Thats Awesome! I really like that idea of the short road trip, great way to look at it!  Thanks for sharing! 

 Thank you! I appreciate it! 

 Thank you my friend, I appreciate you more than you know! 

Hello and welcome! It is possible for you. I have done it. I live it now. It is more than just about weight loss and food. You need to really search yourself and find out why you are heavy. I know that there is a genetic factor as well as others. But, to lose the weight and keep it off. you need to be different. You need to love yourself and feel you are worth it. You need to change the way you live, and the way you think. You are strong. We all are. Below is what I recently is posted to another new member about my story and how I changed my life. I hope it helps. Please feel free to friend me if you want to chat or need encouragement. I know you can do this. You can be different! God bless you.
Sandi

Hello There and Welcome,
I can relate to a lot of what you posted. It breaks my heart because I know how much it hurts and how much you want things to be different. I had tried every diet known to man and had lost and gained hundreds of pounds in my lifetime. I even became a vegan and exercise freak and lost 100lbs in 8months when I was in my 20's. I of course gained it all back because I couldn't live that lifestyle, it was killing me. I eventually became anorexic and was ordered by my dr to put on weight or she would hospitalize me. I put on weight alright, at my known heaviest ( I stopped weighing myself eventually) I was 273. I was in bad shape. Two days after Christmas 2007, my morbidly obese father suddenly died. At the end of his life, he was so heavy he couldn't do anything for himself. I could see myself heading in the same direction and it scared me. I didn't want my sons to have to be doing everything for me the way we had to for my dad. I wanted a different life. After gaining 20 more pounds. I decided to change. Diets had never worked. I prayed and asked God to help me be different. I made a commitment to myself to make better food choices, watch portion control and move more. I took it at first hour by hour then day by day. Each decision at a time. If I screwed up, I wouldn't beat myself up about it. I would just make a better decision next time. The big difference this time was just that. I decided not to pressure myself, not to beat myself up and to take it slow. It is not a race. I had bought a Wii for my sons for Christmas and also the Wii Fit. I decided to play on that for 15 mins a day for exercise. It was fun. When 15 mins became too easy, I upped my time to 20 and so on. Eventually I was doing 1 hour of cardio 5 days a week. I lost over 124lbs in a little over a year. I have struggled with self-hatred and lack of self-worth most of my life. Losing the weight didn't make that go away, in fact, it brought it all to the surface. When I had lost around 90lbs, I had a nervous breakdown of sorts. I no longer had the fat or the overeating to hide behind. I always knew I was obese because of emotional pain, not because I loved food. I just didn't know how to stop the pain.  I am a woman of faith, I don't know if you are. I'm not trying to preach to you or convert you to anything, I am just telling you my story. I wanted a different life. I knew somewhere inside I wasn't this sad, defeated person who hated herself. I knew this wasn't who God had made me to be. I asked for God to reveal who I really was. I needed to really see myself through His eyes not my own, not through the way this world views me. Over a few really tough months He did just that. He showed me TRUTH. I am not what people have told me I am. I am not a body image or a label. I am who God says I am. That is the truth. It has set me free. I am a different person inside and out. I no longer have a screwed up relationship with food. I used to hate it. Now it is a blessing that is used to fuel my body. It is possible to live a different life. If it is possible for me and others, it is possible for you. I want to encourage you to want more for yourself. You are worth it. This is not who God made you to be. He wants a different life for you too. My biggest advice to you is to take it slow. Little steps, little changes, without putting too much pressure on yourself. If you mess up, no big deal, move on. This is NOT a race. You are changing your life.You have to find a lifestyle you can live with for the rest of your life. It takes time. I believe that most people, if not all, are not obese just becasue they love food. Pain is the real culprit. If we can find the source of that pain and deal with and heal from i,t we can change our bodies for good. PM me if you need to talk or need anything at all. I will be praying for you. God bless you.
  Sandi

 Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well, this board has fallen into a rut again, I just want to encourage everyone to participate and post their questions and struggles and triumphs! This is a place of support and we all need each other, there are a lot of new faces around here and some oldies like myself, lets make this place a place for connections again! 

*Update on my journey, I have started losing again, I was at a stand still for months and months, and gaining and losing the same 5 pounds! But I have finally come to a place of surrender in my journey, worked through a lot of my garbage and stuff that was keeping me from progressing in my weight loss journey, I lost a lot of "emotional weight" and that has helped my body to start to release physical weight again. I weighed in at 228 this morning, that is my lowest adult weight! when I married my husband 13 years ago (on Aug 23rd) I weighed 268 so I feel pretty good that after 13 years of marriage I weigh less and not more! not to mention 2 anniversaries ago I was 317 lb's! I have come to a place of contentment (not easy to do) with how my body is releasing this weight, I realized that I was not in a race, so I took myself out of the imaginary weight loss race and decided to realize all that I have accomplished in the last 18 months and be ok with where im at and the amount of time it takes for the rest of my goal to be accomplished. I also asked God to show me how much he designed my body to weigh and then asked that he would take me to that weight. That is what I mean by surrender.  So far since I have surrendered that to him, I have seen a steady decline on the scale, I am only weighing in on Fridays, though I am not losing tons of weight each week, I am losing and that is what counts! I lost 1 solid pound this week and though it would be great if it were more, I am satisfied with that! so how are you doing? what is going on with your weight loss journey?