Thanks everyone for the kind words. About the trip to Disney, I teach college and need to coordinate my vacation around school. Right now, I will be giving my last final on Tuesday December 6. I will need to grade the test that night so I can fly out on December 7. I've already booked 7 of 9 nights through OKW. I'm going up to Universal for the weekend. Last year, I was able to ride the Mummy but couldn't ride DD or Hulk. I've been watching the DING rates on SWA out of Columbus as well as Airtran's rates out of Akron and Dayton. I also have a travelocity fare watcher for those airport for the major airlines.
AnneMarie - My biggest tip would be to find a plan you can live on 90% or better of the time. If followed correctly, I think any of the major plans can lead to weight loss be it low fat, low carb, SB, WW, counting calories, etc. The key is finding the one that works best with your body and lifestyle.
Second, get out and move. I have to admit I haven't been doing as much of this as I should this summer but exercising does help.
Third - If you have a lot to lose, break the task up into smaller mini-goals. Also, don't let the scales be your only measure of success. Sometimes the scale doesn't move but your size changes.
Fourth - Take pictures of yourself. I find I have a much more objective look at myself by looking at a pictures than I do even looking in the mirror. In my minds eye, I never saw myself as big as I was in some of the camp pictures. By contrast, now, I think I look better in pictures then what I do when I look in the mirror.
To be honest, I hate to admit it but there was also some luck, or blessing from God, involved that allowed alot of things to come together at the right time. I had just booked my airfare on SWA to go to orlando a year ago on my first solo trip. I was watching "airline" and it was one where they required the person to pay for an extra seat and I thought they don't look that much bigger than me. I hadn't needed an extra seat before but was definately more comfortable with the arm rest up.
About a week later my brother who is about the same size as I am, mentioned he had started the SBD and had lost about 20lbs. I figured if he could do it, I could do it and started on SBD about a week later after I was able to read up more on the program. I started 3 weeks before I was to leave for WDW. Because I weighed about 375, I didn't have a scale to weigh myself. I had went to my brothers after I had been on the program for about 2 weeks and finally weighed myself at 365lbs. I officially joined WISH after returning home had asked some questions about what I was going to do to eat on program at WDW. After some looking I found a scale E-Bay I could afford that would go to 440lbs.
I had everything planned out for my trip. I had 5 nights booked at BWV (my first time not staying at OKW) followed by 1 night by the airport for the flight home (booked via priceline). Then, hurricane Francis hit when I'm supposed to be leaving. I called SWA and moved my trip to Tuesday Through Tuesday. Was able to add Saturday night to my priceline reservation. DVC changed my BWV reservation for Sunday and Monday to OKW reservations the next Sunday and Monday. All before the hurricane hit. Made it to Florida had a great time. Switched rooms alot but had a great time and at times almost had the parks to myself. While at Univeral Studios, I was just able to ride ROTM. Had I not started losing weight, I don't know if I would have fit or not.
When I returned my Scales from E-Bay had arrived (later than I expected) and weighed myself at 350lbs. Backtracking from those 2 weighings is where I get my estimate of 375lbs for my starting weight.
Early on, you can see there were a lot of thing that went together to get me on a great start. I lost most of the weight looking back very quickly. I droped below 300 lbs by mid January. 75lbs (including in a little over 5 months.) My weight loss since then has been slower. From April 15th to now, I've only lost 10lbs. At this pace the rest of the weight is going to come off slowly but at this point as long as I not gaining and at least going down slowly I'm happy.