Newbie

Hello all! I'm tired of the way I look and the way I feel and think I'm finally ready to do something about it. Back in high school, I had a metabolism I would kill for now. I was 5'9 and barely 115 pounds and ate total crap. My normal breakfast when I was 18 was a donut and Mountain Dew before school! I was an athlete who would polish off a big juicy cheeseburger, large order of fries, throw back another large Mountain Dew and play a full game of Basketball without gaining a pound and batting an eye. I continued my basketball career into college along with my poor eating habits. I did gain weight while I was playing college ball but we were also on an intense weight lifting schedule so the weight gain could be chalked up to that. After two years I hung up the sneakers and the freshman 15 landed in my lap. Yup, I was still eating like crap only now, my activity level was reduced greatly and I was hitting the bars. I went from 135lbs after my sophomore year to 160 by the end of my junior year. It's bad when your Grandma suggests switching to Light beer and the sad this is, that's what I was already drinking!

Fast forward 2 years and I met the love of my life, got married and started our family. That was 2001 and I weighed 168 on my wedding day and wore a size 14 wedding dress. I don't remember what my weight got up to during my pregnancy with our first son but I know it was close to 200. I lost a few of those pounds and in March, 2003 weighed in at 178. I had the mind set that we were going to add to our family so why work to get the weight off when it was just going to come back when I got pregnant again. Man, I realize now how wrong I was. Our second son was born in October 2004 and I topped out at 204. I was HUGE! I see pictures of myself pregnant with him and don't recognize myself.

Now, my baby is 8 years old and I still have "baby fat". (Can you still call it that when it's 8 years old??). I step on the scales every morning even though I know your weight will fluctuate from day to day but it helps keep me in check. This morning, I the evil thing said 190 I have managed to get some of the weight off and in fact I was doing awesome in the Fall of 2011. I found Zumba and was working out 2-3 times a week and was getting close to the 170's and lost about 6 inches. But then I was having issues with endometrosis and opted to have a full hysterectomy November, 2011. Good news, I'm pain free now and feel so much better! Bad news, my metabolism went straight to the dumpster! Weight slowly started creeping up again. Throw in a high stress job (which I've since left) and you get me to where I am today. Ready to say goodbye to this extra baggage and say HELLO Sista! to the me that's been hiding.

My husband is very supportive of me even though he can eat anything he wants, have as many beers as he wants and still stay 140 pounds dripping wet. I don't have a clear plan and how I'm going to do this. I guess that's why I'm here. I live in a rural area and work in a very small town (maybe 200 people:noway: ) It does have paved streets:happy: so I plan on walking over lunch when it gets a little warmer. I'm still going to Zumba but only once a week because of schedule conflicts. I've thought about taking up jogging/running but don't know if I can be successful with it. I hated running in basketball!

I'm really looking forward to this adventure I've decided to take on and getting support from all of you!
Tessa:flowerforyou: