I've been studying wellness and health as a hobby for the last 3 or 4 years, with an eye to increasing my wellness and changing my body. I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything, but I feel relatively educated about my specific issues, goals and choices.

One of the things I make great use of is to listen to people who have more experience than me. I read from a wide variety of sources. When I hear the same message from several different credible sources, I put stock in it and often adapt it for my use.

Mimi said she'd never been overweight so she didn't know if her experience would help. But it does. If you've always been overweight (I wasn't always), you don't know what it's like to be healthy weight or what the habits of healthy people are. If you were once healthy and now fat, listening to an always healthy person might trigger memories of habits and choices you made as a healthy weight person. (So thanks, Mimi, for your input.)

One of my biggest sources of encouragement is the National Weight Control Registry. http://www.nwcr.ws/ It's a study of people who got down to a healthy weight and kept it off. It's hard to mine the data there, but when I've seen it referenced there are certain things that most of those on the registry do consistently to keep their weight down.

The two that stick out in my mind are 1) eat breakfast, and 2) exercise EVERY day. That's how they control their hunger and their weight. So I eat breakfast, and I exercise as much as I have energy for, with my goal to be doing something active every single day. It can be gardening or walking the dog on the days when I don't ride or have an exercise class.

Another thing I do is keep it all in perspective. I never work so hard at exercise that I'm going to be so sore I won't want to do it again. Especially for a beginner, this is an important concept. It's self-eliminating, though. The more you work out, the easier it gets. The more you work out, the more you know you can do. This is something I'm learning best through cycling longer and longer distances. Just keep at it, for the long haul.

Another thing I've done is change one little thing at a time. I started with Diet Coke. Five years ago I began resisting Diet Coke. I replaced it with hot tea, iced tea (no sugar) and water. Then it was artificial sweeteners. Last year it was high fructose corn syrup. I've tried to eliminate french fries, but that won't happen until I no longer have PMS! I've changed my cooking. I only shop on the outside walls of the grocery store (meat, produce, bread and dairy).

These little changes add up (littlechanges.com) to big changes.

One thing I DON'T do is read or hang out with people who aren't serious about their health or educating themselves. (I don't mean my personal relationships--I mean online, etc.) That's a reason I don't do sparkpeople anymore, because there are so many failures the successes are hard to find. The successes are who I need to hear from. I know everyone is on a different path, but I only want to listen to the ones who are on my path, or have my goal. (I'm not that narrow-minded about everything, I promise!)

What good would this forum be if it was populated mostly by people who bought a bike at Wal-Mart, rode it around the block once a week for 2 weeks and then quit? We'd have to dig through all that to read about Fredwina's brevets or Runningmommy's triathalon, or Lisa's 3000 miles. That's what most of the diet sites I've been to are like. So I don't go there.

Have I lost any weight? Yes. On December 26th I weighed 206. It's almost November and I weigh 186. That is very, very slow. Lots of people would not be happy with those results, but I'm much more mature than I was and so I'm happy. I can ride my bike 50 miles and run on the arc trainer for 12 minutes. I can do push ups! I can do 30 reps with 10 lb dumbbells. I can hike for 5 miles. I can lift my grandson over my head and hold him up to the ceiling (in a short room ) like my dad used to do to me.

You ladies here are quite an inspiration to me. All of you who are over 40 and are competing in races and tri's and just riding your bikes--you're like who I want to be. I'm seeing myself in a new way because of you. (You younger ones are an inspiration, too, but I just can't relate as much to being 30 anymore.) My goals were modest at first, but through you and through my successes, I see the possibilities I didn't dare imagine. So thanks! I can't wait to learn something new today!

Karen