We want quick and convenient. We want it now! We prefer value and quantity. In general, we are a lazy and impatient nation.

As an obese nation, we choose motorized scooters because we are too fucking lazy to walk. Have you ever looked in the baskets of those scooters? Most of the time I’m sure you’ll find pork rinds, insulin prescriptions and Cambridge Lights.

We try a few quick fix diets and see results for only a short period of time and we give up. “It just doesn’t work!” we scream. We opt for quick relief and that includes weight loss surgery and diet pills.

We don’t have time to cook a “real” dinner, so we choose drive-thru garbage like McDonald’s and Burger King to poison our bodies and our children.

We whine and complain that our lives are miserable because we are fat and obese… YET, we do not do anything about it. Instead we sit on the couch or recliner all day long, stuffing Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies in our mouths and cursing our life.

It’s just so fucking unfair. We have a list of reasons that prevent us from taking sustainable action.

• My genetics are whack. It’s the family curse.
• I can’t afford a gym membership.
• I’ll look like a jack ass when or if I walk or attempt to jog along side the road.
• People will laugh at me.
• It’s too expensive to buy fresh foods and they take too long to cook!
• I’ll fail once again. I’m a LOSER and I’m not worth it.
• My spouse doesn’t support me.
• I can’t eat healthy – I have to cook for my children!
• I have bad knees and there’s no way I can workout.
• It’s almost [ Valentine's Day, Easter, my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. ] and it would be too hard to commit.
• I’ll start TOMORROW… No, the day after that… Wait! The day after that…
• I have thyroid problems. So does Oprah! So it’s a real issue!
• I’ve tried so many times and failed before. Why would this time be different?
• I’ll just resign myself to being a fat ass for the rest of my life.

It’s just so fucking unfair.

Stop with the excuses.

Put an end to this never ending cycle of bullshit. You do not need weight loss surgery or diet pills. You do not need designer foods or a gym membership. You know what you have to do to get healthy and get the weight off. It’s not rocket science. Shut the voice up in your head that feeds this shit to you.

I’ve personally told all of the above excuses to myself at one time or another through the years and they were all bullshit. Deep down I knew this. I do not tell myself this crap anymore.

NOW I tell myself things like this:

• I CAN do another set.
• No one wants this as much as I do.
• I refuse to lay down and die due to this monster they call obesity.
• I am a good person and I deserve this.
• My body wants me to treat it like a temple, so I WILL.
• I have patience. I have determination. I have the knowledge to succeed.
• If I work hard enough, I will achieve everything I want and more.
• I will be a role model to anyone that is afraid to go to the gym due to their weight.
• I will treat others as I wish to be treated.
• The way others act or treat me have no affect on my progress or my mission.
• My body is a soldier. It does as I order it to.

You can be a soldier too. You just have to WANT IT and DO IT.

TODAY IS YOUR DAY – if you don’t allow it to pass you by.

Today’s guest blog post is by Missa from Losing Ethel. You can check out her blog here.

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I have always been the big girl.  The heavy one.  The curvy chick.  That’s cool.  But, the last 10 years or so, it has been more than that.  It has been me being obese.  Morbidly obese.  It has been me slowly killing myself with food and inactivity.  These are ugly terms, but very, very true.

In January of this year, I decided to change all that, and start blogging and get moving.
My fitness is at a whole new mental level.  I feel more capable.  I feel goal oriented.  So, what better than to train for a half-marathon.  (What did she say?)  Yup.  This fat girl is running.  Do I like running?  Nope.  Why do I do it?  Because I LOVE how it makes me feel.  I feel like I am getting somewhere (literally).  And, I love the physical results too.

As of July 19, I just started the first week of a 12 week program to get me to the half-marathon.  This makes me run approximately 10-15 miles per week.  The miles increase more and more as I move ahead.  I currently weigh 230ish lbs.  So, this means my obese butt needs to hustle.  Can fat people run?  YUP.  I even asked my personal trainer, Debbie about it.  I see her 2x per week, because I believe in paying for and choosing the people that kick my butt.

She says that running requires the same cardiovascular health as walking does.  The key difference is the ability to handle the pressure of running on your joints and you body’s ability to handle fast, repetitive motion for longer periods of time.  (Sounds sexy, no?)

So, to translate that, if you can walk, you can run.   You just need to get your body used to doing it.
For those who have never run, I suggest some online programs, such as Couch to 5K (coolrunnings.com) or Hal Higdon’s site (HalHigdon.com) has lots of free training programs as well.  He can take you all the way from 0 to 5k to 10k, half-marathons and marathons.  I like his programs in particular because each distance has a novice, intermediate and advanced level  (Note:  this fat chick is a novice).  Oh, and he has walking programs too!

I suggest a few tools.  First, I love my heart rate monitor.  I have a very basic one from Polar.  When I run, I try to stay in my target heart rate.  If I am beating too fast, I slow down or walk for a while.  Also, it is a good gauge when you think you can’t go anymore.  Sometimes your brain says no, but your heart really does have more.  It gives yourself some honest guidance on your way.  Second, I think tunes are in order.  Make a play list of what you love and rock out.  Third, track your progress.  I use a site called dailymile.com.  It even lets you measure your progress in donuts and burgers and you should pat yourself on the back when you count up your mileage.  Finally, get good footwear.  If you plan on walking or running miles, you owe it to yourself to get some real sneakers.  It makes a HUGE difference.

When you get out there, don’t be afraid to run, run-walk, or walk.  The goal is to move.  You will get there.  I can’t tell you how incredible it feels now when my body says, OK Missa, time to stop walking and start running.  It is like your brain just kicked you in the tush.

I hope to see some of you out there on the roads and on the trails, even if you walk the whole way round!  I will be doing the OBX half-marathon (OBXmarathon.com) on November 14th.  I’d love to see you, even if it is just to cheer me on!! (and to bring me a beer at the finish line!!)

Please welcome Meegan from Redstar5 – Work in Progress. Meegan and I have a lot in common, especially the fact that we are both pretty slow losers. You can visit Meegan’s blog here.

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Bobbie and I have something in common. We tend to fight this weight loss battle in a slow but fiercely determined fashion. We both got a little fed up with the way we had been leading our lives and have made some big changes. Changes we’ve grown to love and incorporate into our lives. I think we both also get a little frustrated sometimes with our fierce determination not resulting in seriously swift weight loss, but it helps knowing we’re not alone.

I started this weight loss journey in earnest when I turned 30 in February of 2009. I was 289lbs. Now it’s almost a year and a half later and at my last weigh in I was 213lbs. That’s 76lbs in 16.5 months or 66 weeks. That makes my weight loss average only slightly better than 1lb a week. That is slow (but steady) weight loss.

Some of my before and after pictures:

I mean seriously, would any of us ask for slow weight loss? So many people seem to be searching for that magic pill, diet, solution – anything that will bring on the skinny overnight. We all want that perfect beach body in the blink of an eye. We don’t want to wait weeks, months, even years to reach our weight loss goals. But here’s the thing, for many of us (or at least for Bobbie and I so far) on the path to lasting weight loss that’s the only way it happens. SLOWLY.

Now that I know that slow is the way this will be happening for me – I am learning to love slow. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a challenge to say that you like weight loss slow and steady. It is tough to be satisfied with progress when it comes little by little. But if this is how it is for me, I’m going to grow to accept it. I’m a slow loser. In fact, I have never been able to do anything fast before.

• I don’t run fast,

• I don’t move fast,

• I don’t think fast (I tend to ruminate and over think) and,

• I definitely don’t lose weight fast.

It’s frustrating. But when you decide not to be satisfied with your status quo YOU CHANGE. With all of the changes I’ve been making in the last 66 weeks I’ve learned that:

• I can run. It may be slower than all the other girls in my bootcamp, but I can run and it’s faster than before.

• I’m teaching my body HOW to move fast – and it feels good.

• I still analyze everything, but I don’t agonize over anything and life is SO much more straightforward that way.

• The one thing I haven’t been able to solve or change has been the pace at which I lose weight.

I’m almost a year and a half into this journey and I’m still losing weight slowly. But you know what, every decision, every pound; every change I’ve made has been worth it. The frustration will come and it will go, but I’m proud of the progress of I’ve made so far. I’m still losing pounds, and I’m making major gains in learning to live a healthier and happier life. Slow weight loss progress is still progress and its progress in the direction I want to be heading. In fact, I like to think that there are divine reasons for the slower pace:

• I like to think that losing the weight at a slower pace is giving my mind and body time to adjust to my new healthy way of life.

• I like to think that it means I will live my life this way forever, and keep the weight off forever because I’m learning to do it slowly.

• I like to think that maybe, just maybe, I will minimize at least a little bit of the whole loose skin factor by losing weight at a slower pace.

• I like to think that it’s giving myself the time I need to let new habits simply become my way of living life instead of something I’m just trying out until I reach my goals.

• I like to think that slower weight loss means my perceptions of who I am in a new body will have time to keep pace.

• I like to think a year of slow and steady weight loss has made lasting changes, in my life, in the way I think and in the mirror.

Bottom line – slow is good. Slow and steady really can win the weight loss race and make some serious lasting changes. After 66 weeks, with no turning back now, I am learning to love slow.

You’re sitting there at the computer looking, JUST LOOKING, for some sort of motivation.

Maybe you’re in search of some success stories where people dropped their weight super fast. Maybe you don’t know what you’re looking for, but you know you need something to get you up off of your ass. Just a morsel – a glimmer of hope – that someone else has BEEN WHERE YOU ARE and MADE IT OUT ON THE OTHER SIDE.

