sees herself everyday. Being her mother, you also see her often, so taking lots of photos can help. That is a mistake I did, I didn't take enough pictures. A fun thing to do is to take one picture straight on, one from the side, and one from behind. Let her stand in the same place in every picture, wearing tight fitting clothes. Let her keep a little photo journal if she wants to, make collages and be creative with it. And remember to encourage and compliment her when she is doing good, that is something I wished I got more of in that period. :)
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Thank you for the amazing advice. Some of the above things you mentioned we do do, I let her and her brother pick out 1 healthy meal a week and usually they help me make it.
I have also, I think, talked her into joining a beginners running group with me on Sat. mornings (if of course it doesn't infringe on her social calendar, hahaha she is 13 after all).
The photo thing is a GREAT idea. I wish we would have done that for all of us. The difference is amazing but only in my minds eye because no one wanted to get in front of the camera before.
I will do better at complimenting her and not just chastizing her when she eats more than I think she should. It is hard to walk a fine line between trying to make someone want to be healthy and them wanting it for themselves.
I, obviously don't know you but, am so proud. You sound like you have the right way of looking at health.
I would like to add you as a friend if that's OK. I'm sure I will need more advice in the future.
 
mommamel said:
Thank you for the amazing advice. Some of the above things you mentioned we do do, I let her and her brother pick out 1 healthy meal a week and usually they help me make it.
I have also, I think, talked her into joining a beginners running group with me on Sat. mornings (if of course it doesn't infringe on her social calendar, hahaha she is 13 after all).
The photo thing is a GREAT idea. I wish we would have done that for all of us. The difference is amazing but only in my minds eye because no one wanted to get in front of the camera before.
I will do better at complimenting her and not just chastizing her when she eats more than I think she should. It is hard to walk a fine line between trying to make someone want to be healthy and them wanting it for themselves.
I, obviously don't know you but, am so proud. You sound like you have the right way of looking at health.
I would like to add you as a friend if that's OK. I'm sure I will need more advice in the future.
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I'm glad I could be of help :) Just ask me any time, I'll try to answer as good as I can. I have a slight language barrier, english not being my mother tongue, but if there is any way I can help, I will. I know how it is to be that young and struggling with weight problems, so I really wish the best for your daughter. Focusing on the positives is absolutely important, negative criticism can hit a sore point and make you sad, and you may end up comfort eating because of it. The evil circle is hard to break out of. But fortunately, the good circle is too! If you can gain weight easily, you can lose it just as quickly. That was a new way of thinking that motivated me :D
 
I'm gonna brag about losing 20 pounds. I would love to brag about having a great new wardrobe too but I'll put that one out there to the Universe and keep my fingers crossed. :)
 
i am going to brag about staying under 140lbs for over 2 months now. :) i am not quite at my goal yet, but breaking the 140 barrier was always impossible for me, but i did it, and hopefully now its a barrier i won't be able to get above ;)
 
Hear, hear

In the month of January, I lost 6.7 kg, 6 cm from my waist and 2 cm from my hips!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say that I am very pleased with myself, :)
 
Hi everyone, first post here. First of all, congrats to everyone that put their health / well-being back on the priority list ! Just wanted to let you know some of your stories truly are inspiring ! I will also share mine in case it can help someone.

My name is Alex. I've been overweight for as long as I can remember. To give you an idea, I weighed 86 at 6 and peaked around 385 coming out of university at 23... Like most of us here, I lost significant weight a couple times only to put it all back even faster.

Many family members have always been overweight so it was easy to blame genetics. In September 2009, my situation was pretty bad and before giving up any hope of ever being fit and slim, I decided I would give weight loss my best shot. I made a promise to myself that nothing would stop me and I never looked back.

Started my journey at 367 with around 52% BF, resting heart rate was around 90. I weighed myself this morning at 235.6 with 15% BF and resting heart rate of 48. That's a loss of 131lbs. Pants size went from 60 down to 38, which are getting pretty loose too !

Of course, I've had a few setbacks but always kept my ultimate goal clearly in mind. I'm not quite there yet but I can tell you I'll be damn proud of myself the day I step on the scale and see 215.0 !

At 30, I can say I'm in the best shape of my life! I feel great, get involved in a lot of activities and am generally way more sociable. I now love going out, shopping for clothes and meeting new people. Best of all is the self confidence that you get out of meeting such a challenge, which brings me to my last point. I met an awesome girl a couple months ago and we are moving in together in a couple weeks ! Future looks bright and I'm happy !

Wishing the best to everyone on this journey !
 
I'm bragging that I remembered this brilliant club and brought it back into people's sphere of awareness...

Post here when you do something that is worth bragging about... It might inspire someone else.
 
I ate out on Saturday night...

Other people had things like starters and pizza... Alcohol was liberally consumed by others too...

I had no starter and a roast lamb shank meal with extra vegetables...
There was a lot of very lean meat so I asked to take the meat I left home and it made the protein for my lunch on Sunday.
I didn't have a dessert.
I just drank diet cola in the restaurant - and when our friends asked us back to their house later I had water...

I felt that I had made really good choices.

(The only bad thing I did all night was that I did have some of the shared bread)
 
My weight today 14st 13.25 pounds i.e. 209.25 pounds

I'm actually pretty pleased at being under 15 stone and therefore under 210 for the first time in this project.

Its always fun to hit milestones. :party::party::party:
 
"Its always fun to hit milestones."

Indeed it is! I work from milestone to milestone, so I know just how you feel, or rather felt, when you posted those words!
 
I'm bragging that I can repeat my post from 3 years ago (2017) and my post from 7 years ago (2013) above
Omega said:
I'm bragging that I remembered this brilliant club and brought it back into people's sphere of awareness...

Post here when you do something that is worth bragging about... It might inspire someone else.
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Omega said:
I'm bragging that I can repeat my posting from 4 years ago
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I'm bragging already that I am making tonight's meal which is curry - and instead of serving with rice I have put a load of extra vegetables in so the plate will be full of healthier stuff.
 
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