Black Team Week #1 Challenge thread-

I started this journey in June of 2008. Wow...really??????????? Ok June of 2008. I was my heaviest at about 170 or so, but I did not weigh myself in fear I would eat an entire chocolate cake in retribution.

An automobile accident had left me with a bad neck injury and it was my excuse to sit and do nothing. I went to bed in excruciating pain at 6 pm each night. Lay there watching TV, icing my neck, popping pills............and crying because I was no longer who I had been. Even overweight for 15 years, I still sodded my entire back yard on my own. I was very active and loved to work in the yard. The accident and injury took this away.............or so I thought.

I fell upon this site when searching for a weight loss site that was free. MFP popped up and it turned out I had already signed up in Jan of 08. Hmmmm I thought to myself, how many times will you do this?

I wanted to lose a few pounds because we were going to the beach for 4th of July, and the whole inlaw family were to be here. As I started eating better I found I wanted to move more. I added elliptical exercise 20 min each day and burned upward of 400 calories when I did (now 20 min gives me 100 cals but that is because I am in better shape!!

When I saw I needed to lose 60 pounds to get to the lowest of my BMI, and that I had actually BEEN a healthy 105 at one point in my life.............I almost gave up. What's the use I said, I will never be able to lose 50-60 pounds.

Then I saw Tamtastic's bio. At the time she had lost 98 pounds or so and was in such high spirits. She PMd me and said she did it all with exercise and diet and I could do it too.

At that time I started to use the message boards for support. In Jan of last year I had lost about 25 pounds and it was getting really hard. I joined the Black Team and over a year have lost another 10 pounds.

It is slow when you do it right. The change in my life is for ever and as I say in my ticker...........

"I am going to eat less and exercise more to get healthy.........if I lose a few pounds along the way BONUS!!!!!"

Jeannie

For those that don't know me a little about me:

Hi I am Amanda. I was a size 4 in highschool, got pregnant with ds in June after I graduated. Gained from there and never went back down. My ds is 14, 15 in March and my dh (his father) and I have been married for 13 years. Dh and I do math like Andrew and Beth. We also have two dds, one is 9 and the other is 5. Our 5 year old is our little angel. All of our kids are great, IMO, but Emmy was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome in April 2006. She is completely non-verbal, no hand function of any kind, walks but is losing that skill and soon I am afraid will be wheel-chair bound. She has seizures that are somewhat controlled with meds. Extreme anxiety, and while she is non-verbal, boy can she screamed. The worst of all this in my mind is that she knows exactly what is going on, but locked in her own body. Her laugh is priceless, her laugh makes the grumpiest person smile. She loves to "swim" in water and also loves watching the computer screen. She is the light of my life and my inspiritation. My dh is disabled due to a back and hip problems and so I realized real fast that Emmy is mine to take care of for the rest of my life or hers. I realized I needed to get healthy so I would be around a long time for her, but to be honest as my body is changing, I want my body back!

I homeschool my 9 year old and most days it is a battle but I know it is best for her. We are involved in church activities, also lots of 4-H activites. We have three mini Nigerian goats, geese, ducks, a rabbit, too many chickens to count, four cats as strays seem to know there is a "S" on my forehead and two big Golden lab dogs. I work 7 hours a week to pull some extra income and it gives me a nice break outside of the home.

Okay I wil shut up now! :laugh: