h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To quote a conductor of one of the orchestras I play in...

Big Yay time (insert YAY here)! Target at last - hence the change to my personal space and my nickname getting too long again.

And so we start on the process of Maintenance - a six week programme of careful adjustment of calorie intake until we find a level that will cause neither weight gain nor weight loss. Then I start weaning myself off my food diary. That'll be strange - the word 'lifeline' springs irresistably to mind at this point.

Please excuse me - I'm feeling inordinately chuffed today...

and so on. You get the picture (or the smiley perhaps).

Hiya Mega Puppy,

Congrats on reaching your target weight !..Can i ask what club you did it with? Myself ive just joined weight watchers two weeks ago n im not doing too badly..9 lbs so far.Ive tried so many diets but none of them have relly worked for me as im very lacking in the will power department!..but this one seems to be doing the trick..so mmaybe ill see a size 14 (am an 18 now) again someday soon after all!

Hi JustMe - well done for losing 9lbs! That's over half a stone already!.

I went to a local club here in Wales - and it worked wonders. I lost eight and a half stone in just over 18 months, and shrank from a size 26 to a size 12/14

I hadn't tried losing weight before, and I just went for it. It's not easy, so well done and good luck!

If you want any moral support, I'm happy to provide it - after all I've been there and done it myself. If you haven't dropped by to say 'hi!' to Kelli (U181082) then I'd recommend that you do because she's on the weightloss trail as well.

Losing weight is boring, slow, tiresome, hard work - but the rewards are almost boundless and make the effort completely worthwhile. I'm glad I did it - and it was definitely worth it!

Keep up the good work - I'm rooting for you!

Thanks Mega-Puppy ,


My probs all started after i had my son..was just over 10 st before hand..n 11 after so that was no real prob..was 2 years later when i started having probs that i though were related to something i was being seen for..but turned out to be a huge ovarian cyst! by the time they took it away in feb 2001(it was like a football!) i was a huge 19st n in a size 30!(im 5ft8). After the op a fair bit of it dropped off cos i could do more exercise n stuff (before walking was really painful) n when my mum asked if id go to weightwatchers with her a couple of weeks ago i was 15 st 5.was a bit sceptical about it as im eally useless with diets..but it seems to be working!..ive not even ben really following the "points" cos i have no willpower...lol

I think the thing that helped me the most was the fact that I was so, so, so fed up with being stuck in size 26 clothes and only being able to shop in Evans and Elvi and Ann Harvey.

My sister set us all off when we came back from a Holiday in China where we were so very obviously overweight that she had basically had enough of it. My mum went to the club with her for support and I did the old 'I'm happy the way I am' routine rather than join them.

Then they lost the weight - and that made me change my mind. So I joined the club as well. 18 months later, I can no longer shop in Evans as *everything* is too big for me now!

To be honest, I don't think willpower is the be all and end all of weight loss. At the end of the day it's something that you've got to want to do *so* much that nothing will stop you. At least that's what it was for me (and I can be a bloody minded old bag when I want to be). I'm not saying that I was the 'perfect slimmer' because I wasn't - I nibbled here and picked there on the way (and no - the picks and nibbles didn't end up in my diary!). There were also quite a few occasions where I put weight on instead of losing it - but that's perfectly normal.

I also wrote a bit about it - based on the advice I received and my own experiences. I might revise it soon as I was still slimming at the time (note that I don't use the word 'Diet' - it's the wrong word, and the entry I wrote explains why I think that). It's at A707799.

Hang on in there JustMe, the benefits are so worth the effort!