The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Landylue]

March is Beautiful Women Month, and that definitely means you and me, ladies.

The following are beauty tips written by Audrey Hepburn that I thought worthy of sharing:

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

We are already beautiful. May every pound that disappears make us more healthy.

Landylue

[TamiL]

Landylue

Thank you for the post...that was very inspiring and lifted my spirits this morning!! we are all beautiful...inward beauty truly does shine above all!!

its 6 weeks for me today...I cant remember when the last time I stuck to something to help me loose weight for 6 whole weeks!! I feel good..just gotta push myself to work out on my down time!! I truly am greatful for all of you on this forum...your posts have been so touching...and they keep me going!!
thank you all!!! YOU ROCK!!

Tami

[donnajean]

Thanks for the nice words, I really enjoyed them.

[shineface]

Landylue--

Thank you for sharing that with us ----God, I've always loved Audrey Hepburn and her inner beauty is obviously as strong if not stronger than her outward beauty was .... I can still see her strolling at dawn with that HUGE doughnut at dawn having "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

Remember how lost her character was in that movie? Actually, I think I've mentioned this movie before on this forum ---- That character in this movie was so skinny and she was also lost --- never felt good about herself and got the "mean reds" instead of the blues... this is an expression I adopted years ago and funny, I have a WOWSER of a case going on today!!!!! All day long I've been questioning what the hell am I doing --- I'll never stay with this long enough to get thin --- I've never been thin for any length of extended time in my entire life - why do I think I can do it now --- whoa -- need to get outta this mood and this is the only safe way to do it --- TALK about it instead of eating about it - which today I thought of at least three things I'd love to gorge out on bigtime!!!!! I need to change the way I think about handling life or I will use my old coping mechanisms which was to not cope at all - just eat about it until I hit a level of numbness - or pass out and wake up hating myself ---only to get sucked back into the cycle. I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE --- I WON'T DO IT TODAY BUT TOMORROW IS SCARY RIGHT NOW --- JUST AN EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL DAY I GUESS --- THIS BEING ON VACATION WITHOUT EATING IS ALSO MAKING ME FEEL A LITTLE LIKE A MARTYR TODAY ----UP UNTIL TODAY I WAS FEELING GREAT - BUT MY DEMONS FOUND ME - EVEN HERE IN FLORIDA.

Thank God for this forum ---THANKS FOR LETTING ME VENT - I'M OK FOR TODAY ...

WE WILL do this together!!!

[TamiL]

Pam
I would by lying if I said I never had days where the same questions go thru my head as they ones you have going thru yours today...but the important thing is to REMEMBER YOU CAN AND WILL DO THIS..and we will GET TO OUR GOALS...FOR GOOD THIS TIME!! I wonder as well...CAN I KEEP IT OFF THIS TIME? can I really do this untill I reach my goal weight..then remember for the rest of my life to use FOOD AS FUEL and NOT TO MASK PAIN or lonliness, fears..boredom??? but the longer we go in CONTROL, the more we will learn why we let ourselves get so out of control in the past....
you did the right thing....come here...post, vent..talk about it!! I have learned so much from others on this forum!! the demons can find us wherever we are...those voices in our heads that have kept us FAT our whole lives will always be there...its FINDING what works to keep ourselves from LISTENING to them that is the hardest...and here we are learning how to do that!! by helping each other!! DRINK SOME WATER..or a nice hot cup of TEA...Grab a book or put on the radio...close your eyes and ENVISION yourself at your goal weight...RADIANT and Happy with all youve accomplished!! DONT LET THE VOICES Get ya!!

Ill have to get a hold of Unca Tim and have him send Guido to Florida for some tough love!! lol!!
Hang in there Pam....be strong...we are all here for you...thru the good easy times..and the hard days when we question it all....
Just remember...being faithful to the program is the most important...tommorrow is a new day..with a new state of mind!! youll wake up with no GUILT!! and a day closer to where you want to be!!

Tami

[Landylue]

If I were to miraculously be given an opportunity to return to any time in my past 55-year life, I would not hesitate to immediately choose the 5-year period after my first fast. It was the very first time my kids had a mother that could go along with the church youth group and play volleyball, climb to the top of a baseball stadium without stopping several times to catch my breath, backpack on a 7-day journey into the back country of Yosemite, climb mountains, fit into the rollercoaster at Six Flags, parasail behind a speed boat at South Padre Island, lay on the beach in a bathing suit instead of big shorts and a T-Shirt, fit into a kayak, go on 20-mile bike excursions, participate in 5Ks and fun runs--I WAS ALIVE AND LOVING EVERY DAY I WOKE UP!!!

Being overweight is a PRISON, guys! A living, breathing prison of fat that we carry around on our backs every day of our lives we CHOOSE to stay overweight. Does it make us ‘bad people’? No! Does it make us less deserving of love and respect? Of course not! But it DOES hinder us from living our lives to the fullest.

Give up? Chalk up yet another failure? To what end? What benefit?
I WANT TO LIVE AGAIN! I’m DYING under all of this weight--physically, emotionally, and yes, if possible, even spiritually.

Don’t let go of each other’s hands, guys. When one of us falls, we all are affected. We WILL succeed, if we don’t falter in our attempt.

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!!!

Landylue

[elle4nelly]

Oh my god landylue...you hit a nail right in my soul....

Being overweight is a PRISON

That's how I've been feeling...in my overweight body! I felt free and light in my thinner days...the last 5 years of being overweight have weighed my soul.... And Pam....I know how you feel too...I just don't want to come back this way again...ever!!...so I try hard to just keep moving..knowing the path is long and hard.... It's like that chinese saying " The journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step"
This journey is hard and long and full of detours....but if I stop I know..I'll turn aorund and go back..that alone is a motivating force for me. I don't even want to gain back what I've already lost. I'd fight hard to maintain this loss rather than gaining it back...
For me....the journey is not scary...it's the destination that frightens me. I was thin most of my life...at some point i weighed 121 lbs and I'm 5'5". then 12 years ago I went up a little ..lost it ..recycled the same 20-30lbs...and let go of it all and landed at 200lbs one day...that was 1997...lost 70lbs...kept it off for 3 years...and Pouf...woke up last year at my all time highest ever!!! 254lbs....
I look back and worry that I have the determination to get there...and get there I will... BUt what I have i learned from the past? I read health magazine galore...order books about emotional eating....and the anxiety level keeps rising...because I am really really scared...to get to my goal only to have emotions bringing me back to here..to this damnation...that's what being overweight is to me...it's a soul burden...
sorry to babble away...reading this thread...unleashed my fears....I really want to free myself from this....and I want to remain free.

Nelly

[TamiL]

Nelly
Im right there with ya girl...I wonder the same thing sometimes. "what will be different about this time around"...its not too hard for me to loose weight..Ive dont it a million times. the hardest thing is keeping it off and keeping those OLD thoughts and feelings away..so I dont go back to my old, sneaky ways and find myself indulged in the food again!

This may or may not help you...but this is what has changed my way of thinking. For the last 32 years of my life..I have been on a rollercoaster with my weight, up and down. Ive weighed 240 pounds..Ive weighed 130 pounds...gone back up to 200..to get back to 170...to get back up and down again..its never ending. The difference This time is...I am thinking of all the times I enjoyed FOOD...for the wrong reasons, and now I use food only as FUEL..thats it. for the last 3 years of my life..I have been living like an old lady..I dont leave my house..I dont reach out to meet others..I dont even get dressed in real clothes for days sometimes! I was dying inside...and for what? THE TASTE OF FOOD in my mouth for a few lousy seconds before I swallow it and it goes straight to my hips and fat butt??

