Dear All
I am from the UK and I have joined this forum having already lost in excess of 75lbs since last July. Don't get me wrong I still have weight to lose, infact probably another 50lb but I wanted to let you all know my story.
In 1997 I lost 60lb in 5 months but over time put it all on and more. Yes another yo-yo dieter I'm afraid. I decided last year that I would diet again and did it for me and no one else. I have always believed that to be successful in weightloss you have to do it for your own reasons and not because your husband / friends / doctor says so.
I decided to cut out all chocolate, sweets and crisps along with following a healthy diet of around 1500 calories a day. I say around this as I was never obsessive about it and if I wanted to go out I would without feeling guilty. I do strongly believe in the 80/20 approach where if you are good 80% of the time you can enjoy yourself to the full the other 20%.
Once I had got the sweet cravings out of my system I immediately felt better and infact had to cut out sugar in my tea as I found it tasted horrible. It really is amazing how your body changes and adapts to a new lifestyle.
With regards to the actually weightloss and weighing myself I wasn't obsessive about this either. Infact I didn't / wouldn't weigh myself for the first 4 months (yes 4 months!). I knew I was losing weight as my clothes were getting looser so didn't feel the need to worry about the scales. When I lost the weight before I used to weigh myself every week and when some weeks I hadn't lost weight or infact put on weight I used to feel deflated so I decided this time to take a different approach. Of course everyone is different but this is what works best for me. Even now I'll only weigh myself once every 3 or 4 weeks as I still know that I am going the right way because of my clothes.
The one thing that I would change about how I have lost the weight is the speed at which I have done so. I would have tried and lost it far more slowly as in December last year I was admitted to hospital while on holiday in France with Gallstone induced Pancreatitis. By losing the weight as quickly as I did I had given myself Gallstones which explains the heart attack like pains I had experienced for two months previously and didn't do anything about them. Since getting back from France I have spent a further 8 days in hospital with Cholecystitis (inflammed gallbladder) caused by yet another stone this time blocking my common bile duct and have undergone surgery to widen the duct to hopefully prevent another blockage prior to having my gallbladder removed. I am on the waiting list and cannot wait to get rid of my gallbladder as it has caused me nothing but pain since my first attack. I am not telling you my story to scare any of you, just to warn you of the perils of losing weight too quickly and the possible complications that can arise.
I have to say that despite the health issues that I have at present I don't regret losing the weight (only the speed in which I did so) and will continue to plod on eating sensibly and for the first time ever I have started to go out cycling (something I couldn't have done a year ago!). It is all worth while and having gone from a size 24/26 to a size 16/18 I am living proof that you can lose weight of your own accord, you just really have to want to do it. All I can say is thank goodness for Ebay as the amount I would have had to have spent on clothes doesn't bear thinking about.
I want to wish you all well in your own individual journeys and I hope you have enjoyed reading mine.
Take care
Donna
Thanks for sharing your story... and I should have thought about Ebay! That's a great idea 
