New to MyFitnessPal/Working on Primal/Paleo lifestyle

SherryTX

Good afternoon everyone!
I joined this site a few days ago. I have been a member on another similar type of site for several years, which has good tools and features, but its kinda too buys in terms of the design - lots of ads (nothing wrong with that by the way), and I found the layout of the site just really hard on my eyeballs and way too busy. I heard about this site, so figured I would give it a shot. Plus, I will admit, I wanted to "start over" somewhere new because I have a yo-yo track record over there hahah. No, I didn't get any bad vibes from anyone about that, but you know how sometimes you just want to start over and you feel you need to be around new folks/enviroment to get motivated? Well, that sums it up for me.

I have been a yo-you dieter for the last 20 years, though this year I paid a lot more attention to friends that were making actual LIFESTYLE changes, not just going on a diet and working out like hell for a few months (or a few years) and then hoping that they could stop after they hit their goal weight. Which is what I had been doing - I went through good periods of dieting, exercising and then boom - hit a wall and all the weight I lost came back, and brought friends.

I have seen some friends in real life that I respect, plus followed some folks online I had met that have had great success with Paleo/Primal type lifestyles. So that is what I have been working on. I gave it a test run, you could say, this summer, and found that even though I didn't hit it 100% (maybe 70%) I felt SO MUCH BETTER: my energy, my attitude, my sleeping habits - AND I was still a smoker then. And I hadn't even started exercising yet. I believe I lost around 20lbs....maybe over 3 or 4 weeks (sorry I wasn't keep track as well as I should have). Of course, I got distracted again with work, and the kids (who I refer to as minions) and just general stress of life. I did gain some of it back, but not all of it. AND I found that on those days I made even a moderate effort to eat better, I could feel some benefits. More importantly, I was on it long enough that when I went back to more of my old eating habits it was easier to recognize very quickly "wow - living like this makes me feel like total crap!"

One thing, though, I was still smoking, up to a pack a day. When I decided I needed to try to move towards the paleo/primal lifestyle again, I needed to tackle the smoking FIRST this time. I had quit two years ago for a year, and a few years before that had quit for 15 years. I had quit cold turkey both times, so realized I needed to do it differently and got some nicotine gum, which I hadn't tried before. So far, in the last 3 weeks I have only had 1 pack of cigarettes (day 13 and day 14 after I had started on the gum - well it had been a really tough tough week, and I gave him, got off the gum and bought a pack, but then got right back on the gum when the pack was done). I knew I was probably going to gain some weight, which I have, but figured it would be worth it so I could do mild exercise again.

I live in TX (where we had a summer from HELL), and have 5 (4 at home) kids, am married, 1 dog, 2 cats and 2 ferrets. I just recently started walking my dog this past week (30 to 60 minutes a day). So my challenges have a lot to do with, well probably what most have: time and energy (or lack thereof) and making sure I can get food that all of them will like, most of the time. Hey, I am not a monster, but my kids always have enough to eat, so if occasionally they say at meal time "yuk, I don't want that, thanks I will skip this time" they will not starve so I let it go. Or sometimes will have a healthful alternative on hand that they may not love, but will tolerate so their stomach will not tie itself in knots, lol.

Anyhoo - that's my story, and hopefully I can stick to it, lol.
So far this seems like an easy to use and read site with supportive folks, so I am looking forward to being around.
Thanks!