Now...these shakes..and the supplements are FEUL for me..that is it! for the last few years..Ive eaten my fair share of junk... I gave myself the luxury of going to Dairy queen for ice cream..Ive been thru the drive thru's for the burgers and Fries...Ive had a million SHAMROCK shakes from McDonalds..I know what they taste like...and they will be around for years after I am not...that is what landed me here in the first place...eating food for what it tastes like..eating when I was lonley, bored, depressed, sad, happy...every excuse under the sun!! where did It get me? FAT AND MISERABLE. and I never want to feel as low as I did 6 weeks ago!!

I just got home from the grocery store...I got some sugar free jello...celery with salsa and some bullion and water. that is what my trips to the grocery store consist of these days...I sometimes just LOOK at food...the new low carb craze has definatley gone haywire!! I saw LOW carb Ben and Jerry's Ice cream....and I laughed!! I laugh because before Medifast..I would have bought that...to eat it alone at night, telling myslef that I will only eat 1 serving instead of the whole pint....YEAH RIGHT!! then I would have gone on an all out BINGE and woke up wanting to just DIE!! I saw low carb herseys bars now...GIVE ME A BREAK!! they are still high in calories...will they do any good for your body???? NOOOOO..there is no vitamins/good stuff in that low carb junk...therefore..my body dosent need it!! Ive eaten my fair share of low carb candy...food in the past and was fooling myself that I could keep it under control!! I bought the low carb chips..and would eat the whole bag!! IM SO GREATFUL THAT I AM FREE OF THAT!! I have shakes now that are full of GOOD STUFF..that my body needs!! I have soups or oatmeal that contain just the right amount of what my body needs!!

sorry this is so long...but I just wanted to share HOW I AM THINKING NOW..and dont think for a second that I dont have those DEVILISH thoughts...those "I can have this today and start over tommorrow" thoughts...but I have been there so many times...and one thing I know for sure is I end up in a place I dont want to be!! INSANITY IS REPEATING THE SAME PATTERNS AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS!!! I dont want to be INSANE anymore....

I WANT TO LIVE the way I should be...and every day Im a little closer to getting where I want to be!!

Im so greatful for you guys...for your posts...for getting me to think and continuously remind myself that this is the last stop...Im taking over the controls in my head...the controls that make my hands reach for something that is not GOOD FUEL and insert in my mouth without even realizing it...untill I would reach the crumbs in the bottom of an empty box or bag!! and then want to DIE!!

no more guilt. This train is moving to THINVILLE...sometimes fast..sometimes slow..but its moving...its a one way train!!

Hugs to you all!
Tami

[Landylue]

Wow, you’ve all greatly moved my heart tonight. Bear with me for a minute…

We continue any behavior pattern only because we ‘get something out of it’. A man or woman might stay in an abusive relationship because they ultimately get something in return – maybe a sense of financial security, or they reason that it’s better than being alone. A person over eats, over drinks, or over medicates themselves with drugs because of the immediate return it provides. That return could be an ever-so-brief release from emotional or physical pain, a masking-over of fear, or a dark smothering cloak to throw over the anger and rage we feel -- have probably felt for years -- that is even darker.

Here is a truth: being overweight is not our problem, my beautiful friends. Being overweight is a symptom of our problem.

When we limp into a doctor’s office complaining of a sharp, stinging pain in the bottom of our foot, the limp, in itself, is not our ‘problem’. The long, sharp splinter he takes out of our foot, which was causing the pain, was the problem. The limp was only a symptom that something, somewhere was wrong.

What is causing our pain? What is it that we are so afraid of? Why are we so very, very angry?

I think that when we find out where our pain, fear, and anger is coming from, then we’re really on the road to being symptom free -- fat free -- forever.

You guys mean the world to me. Don't let go of my hand.

Landylue

[elle4nelly]

I am not letting go of anyone of your hands....I am too thankful to be surrounded by beautiful women like all of you who share some of my fears, anxiety and pain...It makes this burden easier to deal with....

It gives me courage to go on..to reach for the stars and make my dream come true!

Thank you from the bottomof my heart!


Nelly