Good morning all! This is Coaster Girl sitting in for KD. Now that we've all watched KD on the Today Show, it might be a good time to think back about how our lives have changed since KD first came on the scene.

Spend a few minutes thinking about what got you started...what was that final straw that led you to stop putting off that weight loss path? What effect does that straw keep you going now? Have things changed, do you have other motivators now? Do you feel that these motivations to get started really worked?

For me, I just needed a "little" push, more like a shove to get off my back end. When I went to Cedar Point (my home amusement park) at the start of the 2002 season, there was a brand new roller coaster that I had watched being built via webcam for six very long months of winter weather.

I knew that I needed to do something about my weight at the end of the 2001 season, when I discovered I barely fit into the restraints of a coaster I had never ridden. I was so embarrassed that one of the people working the ride had to really push to get the harness closed. Really, I should have been asked not to ride, now that I look back.

So back to 2002, opening day...you can imagine how upset I was to find that they had no intention of letting me ride until I tried the test seat (used to make sure that you'll fit before you waste time in line). Lo and behold, my half hearted attempts between 2001 and 2002 did not work, there was no way that I was going to fit into that new coaster. I was angry, but at myself...I thought about all the effort I didn't make before the 2002 season started, and had to figure out what step to take next.

Having my favorite past time essentially taken away was the last straw. I spent the next 5 months working off enough inches to get into the new coaster before the season ended. KD essentially gave me the tools to really trudge through a (forgive me) roller coaster of ups and downs.

That motivation continues for me. 2003 brought another new coaster to Cedar Point. I had all of winter 2002 to make sure that I kept working off that weight, because seat belts on very tall and fast coasters are not made with extenders. Opening day 2003 was great, no repeats of the previous one.

I use my experience two years ago as a "game" now. I remind myself that I still need to be able to fit into the coasters at the beginning of the next season, so I am still motivated to keep up the exercise and modifications to my diet. Now I want to see if I can get down to a size that will leave me six inches of extra seatbelt. I'm at one inch as of the end of October 2003, and I'll have a good idea of how I've done come May.

Until tomorrow, this is Coaster Girl, signing off

bump for myself and all the other newbies. I was wandering through the older posts for inspiration...this one did it for sure! Thanks for sharing ladies!

I don't really think I had a straw either but I began working with a generally health minded group 2 years ago. I had been trying to get exercise going again(for about the millionth time) with a walking program I was following. I think I've been doing baby steps all along since then (eliminated soda almost completely, eating more whole grains, more water, exercising more but still not regularly/consistently) and I was also doing FlyLady all along too. When I caught the CT show on 5/2, the 5 point system just sang my name. I had been debating WW because they seemed like the only 'sane' option in a sea of diet options but I think this is really even better for me. We'll see how it goes!

Peg

The last "straw" for me happened while having lunch with some friends. One of my friends (who isn't the most tactful) looked over at a woman and said she would shoot herself if she even got that big. I had seen the woman earlier that afternoon, we had been in the Lane Bryant fitting rooms trying on the same size! I was horrified and left the mall in tears.

I had been watching CT for some time. I got on the site to look up the schedule (this was that evening). I saw a little "community" tab at the top and got curious. And here I am!!

Laurie

I didn't really have a straw that broke the camel's back either. I was really upset when I realize pants in the misses department were too tight and pants from the women's department/stores were almost all up to my boobs (I'm not sure why they think someone gets taller when they get fatter). That probably happened about 9 months ago - right around the time I joined WW.

I was pudgy in elementary school and then thin as a high school freshman (since I grew 7" and didn't gain weight). I hated being the fatter kid growing up, but I was never as thin as I should have been. I graduated high school around 150-155. I mostly gained weight in chunks after that, 5-10 pounds my freshman year of college (1994), 30-35 pounds when I tore the ligaments in my ankle playing lacrosse my second year of college (I lost all of it after college in 1997 following an American Dietetic Association diet that didn't allow enough food for my metabolism and that I quit when the nutritionist started pushing diet drugs). I gained back about 15 pounds right after that and stayed close to that weight for about three-four years. I then purchased six sessions with an RD in 2000, but didn't really follow through on that (didn't even use all the sessions I paid for). I thought dropping some more weight would help me with the shin pain I was having when running. Then I found out I had periostitis (where the posterior tibialis muscle pulls the bone sheath away from the shin bone) and got a cast for three weeks. I couldn't run for about a year (after which they determined I had also partially ripped my calf muscle from the tendon that connects it to the back of the knee). I gained about 20 pounds nearly all at once in 2001 being stressed out about not running. Then I stayed the same for another two years and slowly gained another 15 pounds over 16 months or so after getting a dog, cooking less and eating out with friends of mine who eat poorly more often. I was in two weddings in 2003. I felt semi-okay in the first one, went on vacation and gained another 10 pounds or so and then freaked out about the second one because I had already ordered my dress and was really worried it wouldn't fit. I joined Weight Watchers Sept 1, 2003 to lose enough weight to fit into my dress (for the wedding Oct 11). The silly thing fit (though I wish the skirt had been a tad bigger) but I despise all the pictures from the wedding spare one.

