Too high of goals?

[colider]

Are my goals too high? I wanted to explane something about myself so that you know why my goals are at 5 pounds a week. I bought a wedding dress for a destination wedding 3 years ago after I got engaged. We started to plan our wedding when my fiance hurt his back very badly at work and wasn't able to work for 6 months. This set our life into a tail-spin that took so long to recover from I can't even tell you (still haven't totally recovered from the damage). We had to cancel our destination wedding plans but said that as soon as we could we would still follow through with them. We got married by the justice of the peace for $80 and that was that for the last 3 years. I have given birth to 2 kids since then and so I don't fit into my dress anymore. Because of the stress of having two children back to back and one of the being colic I could not get myself to focus on losing weight since I had my last baby (10 months old now).

We have replanned out destination wedding and I am going to wear my dress!!! In order to get into it the way that it is I need to get down to 170 pounds minimum but would fit it much nicer if I could get to 160. I can also get it tailors one size bigger if I have to.

This is why my goals are so extreme. After I get into my dress I will be a lot more patient with my weight loss but for now I am willing and going to do everything that it takes to get into that dang dress!!!! If you have advice on how to succeed in my goals I would like to hear them. As far as the people who think I very well may not hit my goals, if I don't, I will be ok and I won't quit or get mad at the diet I promise

All I can do is do everything that I can do and that is what I am doing. I know that I am not a man and so I may not lose 5 pounds a week like I want to but I am going to try hard!

I'm off to the club now to work off some of these pounds

Thank you for caring and for your support and honesty!!!!! It's nice to have so many nice people who care so much. I haven't ran into one mean or rude person on this site so overweight people must be nicer than the rest. Ha!

[DuchessOfDork]

Re: Too high of goals?

I think it's doable, but I dunno if you'll lose weight so regularly. I remember when I got rid of the 50lbs, the first 30 went by really quickly, and the last 20 came off veeery slow.

[Hoping]

Re: Too high of goals?

Everyone's different. I think 5lbs is a little high, but you may be one of the lucky ones that can lose that much weight in a week.
I've noticed that even though I'm heavier than a few years ago I actually look thinner. I was looking back at some pictures and even though I was 160 at the time, I look thinner now at 180. Don't focus so much on a certain weight. You'll see that you're body goes through some amazing changes and before you know it, you'll be in that dress.
Just keep working hard

[julirama723]

Re: Too high of goals?

It's hard to say if you will or won't be able to make your weightloss goal. SOOOO many things come into play--age, metabolism, muscle mass, hormones, medications, activity level, etc.--all of which can affect the speed at which we lose weight. Only your body knows for sure what it's capable of at this moment in time.

My question for you is this:

Do you want to lose weight to fit in the wedding dress, or do you want to keep the weight off for the rest of your life?

I ask that, because in order to guarantee you can wear the dress, you'd have to go to extreme measures. Something of a crash diet mentality. And even then you can't predict if you'd lose X amount of weight in Y amount of time. Crash diets and extreme weight loss habits DO NOT keep the weight off. I have seen soooo many people be incredibly restrictive (like staying on induction for 4 months) because they want to lose more weight. What ends up happening is that they never learn how to move up the rungs of OWL, and either think that Atkins is too hard/too unrealistic and quit, or they fall of the wagon BIG TIME because they feel deprived. Usually the weight comes back as fast as it left.

I'm not saying that this will happen to you, but I certainly hope that you choose to do Atkins as it's intended, moving up the rungs, rather than being overly-restrictive hoping for speedy weightloss. So, instead of hoping to lose X amount of weight, why not give Atkins your whole 100%, do it right, do it properly, and start adding back those foods. If you do this, not only will you be so much closer to where you want to be, you will be able to MAINTAIN your losses!!

[Mirya]

Re: Too high of goals?

It's hard to say if you will or won't be able to make your weightloss goal. SOOOO many things come into play--age, metabolism, muscle mass, hormones, medications, activity level, etc.--all of which can affect the speed at which we lose weight. Only your body knows for sure what it's capable of at this moment in time.

My question for you is this:

Do you want to lose weight to fit in the wedding dress, or do you want to keep the weight off for the rest of your life?

I ask that, because in order to guarantee you can wear the dress, you'd have to go to extreme measures. Something of a crash diet mentality. And even then you can't predict if you'd lose X amount of weight in Y amount of time. Crash diets and extreme weight loss habits DO NOT keep the weight off. I have seen soooo many people be incredibly restrictive (like staying on induction for 4 months) because they want to lose more weight. What ends up happening is that they never learn how to move up the rungs of OWL, and either think that Atkins is too hard/too unrealistic and quit, or they fall of the wagon BIG TIME because they feel deprived. Usually the weight comes back as fast as it left.

I'm not saying that this will happen to you, but I certainly hope that you choose to do Atkins as it's intended, moving up the rungs, rather than being overly-restrictive hoping for speedy weightloss. So, instead of hoping to lose X amount of weight, why not give Atkins your whole 100%, do it right, do it properly, and start adding back those foods. If you do this, not only will you be so much closer to where you want to be, you will be able to MAINTAIN your losses!!

I love your before and after pics. Your about my height and were only 10lbs heavier than me. Its so woderful being able to see pseudo nw for me and what can be we are built about the same as well so that helps too. Thanks for the inspiration. BTW how long have you beenon Atkins?

[Elizellen]

Re: Too high of goals?

As Hoping has suggested, you might not need to get down to the weight you used to be when you were last at that size to fit the dress.

Doing Atkins, particularly if you lift weights, seems to change our body shape as well as the scales number.

Concentrate on sticking to eating according to plan and I am sure you will see a good result!

[lesszmore]

Re: Too high of goals?

When is the wedding? I'm not sure if u'll do it or not but u will lose and if u exercise u can tone up your body which will make a hhuge difference...losing those inches as opposed to the pounds helps to.

[not2late]

Re: Too high of goals?

If your goal is to fit into a dress, then don't pay attention to the pounds. As others have said, your weight and your dress size might not match up.

As we lose fat and replace it with muscle, our bodies become leaner (smaller). So if your goal is to fit into a dress, pay attention to the inches you have lost more than to the pounds.

[LCer09]

Re: Too high of goals?

FYI- you might want to rethink that Feb 30th goal. Not the weight, but the date.

[BeautyBox]

Re: Too high of goals?

I wouldnt like to say if its doable or not, Im sure that whatever happens you will lose weight and you will wear your dress. I started on Monday, so a compete novice at this, I wish you well

[colider]

Re: Too high of goals?

Thank you for the possative thinking because from what I have heard from all of the veterans, I am going to need every little bit of help I can get

[cruisergal]

Re: Too high of goals?

Pounds lost is only a #. What you see and how you feel is what counts. And that might not always be reflected in a #of pounds lost! So don't go hairy about a #, be more intuned to losing inches, and excercising, and you will fit into that wedding dress, without a doubt! It's better to have high goals, than none at all!