Hello from Georgia

lzbth531

My name is Liz. I'm 24 years old and I'm currently getting my Masters in Social Work. I graduate this coming May (2010). I'm planning a wedding--my fiance and I have been together for 7 years and engaged for 3 months and plan on getting married in the summer of 2012. I'm 5'4"-ish and the last time I weighed myself on my scale I was 186lbs

I'm not very new at this, and perhaps a lot of us aren't. About 4 years ago I jumped on the exercising and eating healthy bandwagon and lost just over 20lbs. I felt amazing. Then I graduated college and my (now) fiance and I moved from Chicago to Atlanta and everything sort of went downhill. I loved Chicago and missed it (and still do) everyday and even though I had already been dealing with depression, I finally decided to go down the road of taking medications. First I went on Prozac and even though I felt "better" I didn't have a care in the world about anything. It simply made me number and I started gaining the weight back. I also wasn't working out. Then, because I wasn't feeling anything, I went back to my doctor and she changed me to Wellbutrin and I feel "normal" again. As normal as I can, anyway. I stopped gaining weight at that point in time after I switched, but I wasn't losing anything and I certainly didn't have the lovely side effect of losing weight from not eating as she said I might. But, I stopped gaining. During my first year of grad school, I didn't gain a pound but I was fluffing out--all the muscle that I gained is gone. This semester, I gained 10 more pounds to bring myself up to 30 gained pounds. Lovely. Now I'm ready to lose it but I'm so anxious every time I think about it because I think about losing it all and feeling so great and then I've gained it back and I don't want to work hard again to lose it. None of my clothes fit and I hate myself for allowing myself to gain it back.

So, here I am, trying again. I know it's going to take time and I need to be dedicated and it's not going to be easy. So any motivation you can give, will be great. I need it. I need words of wisdom, suggestions, advice.

AnneElise

Welcome to MFP.

My advise is to log all of your food before you eat it! I sit down every morning and log what I am going to eat that day. It helps me to know what and how much I can have. Then if I eat differently, I go in and change it.

Drink all of your water!!

Good Luck with your journey!

Lisa0711

Welcome Liz! I'm in Georgia too. This site is the best to help you lose weight. I know how it feels to lose weight and be happy with yourself and then gain it back again. But at least I'm sure you learned from that, as I know I did. And as they say, if you did it once, you can do it again! Also.. It's helpful to join a group on here and take advantage of the message boards. They help so much! I know I don't have anyone I can talk to about weight loss around where I live, but I've found so many positive and helpful friends on here!! I'm sure you'll do the same.

Good luck to you on your weight loss and wedding planning! (I'm also planning my wedding set for September 25 this year!!)

tamcdonald

Hi, i am from Texas and I finally decided that since I don't have a great support system where I live, then why not find a suppport system online. I heard of this site on Weddingwire.com and decided to see what it is all about. I started my weight loss journey on November 19, 2009 at a starting weight of 204, now I am at 197. So 7 pounds in one month to me seems like nothing but I hope that will soon change. Good luck to any and everyone that is on this roller coaster.

lzbth531

Welcome! I hope you find support here. I'm sure that we'll all be willing to offer what we can.

I am a member of weddingwire.com as well. I was on theknot.com for awhile but I liked what weddingwire.com had to offer for a wedding website much better--I loved that you can personalize it more than the one on theknot.com. AND, the ladies that are on the knot are not too nice in the forums. I wouldn't suggest really ever posting much on there...

Anyway, are you planning a wedding as well?

7lbs in one month is a great start! If you figure that the healthy way to lose weight is 1-2lbs/week and there are approximately 4 weeks in a month, then you are right on track Keep it up!

lzbth531

I wish we were getting married next year But we decided to wait since I'm graduating grad school in May and will hopefully be able to find a job which will help with our wedding costs. We haven't even begun making any sort of decisions regarding it because as it stands right now we have no money to put toward anything and neither of our families are helping with the costs. I do know where I absolutely would LOVE to have it--The Piedmont Room in downtown ATL and I'm pretty sure my colors are going to be light pink and green. So, as of now, the wedding date is summer 2011 so that we have time to save money and whatnot. Plus, I would love to go to Europe or Paris for our honeymoon and that will take some saving of money.

I was a member of sparkpeople.com before when I lost weight the first time but it's gotten so, publicized and way too involved. This is more low key and seems more user-friendly. We shall see. I think that I just need a change to get back into the whole eating healthy and weight loss thing.