I've been talking about losing weight for years and years and made several one-two week long attempts. At this point, I hardly recognize myself in a mirror. Except for the one ADA diet, I've never been on anything I would term a diet. In WW, I lost weight fairly steadily through November and then lost my grip after the holidays (read ate lots of junk). I think I tried to do too much at once. Now, I'm being more moderate and concentrating on smaller habits. I really enjoy the WW meetings. There are a lot of people who are inspirational (I think we have about 20 members who have lost mroe than 50 pounds, 5-6 who have lost more than 100 and about 20-30 lifetime members).

For sure, this is the longest length of time I have ever made a concerted effort to lose weight. I know that making these smaller changes to eat in a way that is both healthier AND that I can live with forever as well as slowly incorporating more exercise into my life will both eventually pay off. The good news is I have now lost 18 pounds since Sept 12 and I'm exercising consistently again. I really want to cement my good health (which I have been blessed by) and keep from finding myself with weight-related illness or injury. I also want to avoid osteoperosis.

The stories are great! You all are so inspiring!!

The Christmas before last my husband was really excited about the present he got me. He couldn't wait for me to open it. He bought me a beauftful leather coat because the only coat that fit me was an old jacket that my sister had given me a few years before.

So I open the box and pull out the coat...and he's grinning...so I try it on and it doesn't fit. Not even a little bit - and it was an extra large. And something inside me died.

I used to be very thin. I loved shopping and running around and having fun. And I wasn't doing any of those things. I had gotten heavier and heavier by sitting behind a desk at work all day and eating like I was a size 2. All of those factors spelled disaster for my body. And what hurt most of all was that my family (mother, father, sisters) never gave me any compliments. I haven't had one from them in at least two years. In my family if you're overweight then you're not worthy of compliments.

And then early one Monday morning about 9 months ago my older brother suddenly died. And I didn't eat for a week. I couldn't taste anything and I couldn't stomach food. And I realized after I lost 11 pounds that the grief diet wasn't the way to go. But the shock of that week also helped reorganize my priorities. And I realized that there are so many other things in my life that are more important than food.

So I started slowly implementing changes. And I still haven't gotten there, not by any means. But I realize now that life is very short and I want to enjoy the rest of mine by having energy and feeling good about myself. Because anything less is a waste of precious time.

Thanks for reading and sharing your stories.

Max

When I came home fromthe hospital after having my son, I weighed in at 195 pounds. And I could no longer really blame the weight on the baby. It's one thing to be chubby and pregnant, but quite another to be chubby and not pregnant!

As soon as I could I started to exercise and cut back on my calories. I found CT about a month into my process, and it has made loosing the weight easier, though my no means effortless. If I start to feel self-pitying about all the things I can't stuff myself with, I just think back to all the things I didn't have the energy to do at my top weight, and all the lovely clothing I couldn't wear, and it helps me keep my focus.

alli

Mine was also an accumulation of things. Part of it was that we moved to Atlanta and I wasn't working. I had gained a lot of weight during the move (stress and all). I found out my mom is diabetic, and I just knew I needed a change.

Since I was only working part-time, I had time to focus on making the changes. I also met a friend in the neighborhood that was really into healthy eating and being active and some of that wore off onto me (thanks Robin).

Anyway, I just knew it was time, I was staring to get up to a size 14 again and I just didn't want that. So, all of these things combined led me to wanting to do something about it.

I had been hanging around on the Food Network Boards and Chef Caine (Still Caine) recommended the CT board to someone else, I read it and tried it out, This was just about a year ago and I've been doing it since, and have lost about 15 lbs.

Dawn

Loved the stories!

Like the rest of you... the photos and videos made me really sad... but not sad enough to do anything about it.

