WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE?????????????????????

I am not rying to sound funny, unpleasant or anything like that, but I will not participate in this. I came to this board for support, not competition and I'm sorry if I offend any of you, but some lose slower than others and it might not make them feel the greatest to be in competition with eachother. ALot of people still might not feel the greatest about themselves yet anyway. I may get flamed for this but oh well. That is how I feel. Once again, sorry if I offend anyone by feeling this way but maybe some others might feel the same. Just my 2 cents worth. Gary

Hi there Gary, I completely understand where you are comming from. That actually ran through my mind as well. I think its just a group thing though...not really so much an individual thing. One pound is even good and adds to the groups running total against the April board for the month of June. (if I am understanding this correctly) Please dont feel bad about expressing yourself you have every right in the world to voice your opinion We are good people here and support each other no matter what. But I completely understand the feeling of being let down if I feel as though I didn't "contribute" enough numbers...I sorta turned that around to say... I am celebrating even ONE number if I can, and turning it into a group celebration! Kinda props for myself And of course others. For those that don't want to participate its completely understood I dont feel any differently about you either way Because no matter what we are alllll winners because this weight is going to come off regardless!!! and thats an award all in itself! woo hoo! Best Wishes! Elizabeth M

Hey Queen's Boy, RIGHT ON!! Way to go!!! You won't get flamed from me, I'm standing right beside you, so we can both be flamed together. I was going to reply to this the other day when my hubby told me to!! But I knew that I would get flamed. I told DH I would reply to that post by saying, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but my doctor does NOT want any his patients competing with anyone, INCLUDING OURSELVES, he said, 'do what I say, follow all the dietitians's directions and you will lose weight, and everyone loses at their on pace, why set yourself up for failure'. By competing with others, all we do is set ourself up for feeling bad about ourselves, which can lead some of us to say, what's the use, and turn to food once again for comfort. I have never posted my weight loss on this board, nor do I intend to and that is the reason why. Thanks Queen's Boy for having the courage to be the first one to say this. Betty

QB, THis is exactly what went thru my mind when I read the challenge. I'm with you, too. I am not in a race, I'm on a long, long journey with a party of one. Thanks for sharing your views. :hug:

I agree with all of you, In my opinion this is not a race to see who lost what when or how much , this will not make anyone feel good, except for the people who are ahead of the game, and In my Opinion were all in this boat together! As we all know some of us will lose faster than others and some slower, we are all different people with different cir****tances in our lives, I myself am happy with my weight lose so far, but I am a stay at home Mom and can work out like a maniac all I want my days are free, where as someone else might be stuck behind a desk all day and get no excersize, or someone might be home bound who cant get around, we are all different people and we all have diff.Lives/ cir****tances which made us have this operation, It's Not a race, that just crazy to even think so.... Lets all continue to wish eachother well and March ON! God Bless you all! Hugz Mary

Gary, I totally agree with you on this one. We are here to celebrate each and every one's sucesses and help eachother thru the hard times. There are those of us who started as light weights and were warned from the get go that we would be slower loosers than others who had more weight to loose. I am not in competition with anyone and gladly cheer on all my WLS peers 100%. As far as I'm concerned, we are in this together, not against one another!!!! It's not healthy for us to constantly be comparing our loss against one another. We all loose at different speeds and a competition of this sort could really discourage some (especially those who are loosing slowly, but steadily). We all know that there are esteem issues at stake here and I for one would not want to be responsible for crushing someones self esteem over a few extra pounds lost. You did not offend me and will find no flaming here. Whitney

Hiya QB - I thought the same thing at first, and if this were an individual challenge I would never participate. I have been a slow loser, but I really need something to motivate me to get off my butt and exercise. The challenge was from the Marcher's anonymously as a group to the April board as a group, and not person to person. I'm certainly not flaming you or anyone else who chooses to not participate because I certainly debated that myself. But for some of us, we need some sort of motivation beyond what we do for ourselves to give us a little extra umppfff. I think it was meant in fun and not to be hurtful to anyone. Just my humble opinion. Lissa

Thanks, Lissa. You caught the essence of my intentions! Joy

no flaming here - i couldn't agree with you more. well said. kym

No flaming from me QB! I agree that we do not need to compete against each other. My intent was to help us see the progress we are making by ADDING our losses together. There are not losers, just winners in this. Well, we all are losers. Or uh... (You know what I mean!) If it helps you, please participate. If it does not, please do what you need to do. For me, I am beginning to have cravings and it will help me to keep focus in a fun sort of way by doing this. Love you all Joy