Let me tell you a story. A story about a girl that has never, ever in her life been skinny.

There’s been some wonderfully bright moments in my life so far. I’ve been lucky in love. My husband loves me for me. Even through all of the fat times – and fat pregnancies… Through the absurdness that makes me, ME.

I’ve never had the notion of losing weight for a man or anyone in my life. Why in the hell would I want to do that for someone else? On the other hand, I got fatter and fatter just for me. Kind of special, huh?

I’ve tried diet pills, quick fixes, just about every diet known to man (and woman). None of them worked long term for me.

I’ve been lucky enough to have access to a great personal trainer for three months. He taught me a lot and I’m very thankful for the experience.

I am a human. I plateaued for three months. I didn’t gain any weight, but stayed within a pound or two of my lowest weight at that time. It was a revelation to me. It meant I COULD maintain a weight – for the first time in my life.

I did find what worked after lots and lots of trial and error. It was so simple it was difficult. It started with being ME. Owning up to what was going on in my life. Not using excuses to eat. Not suffocating my feelings with food. And, here’s the big one… GETTING UP OFF OF MY ASS.

I‘m still a work in progress, but I am doing this. I have lost 32 lbs and over 23 inches off of my body and sustained a healthy lifestyle for over eight months.

You will not find quick fixes or magic pills on this blog. You will not find me blogging positively about prepackaged meals or shakes. You will find me discussing eating REAL FOOD. Living in the real world. Getting strong in the gym and at home. Most importantly, it’s about getting this fucking weight off. Slowly, perhaps, but I’m okay with that.

You’ll not find excuses on this blog. You will not find me apologizing about being a terrible blogger, a slow weight loser, or for using the “f” word.

We all have our own problems and you have to OWN them. I’ve struggled with enormous stress and adversity in my life. Who hasn’t though? I have a dysfunctional family including a deadbeat alcoholic father who ran out on me as a young child. I also have three children of my own – one with autism and other health needs. I own a business that has suffocated in this craptastic economy. I’ve come close to losing EVERYTHING during the last year. I’m still not in the clear. The worse is yet to come, I am sure.

If you are still sitting there reading this and you don’t know where to start – look deep inside YOURSELF.

• You’ll need to really want to do this.
• Don’t settle for mediocrity.
• Realize the road may be long and trying for you.
• Be ready to commit to a new life.
• Drop the fucking excuses.
• You’ll need HARD WORK, PERSISTENCE, PATIENCE & KNOWLEDGE.
  

I’m not one of those girls looking to be skinny. I’m one of those girls looking to be fit, strong and to kick some ass.

ARE YOU READY? Ready to make the decision to own everything and make a change? Today’s your day.

I have spent too much of my life caring what others think about me, what others wanted me to do, and what others would find acceptable.

I spent years working in corporate America. I held quite a few jobs over the years: purchasing assistant, administrative assistant, operations assistant, secretary, medical assistant, receptionist, IT tech person, hotel front desk person… Basically all jobs that sucked ass. Why did they suck? Because I couldn’t be me. I had to be that polite, caged kitten. All of the time.

One day I woke up. It wasn’t gradual, it just happened.

That was the day I told my husband that I was getting a new tattoo. He was like, “Sweet! Where ya getting it?” I told him on my left forearm. His eyes got real big and then he said, “Fantastic!”

We got to the tattoo shop and I told the tattoo artist what I wanted and where I wanted it. He started to go through a whole sonnet counseling me about the permanent factor, etc. I guess he thought the girl sitting there wasn’t the type to get an “obvious” in your face tattoo.

I looked right at him and told him, “Just fucking ink my arm. I know what I want.” A smile crept up on his face and he said, “Alright. She knows what she wants!”

Now I have one on each arm plus others, and counting…

As ridiculous as it sounds, that was my moment.

It was the moment that I decided that I do not fucking care about the ramifications. I was going to start doing things for ME. Things that I wanted to do.

I also figured I’d never work in corporate America ever again. Who’d hire someone with a tat on their left forearm as one of their many minions? Not very many employers that I know…

It wasn’t too much longer after that I went to the gym for the first time. That too was my moment.

Then I started to eat healthier and investigate the reasons why I got fat. More moments for me.

I started blogging. I told myself I will not hide my true self from others. People will like me or they will not. And it’s okay. Every time you comment on one of my blog posts, it’s a moment for me – and you.

Yes, I can be a lady, but I also have the mouth of a trucker. That is just me. Yes I can be brass and harsh, but I also have the kindest spirit that you’ll ever meet and I’d do anything for anyone. And all of this is okay. It’s a special thing that I call the ying and the yang inside me.

Now you know a little more about me and how I woke up one day. THANK YOU for accepting me for… well, ME.

Was there a day that you decided to wake up and make a change in your life? Have you had your moment yet?