New here...

amehrkens

Hello, I am new to MFP. I am hopefully nearing the end of my weight loss journey and I need a little help and I hoping this is the answer! My name is Amber I am almost 31 years old. I am mom to 4 kids. My hubby and I have been married for 10 1/2 years. I work part time Mon, Tues, and Wed each week. I have been over wieght my whole life and pretty much just lived with it. I knew I needed/should lose weight but I had no ambition to do so. I have also always been very healthy so my health was no motivation for me to lose weight. I also have a hip problem and I have had two surgeries on it and I am soon facing a hip replacement.....at 31 years old...sad! I should add that I am almsot 6 feet tall so I carry my weight better that a lot of people. In November of 2006 I gave birth to my 3rd child...this was my worse pregnancy for my hip, I was in so much pain during the last half that I couldn't enjoy my pregnancy. I also was nearing the heaviest weight of my life....320 lbs, I wish I could say it was baby weight but I only had gained 8lbs during pregnancy. The day I gave birth I decided this would be the last time I ever saw 320 lbs on that scale. I knew at that point that if I wanted to watch my children grow up I needed to change! I started right away with my eating habits and by the time I went for my 6 week check up I was down 63 lbs.....no exercise just watching what I ate and breastfeeding. I pretty much hit a plateau right there and even gained back about 20 or so lbs. So the follwoing fall I joined the work out center at my place of employment, and I dropped another 20lbs or so over the next few months. Even tho I wasn't losing weight I was losing inches and building muscle. The summer of 2008 I did the biggest loser program at my workout center. I lost another 20lbs and I was 17 lbs from my first goal of 100lbs lost. That fall I struggled to lose more weight and even put a few lbs back on, I was so dissapointed in myself.......the first of November I found out I was 10 weeks pregnant with my 4th child.....not planned and we were preventing it! I gained 26lbs during pregnancy and I was mortified, this was the most I had gained with any of my pregnancies, but I knew I had my mind set to lose the baby weight and get right back on the wagon. I lost 30lbs in the first week. I was 276 the day I delivered. Finally in November of 2009 I hit my goal of 100lbs lost and weighed in at 220lbs. I was so excited it took me 3 years and 3days...and had a baby in there! I continued to work out and I lost a few pounds here and there, May of 2010 I weighed 206 lbs. I was down 114lbs. I quit nursing my son when he was 11 1/2 months old and instantly gained 5lbs. In August of 2010 we went to Mexico to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and put on another 5 lbs while there. This past fall my hip started hurting really bad and I started milking cows for my dad who had shoulder surgery.......I skipped out on lots of workouts and let my eating habits go as well, I am now back to 226lbs, I have gained 20lbs! I feel miserable and like a complete failure. I started out the new year with a new look on life again and new goals! I started back to the gym yesterday and I started using MFP! I am going to do this! My goal is to lose the 20 I have gained and another 20 on top of it! I know what I need to do I just need to do it!

amehrkens

I see a lot of people have posted their goals so here are mine:
-to lose 10lbs by my birthday February 11
-to lose 40lbs by June 2 (my baby's birthday)
-to run a 5 k this summer ( I will most likely have my hip replaced this fall and my goal is to run a 5k by then...I feel like it might be my only chance)