The absolute final straw... I've always thought of myself as a healthy and somewhat athletic person. I got an invitation to go water skiing in May 2001. I was 24 years older and 50 lbs heavier than the last time I had been water skiing. I also hadn't exercised in about 10 years.

You have to be able to get your knee to your chest and be able to touch your feet (while bobbing around in the water) in order to get your skis on. I had quite a roll around my middle and it was really touch and go if I was going to be able to get my own skis on. I took me a really long time and a lot of effort just to get the skis on. I was exhausted. Then it took 5 tries to get up. I was even more exhausted. I skied about 100 yards with my arms and legs totally shaking and let go of the rope. It was really a wake up call about how out of shape I had gotten. The body I was living in didn’t feel like my own.

I’d really never had a serious weight problem until I was 40 and I just lost control over my eating (and other parts of my life, too). I was gaining about 30+ lbs per year. I would go on crash diets for anywhere from 4 hours to 4 days (depending on how much will power I had on a given day). I didn’t know how to lose weight. Actually, I didn’t even know how to stop gaining weight and this really scared me.

A week later, I clicked on an ediets pop-up thing, started exercising and lost about 15 lbs over the summer. My family (my mom, sister, brother and kids and spouses) had a family reunion in Aug. 2001. We all chipped in and rented a boat for the day (we had one when I was a kid and we skied every summer weekend from the time I was 7 until I was 12). I was still 25 lbs away from goal but, what a difference 15 lbs gone and exercising added made! I got in water and put skis on like I did it every weekend. Got up second try.

I also started snow skiing again that next winter. I only skied three days but I caught the bug bad. I knew that I had to keep up the exercise if I were to ever get off the bunny hill.

I didn’t like some things about ediets. I was sick of dieting but didn’t want to gain the weight back. I decided just to stay the same until I was ready to lose more weight.

I started watching CT a 18 months ago. KD just has so much common sense. Last fall I wanted to lose some more weight. I really thought about going back to ediets because I like the support on the boards but hated the weigh ins. I found you guys and started posting the week before Christmas. It is a much better fit!

I’m so much happier and healthier now. Thanks you guys and KD.

Denise

I haven't been using my stars for a while, patty, but they were a great tool. Maybe I'll resurrect them!

Coaster Girl,

What a great thread and what great stories everyone. My last straw was never because I was heavy I'm 5"9 and weight about 124.6 (Iknow someone out there is saying too thin). But I think I lose weight not because of the lack of food I eat but the more exercise I have done since finding these forums Cooking Thin and KD's first book. TriGirl when you gave me the motivation to exercise and for every day I do to put a star on my calendar that was a "Hey I can do this sign!".

My children are all under 10 years of age and I just don't want to be the Mom that just sits there and watches her kids have fun because I have no energy or too tired.I want to be able to take part and make memories for them and with them.

But the funny thing about the last straw part is I actually carry a piece of straw in my pocket book with a ribbon on it to remind me to stay motivated .

Have a great day everybody. The young ones want to play hide-n-seek now. .

ttfn
Patty

What a great assignment Coaster Girl, and a great story! Before you know it, you'll be lifting out of your seat on the downhills.

Here's the scoop on me:

I was always in thin (but not necessarily in shape), even 2-3 years after college, I still weighed 117. But the pounds snuck up on me, and before I knew it was 152. It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I'm a shorty.

Nonetheless, I still managed to run a marathon and play soccer at that weight. I sort of "passed" as athletic.

However, last year I started the process to be a Reserve Firefighter / EMT recruit. One of the first steps is a medical exam. My form said I was 12lbs overweight, my cholesterol was too high, and I had asthma.

It was a wake up call, and at that moment I decided to get my body back. Since then, I started working out (running, weights, and yoga), and really watching what I eat (logging my intake, measuring portions, etc.)

Now I weigh 128 and look *firm*. Fire academy is really tough, and I'm challenged every day, as I'm only 5' 2" and the only female. But I'm hanging in there and enjoying every minute.

I'd still like to lose another 8 lbs and be strong enough to really do the work I'm faced with in academy - things like starting the k12 saw, raising ladders, and dragging victims are still very hard for me. I'd like to be able to do them as well as the guys can.

Also, besides fear, another great motivator (for me anyway) is getting dumped. That happened early on this transformation and it drove me to 'show em what they're missin out on!'

Great job, Coastergirl! (and loved your story)

My brother asked me around Christmas "what made me do this" (change my whole way of eating, lose weight, exercise regularly). He had assumed that my doctor had told me I was going to die if I didn't lose weight (way to be supportive, Michael). As much as his assumption hurt me, I realized that I couldn't really explain what made me do this.

