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What does a Lifestyle Change Mean to You?

For me, it was discontinuing to eat "diet-y" food that I didn't really like but was eating b/c I "should". (one example for me = low-fat salad dressing) and finding exercise that I like enough that I stick with it even during the stressful times. (stressful times always caused me to fall off the wagon in the past). For me, the exercise that I love is Pilates but in the past I would've breated myself b/c it isn't cardio.

Mon. Apr 23, 12:21pm

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For me it was making changes without the thought in the back of my mind that I only needed to do this until I lost weight and then I could go back to 'normal'. I had to change 'normal' and truly accept that this was my everyday life.

I agree that there were things I was doing that were only to lose weight, but once I lost the weight I was well... lost. It just came right back on becuase I only viewed those changes as a necessary (and temporary) evil. I changed the way I live everyday and the weight came back off - slower, but for good. But until I went through that I was in denial that I could have my cake (and cookies, and candy, and fried food, etc) and eat it too. Now I shop around the edges of the store, cook all my meals (except 2) at home and rarely purchse processed or prepared foods. That's 'normal' - it's not something I do just for my weight, it's just the way I live because I feel better when I eat healthfully.

Now exercise is 'normal' and it a sceduled part of my day that I really look forward to, but before I only did it to lose weight. Sadly it took a medical problem to really make me wake up and make it part of my daily life. I don't really have a choice on this one - I exercise regularly and keep strong or I suffer (I guess I could just down lots of pain meds). I am ashamed that it took something so negtive to make me enact something that has been so positive. However irregardless of what it took to make me do it - once I carved out the time and made the commitment, it really wasn't that much of a challenge to keep it up. Exercise is simply one of the most important things in my life now and that's 'normal'.

Unfortunately in our world you have to chose to be healthy and live a healthy lifestyle - it is not the de facto standard by which we all live. In that respect I have chosen an alternative lifestyle and sometimes it's not always convenient, but to me it's normal, and it took a long time for me to be able to say that, but it's been so worth it!

Monday, April 23, 2007, 1:07 PM

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I agree with the above poster. The most important thing for me was changing my mentality from "I only have to work out until I lose the weight" to thinking about working out and eating healthy as a part of my life forever.

Monday, April 23, 2007, 1:34 PM

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Lifestyle change

Lifestye change was a wake-up moment for me when I got divorced in my 40's. I made some small lifestyle changes a little at a time. I elimated pop from my diet which were empty calories. That caused me to drop some weight. Next I started to walk everyday. Wow. They were not major life changes and I really dropped the weight. I just incorporated small lifestyle changes over time. Pretty soon I joined a gym in the area. I lost 75 lbs. Today I am still committed to those lifestyle changes and the weight is still off. I feel fabulous and better than I did in my 20's

Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 12:12 AM

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something happened when i turned 30, i've heard of people making drastic changes when that number of year hits.... i didn't think anything would happen to me other than the usual birthday depression. it did, i realized i truly wasn't a kid anymore and was officially an adult even though i already had a husband, mortgage and corporate job for several years. that number did something to me. it made me realize that i was chunky most of my twenties and i didn't want to starty my thirties the same way. it made me think that a lifestyle change for health is hard, and that it's only going to get harder the older i get, so i had better get the lead out.

changing my lifestyle, has more to do with losing weight, that's a just an added bonus!

it also had to do with that my dad is incredibly unhealthy, he's in his mid-50s a 3+ pack a day smoker and has already had two heart attacks, type 2 diabetes, he's working on kidney failure, he needs medication to make blood and all of it is completely cureable by diet and exercise. he refuses to take care of himself he's a stubborn mule of a man. his problems are all cureable, and i don't want to end up in the same boat as him... not a bit. when i turned 30 this last november, a switch flipped in my head to do something about it for real. my motivation is to be a good example to my dad to show him that it's possible to change things and it's not too late. and of course the bonus to have that hot bod i once had and not be embarrased to go to my hometown because i might run into someone.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 10:38 PM

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10:38 here-

correction-

changing my lifestyle has more to do THAN just losing weight, that's just an added bonus!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 10:41 PM

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lifestyle change vs diet is a huge epiphiny

Thursday, May 17, 2007, 11:55 AM

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