Thanks to all of you for the kind words. It just seemed when I was honest about the shop and closing it down some of you and I wont name named chewed me out and allof us are here because we let our weight go.

So for you who support me and understand thank you so much. For those of you who have a harsh word for me. you yourself are here for a reason aren't you. So look in your own back yard before you talk about others

If you stick around this board long enough, you will see MANY people come here and state that "they are making this their way of life forever", then in 2 weeks you never hear from them again. The statics say that only about 5% of us are successful. It has nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence or dedication...those are the facts. Many people (like myself) start and restart a number of times before they succeed.

So most of us are just a statistic and are going to fail? So why are we bothering? Just chalk me up as a stat and I'll go off and eat a bag of chips and some 'za, get drunk and party like it's 1999, if I'm not going to make it anyway.

We live in a society that expects instant gratification--and losing weight isn't "instant"--it takes hard work, a lot of thinking and adjusting our lives and our food to reach our goals. How many times have I read "I've been on Atkins for (insert number) of days and have lost only(4?) of lbs. What's wrong?" What's wrong is lack of patience, getting educated (read the book!) on losing weight and then working the plan. It's working the plan that is so hard and most people don't have the patience for it.

I don't think it is so much the matter of "cheating" that causes us to fail, as we all fall off the wagon, it is getting back on the wagon again and making it a real WOL that makes for success. JMHO

i've seen just as many people who truly HAVE made this a way of life, who come in and post every day, who are here for the newbies to help get them on the right path and answer their questions, who are generous with their knowledge and want nothing more than to see everyone else succeed too.

i'd like to think i'm one of those people as well.

sticking to anything in life has EVERYTHING to do with intelligence and dedication. you need to be smart enough to not set your goals so high that they're unattainable, and to realize that true success takes time. you need to have enough dedication and determination to realize true gratification is not instant, that ups and downs are part of life and not a reason to give up entirely.

the ones you're describing are in the minority... they insist that this IS the life for them without understanding that massive changes need to be made. they can't understand why they can't have KFC and don't see why one slice eaten during the family pizza night is a big deal, or give up because they ate nothing but atkins nutritionals food and didn't lose an ounce. they want all the benefits with none of the sacrifices.

for every person we see who disappears after 2 or 3 weeks because they didn't drop 30lbs in 16 days and decides low-carb is too hard, we see 2 more who quickly learn that low-carbing is different than any other weight loss attempt they've made. they are the ones who adjust and adapt and stick to plan because they know rewards will come.

droppin has made a huge sacrifice and i wasn't trying to belittle that in any way. i'm not questioning her desire, drive, or dedication to losing weight. i honestly hope she sticks around and has as much fun here as the rest of us do. she simply made a choice i wouldn't have made. that's fine.

I was being very sarcastic when I wrote what I did. I've said this many times all over different forums, that it took a long time to put the weight on and it's going to take a long time to take it off. I'm not in a race. If I lose slow, I lose slow. At least the scale is heading in the right direction.

What I've bolded adds to what I was stating in previous posts. It's being able to overcome underlying food issues that helps us succeed and until we head those issues face on, we're never going to be where we want to be and that is slim, healthy, and happy and those issues are still going to be there until we beat them down.

Phew! you had me worried!

Amen to that!

I'm sorry that you've had to close your shop.

There is absolutely no way I could work at an ice cream shop and NOT indulge myself. Heck, I can barely even drive by Cold Stone without pulling over, so having to be around ice cream as part of my living wouldn't work well for me either! Hopefully you get such a huge return on your initial investment!

Good Luck!

Thank you all and for those of you who say yo ucan still low carb and be around ice cream, yes anything is possible but why don't you try to get around your favorite food and see how long you last for me I couldnt be around and not cheat.

Maybe some of you who judge me are perfect and wouldnt have a problem but I did and isn tthis site about support, not beating someone up or letting them know who great you are that you could of done it?

I couldn't have done it. Or a pizza shop, dough nut shop, candy shop, even a low carb ice cream shop would've done me in. That's the whole reason most of us are here, right? You did the right thing for you and that's all that matters.

Thank you so much Shy anne, but some people around here I think they forgot why they are here and like to judge people and thats just plain wrong. I come here for support not to get beat up

It's just like at work, for me anyway, you avoid the people that are so negative and hang out with the one's that you like. Some people here try to help you out with tough love. Sometimes they're jerks but sometimes they start a nagging voice in your head that makes you think. Ya know what I mean? Hang in there!

And sometimes this intelligence and dedication tells us that we need to know our limits and eliminate temptations.

If you are going to continue to insist that it is all about willpower and only about willpower - for everyone - then you to look at willpower from a different perspective. Tonya's decision to sell her shop is the ultimate display of willpower. Someone with a weak will would continue to run the shop and hide behind it as an excuse for weight gain. Tonya has displayed incredible will in committing herself to a difficult life change. To continue to subject herself to the temptations over and over and expect that one day it is going to get easier is ludicrous. Isn't that how Einstein definied 'insanity'? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? It sounds almost like that is how some people define 'willpower'. That's not very intelligent.

Tonya - I think you made a brave and intelligent decision. You obviously know yourself well, have set your priorities and are making the changes necessary to hit your goals. We are not all the same - our body chemistry is different and our personality types are different, and these both influence how we need to approach challenges in our lives to succeed. Don't try to measure your own success by someone else's standards. (But it sounds like you understand this and aren't letting the criticisms get you down!!!!)

Congratulations - and I wish you all the strength and will (hahaha) you need to stick to your goals!!!!!

First, good luck with your continued weight loss.

Second, At the risk of coming across like I'm beating you up here (which I'm not) ... nobody in this thread judged you. Nor did they beat you up. Nor were they jerks.

Everybody who posted here was trying to help. They offered other ideas to help prevent you having to close/sell your business. They were trying to HELP you ... closing/selling a business seemed like a last resort and the original post implied you weren't 100% happy with the decision. Perhaps more was read into the post than you intended. But nobody judged -and nobody beat up on you.

I can see how some of the posts could be interpretted that way ... BUT

A difference of opinion -which is what was expressed here - does not equate to judging or beating up upon.


Sorry - just my two cents because it seemed like people who were trying to help were getting blamed for soemthing they didn't do. Again, just my opinion.

The point of my post is that each one of must do what is best for ourselves to succeed. In Droppin's case that includes selling her business and getting a new career...she is dedicated to succeeding in a very big way and I applaud her for that. Doesn't matter if I could work in an ice cream shop or a pizza shop or whatever. She can't and it is her life and her health that should matter most to her. We should all be supportive of her decisions and encourage her to stay on this wol.