Hey boom6, WELCOME and let me say I am blown away by how starkly HONEST your intro message is.

You know, you may not have a "magical day" this time around. Maybe instead, this time round, you'll have teeny tiny almost-unnoticed "moments" when you make a positive decision and, over time, all those teeny tiny moments will slowly add up. And you'll look around and realizing that you ARE already back on the path to good health.

Think of it this way. Before you lost weight that first time around, you were "driving" your body in a particular direction. For the sake of discussion, let's say you were headed EAST toward ObesityLand. One magical day, you decided you didn't want to go in that direction any more, so you whipped around and made 180 degree U-Turn and headed WEST towards HealthyLand! Yippee!

And you kept going in that direction for quite some time. But then, due to lots of bad stuff happening (let's think of it as "road construction" detours) you found yourself turned around and headed back EAST again. And now, sadly, you're right back where you were the first time you turned around...but there no longer seems to be anywhere for you to U-turn around.

Don't despair. Even if you can't turn 180 degrees, you CAN veer off ever so slightly from heading due EAST. Everytime you make a "right" decision, that turns you a degree or two AWAY from heading straight towards ObesityLand.

Little decisions add up.... "I will have steamed broccoli with my dinner this evening instead of french fries." "I'm going to toss away the top half of my hamburger bun." "Mr. Waiter, Please take this basket of bread or chips OFF the table. I do not want it." "Leave the croutons off of my Caesar salad." "I'm donating all these boxes mac&cheese and pasta and rice to the food pantry because I don't want to eat that stuff anymore." "I'm feeling down - think I'll go for a ten minute walk INSTEAD of browsing thru the cupboards looking for a snack." "Instead of vegging in front of the TV with a bag of chips, I'm gonna take a nice long bubble bath then paint my nails." BTW, I have found that freshly painted fingernails force me to stop snacking! :lol

Every time you make one of those little "right-turn" decisions, CELEBRATE IT by logging on here and bragging about yourself! I know that sounds weird cuz we're all taught that bragging about ourselves is not good. POOH on that! Bragging here will get you Kudos and positive feedback and will help make you want to do that action even more often.

And, with every right-turn, you WILL BE turning further and further away from ObesityLand and turning back towards HealthyLand.

Don't worry about the times you miss a possible "right turn." Just take as many "right-turns" as you can and celebrate when you do. Keep stacking up those little "right turns" and one day, you will look around and realize that, maybe 1/4 of a degree at a time, you HAVE turned yourself around 180 degrees again and you are headed straight for HealthyLand again.

YOU CAN DO THIS! And, if you'll share you tiny little victories with us, we will celebrate them with you.

BTW - start yourself a journal and join some of the support groups. Lot's of wonderful folks here and we are delighted to have you.