I don't think there was any one moment--a final straw--that drove me. Moreso, I think it was a slow, steady crawl toward the realization that: a) I have a history of just about every major disease in my family; b) I already had closely followed my mother's pattern of developing hypertension and high cholesterol in my early 40s; and c) I had turned the big 5-0. As much as I hated being fat, I had become complacent about that. But I couldn't be complacent about dying. Fear, they say, is the greatest motivator.

Watching Cooking Thin, the light started to dawn--okay, healthy eating doesn't look so bad. Reading KD's first book brought more light to the horizon--if she can do it, maybe there's hope for me. Joining the CT board last May was my sunrise--it was time to make a change. And I began.

Great stories, everyone. This is a great assignment. I didn't really have a "last straw" moment. From the moment I started gaining weight I hated it. Hated the way I looked, hated how I felt, hated shopping in special stores for my clothes, hated taking an hour to figure out what to wear in the hopes of covering up. I hated pictures of me most of all.

I had a lot of small steps toward changing all this, but the one that made the most difference was deciding I was going to do a triathlon. I was already working out regularly and had lost some weight, probably about 20-30 pounds, but I felt like I needed a push to get to the next level.

I read a book called You Don't Have to be Thin to Win by Judy Molnar. Judy had done an IronMan weighing 200 pounds. (She's 6' tall) That inspired me, but I knew there was no way I was going to do an Ironman. The real revelation was reading about "Sprint Triathlons" which were shorter and seemed like a manageable distance to me: 1/2 mile swim, 12 mi. bike, and 3.1 mile run. I started training for it the next day. Then I found out about Danskin's all-women's tri series and I knew that was the one I was going to do. I saw a nutritionist and got a food plan -- I knew that if I was going to do this race, I needed to trim down.

All of a sudden going to the gym made me feel happy instead of frustrated. I wasn't working out to lose weight, I was training. Same for watching what I ate.

I did my first sprint tri in 2002 and I was hooked. This will be my third season of doing tris. In total I've done 2 sprint tris, an Olympic-distance tri (twice the distance of a sprint), and two half marathons, plus a bunch of 5Ks and other running races. I'm not fast, I'm still not skinny (155-160 pounds at 5'6"), but I'm happy and I don't have to shop in the plus-sized stores anymore.

Thanks for this assignment -- it really made me feel good to think back on all that!

I was lucky enough to have friends and a boyfriend who put together a surprise party for my 30th (this past October) birthday. I saw the pictures from that after we returned from a vacation to Hawaii, and then saw the Hawaii pictures. I was. . . appalled. I knew I'd gained weight, but working at home (I can wear comfy & stretchy things) I hadn't noticed how out of control the weight had gotten.

I had a wonderful time, so a framed picture from that party is still in sight. However, its presence reminds me every day why I'm doing this--I look tired, I don't look healthy, and most of all, I don't look happy. The women in my family have a history of living to be very, very old, and I don't want to be the first to ruin that tradition.

The last straw was the chaffing, constant rubbing of one thigh against another on a beautiful spring day. After giving birth to my daughter I kept the weight on for 2-3 years and was finally ready, I guess.
I now love that I feel more awake and energetic. I love that I do not have 12 or 14's in my closet and that I am even willing more and more to let go of the 10's. I love most of all that my daughter has a constant experience of a mom that is healhty and happy. Children always learn by experience and example.
Never, did I think I would be able to provide this example. This is a miracle in my life.

I'm initial motivation came from seeing myself in a family video in a bathing suit during a vacation. I looked enormous. On the plane on the way home, I read a fitness makeover article by Bob Greene that really got me thinking of my family's poor health history and my lack of any kind of physical activity. I saw Cooking Thin for the first time that week and it seemed like the stars aligned for me and I got moving.

My motivation now is that I LOVE that I have so much energy and I LOVE the way my body is now (not just looks but strength and health wise). I have no more "big" clothes and don't ever want to buy a bigger size again!

(Good assignment Coastergirl!)

What a great assignment! Thank you for sharing your story, Coaster Girl. What an inspiring story.

People ask me all the time where I get my motivation now. I don't even have to think about my answer. I get my motivation from you guys! Your drive, determination and courage focus me. Your ability to rebound no matter how gloomy the skies are, humbles me. Your personalities and sense of humor are infectious. Your tenacity and stick-to-it-ness drive me too.

I have no doubt you will be happy with your May results, CG. Keep up the great work!