My Story: Starting My Life at 25 Years Old. Friends or mentors welcome!

xMelMarie

Hello!

My name is Melissa and I'm 25 years old. I live in the (currently very snowy) St. Louis, MO area with my longtime boyfriend and our pup.

Since I was a teenager, I've always had body image issues and struggled with my weight. I have never maintained a healthy diet or stuck to an exercise plan, but have always lived a moderately active lifestyle with working on my feet and being generally active with friends.

Here's my weight story, in a paragraph

Ten years ago, age 15, I weighed 130 lbs. I started gaining weight when I got my driver's license and didn't have to walk everywhere anymore and could drive to pick up easily attainable fast food --- which unfortunately I still eat for many of my meals. Skip to age 17 when I weighed 170 pounds and until I was 23, I weighed between 170-190 lbs while staying pretty active as I worked on my feet. Fast forward to age 25, living a nearly sedentary lifestyle and working at a desk all day, I've finally tipped the scales at 220 lbs.

I've always known that I need to change my lifestyle and I don't, by any stretch of the imagination, think my journey will be easy. I know I need to make up for 10 years of horrible lifestyle habits! Somehow, I'm finally fed up and have mustered up the motivation.

I've decided to make this change for myself. I'd love to be able to look in the mirror and not only see progress, but like what I see! I want to believe in myself. I want to feel healthy and energetic. I hope I can actually not feel self conscious when my boyfriend touches my body and believe him when he says I am beautiful. I want to look hot in a wedding dress. I want to be comfortable in clothes other than yoga pants. I want to be an active mom and be able to keep up with her kids. I want to never develop Type II Diabetes. I want to not get winded after going on a walk or climbing a flight of stairs (not cute). I want to live a long, healthy life with my boyfriend, our dog, our future kids, and maybe even grandkids.

Who's with me?!

I started yesterday --- I've cleaned out my closet (literally and figuratively) and set aside all of my clothes that I've collected over the past five years that I can no longer fit into. I downloaded this lovely app and it looks like it has a great community and easy tools to meet my goals! I've logged my first meal and exercise activity. I've also joined the March Weight Loss Challenge! First weigh in: 218.4 lbs.

So, here I am to introduce myself and let the community know I welcome friends, mentors, anyone who is in the same place as I am to join me on my journey!

My journey starts today,
Melissa

FashionQueen86

I have a picture of myself that pretty much shows I've let myself go back then. And these pictures really bother me. I think the most I ever was, was 170, maybe 172. But for someone my height and age, I was overweight.

I've ALWAYS wanted to be that Va-Va-Voom woman, not a woman that has a belly poking out with a long boring butt, floppy arms and no body definition. I've bought tons of clothes I thought would fit me, but don't. And they are currently folded up waiting for a chance, but so many years have passed.

Losing weight is the hardest thing a human being can accomplish, especially with DELICIOUS fast food, junk food and other distractions that are easily available and everywhere. All the bad stuff taste good and that's what's hard to keep away from. For example, I was really looking forward to a Johnny's Pepperoni Pizza today, but I saw that just one slice was over 300 calories. Just ONE, and I only have a 1400 calorie bank daily.

I'm down to 155 now, but the lowest I saw myself ever was 150 but I exploded back up to 160 and then dropped it down some again. I'm trying to increase my protein intake, and start doing strength training, figuring if I get more muscles, burning calories would be easier.

I'm with you Melissa!