- happy birthday

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Have I even said hello properly? How rude of me!!!

I'm Marie, I'm 57 and I'm a 'transplanted' Aussie now living in Holland. I

joined WLB at the end of December and I now can't imagine life without the

support and friendship of this group. I have a lot of weight (about 105 lbs)

still to lose but, with the WLB support I am thrilled to report a two month loss

of just over 25 lbs. Without the group I think I would have lost 5 and gained

10 !! I'm not following a particular 'diet' but trying to adapt my lifestyle to

a healthier one which I know I can maintain on a long term basis. To me 'diet'

= 'short term' and from day 1 I just look forward to 'when can I start eating

" properly " again'. Eating " properly " always involves gaining back everything I

have lost and more so this time I am determined that it will be different. I am

also lucky to have a great incentive as we will be travelling to Australia at

the end of the year for my daughter's wedding next January. One thing I WON'T

be doing though is going back to my old way of life after January - this time it

is for the long haul.

I am desperately trying not to get too stuck on thinking about numbers on the

scale although I do weigh in once each month. I have decided to set my mini

goals not in terms of weight but 'achievements'. The first one was to be able

to walk upstairs without feeling exhausted. I can hardly believe that only two

short months ago I planned my days in advance so that EVERYTHING I was likely to

need downstairs during the day would be taken down in one trip each morning.

Can you believe it? I was so lazy and I found the stairs such a ghastly form of

exercise (that terrible 'e' word) that I avoided the stairs at all costs. I

think I actually spent more energy worrying about what I had to take downstairs

that I now do walking up the stairs as many times a day as I need to. Achieving

such a 'simple' goal as walking upstairs without stopping for breath has made me

so excited - I honestly never thought it could or would happen to me.

I get completely bamboozled by time changes, time zones, daylight saving and all

that sort of thing so I don't know if it is still your birthday. Anyway, happy

(?belated) birthday - I hope it is/was a good one for you.

Great work on the 2 lb lost!!! Keep going strong. With 5 young children I

guess you need all the strength you can get but I'm sure they bring you a lot of

joy.

Cheers for now,

Marie