Hi there! =D

Hi! I'm Valkyrie. =D
No, that isn't my real name. Valkyrie is just my favorite word as of late. =P
I guess I'll start off with the magical tale of my successes and failures with weight loss.
Dun dun DUUUUUUN! Cue flashback!
(Skip along to the bottom of the wall-o'-text if you're not a fan of reading.) ;D


From age 11-13, I was thin, fairly muscular and naturally active. I never stopped to think about why I looked the way I did, I just assumed that it was because of what everyone around me always said; "You're lucky!"
Psh. Yeah. I abused that luck for all it was worth... I ate whatever the heck I wanted, and I ate a LOT.
I don't think I really became overweight until I was about 14, but I didn't even notice at first. Although I was looking heavier, I wasn't insecure about it because I didn't notice the weight gain. I packed on the poundage slowly and steadily. Don't get me wrong, I had insecurities about lots of things just like any normal teenager, but I had never been concerned by my weight.
The rose-colored glasses didn't come off until somebody had to open their big mouth.
"Nice gut."
At the time, I was lying on my side, talking to a friend. I tugged at my shirt, checking to see if I was accidentally showing the skin of my midsection.
The boy cocked an eyebrow and stated matter-of-factly, "You look pregnant when you lay like that."
I was kind of taken aback, but I was more confused than hurt. After mulling this boy's comment over in my head for several days, I started asking those I knew one of the most cliche questions in the history of female existence;
"Do I look fat?"
Person 1: "You could stand to lose about 15 pounds."
Person 2: "You're not "fat", per se, but you're not thin, either."
Person 3: "I think you look cute. You have that "youthful round" look."
Yeah... Though each answer I received was slightly different, I got the message; I was overweight. I didn't know how to start losing weight, so I struggled back and forth with it for several months.
Finally, at 15 years old, I launched straight into a strict diet after doing very little research on it. All I knew was that those who did it lost weight rapidly, and that's what I wanted to do. Any guesses as to what that diet was? Yup. Low-carb. (Ack! Dumbest mistake ever!)
I was diligent. I exercised for an hour a day, and I coupled that with eating no more than 40 carbohydrates a day (I would sneak in a treat sometimes or go over my carb limit, but very infrequently). Ironically, as time went on I became even more obsessed with self-image than ever before and started hating the way my body looked, and that just fueled my drive to do whatever it took to look thin again.
Within two and a half months, I had lost 30 pounds. To celebrate, I shopped for a ton of new clothes. I felt great, I looked great and many people told me that I should become a supermodel. I was satisfied, so I slowly eased up on the strictness of my diet and started eating normally again.
Everything pertaining to my weight was peachy until I started college at 18 and became an emotional eater because of the constant stress that I was experiencing. My weight climbed to the highest that it's ever been in my life, and this time, I was miserable about the way I looked when this happened.
After trying and failing a bunch of different diets once again, I finally settled for calorie-counting because my friend's mother had been very successful in losing weight by calorie-counting.
Now 19, I started my adventure December 14th of 2012. I exercised every day but Sunday and became very aware of what I was eating each day. I had lost 17 pounds by March 14th. Although I still had 13 more pounds to lose, I was showered with tons of compliments. Unfortunately, I fell back under the fist of stress and the emotional eating began again, so I gained back the weight I had lost.
I think it's about time to try a different approach.
I've been told numerous times that diets do not work, and I had no idea what that meant until I read Bill Phillips's "Body for Life".
I learned that eating healthy and working out every day has to become part of my lifestyle. I can't just eat healthy and exercise for a certain period of time then go back to all of my old habits. I have to be willing to give up the luxury of eating whatever I want when I want, but not to the extremes that I attempted before.
I no longer hate my body, and I am not so incredibly insecure about the way I look now, but I do still have goals for weight-loss that are completely unrelated to my previous lack of self-esteem.
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If you actually managed to read all of that, bonus points and a pat on the brain for you. =P
So let's get back to my introduction;
I'm Valkyrie.
I'm 5'10, female and 183 pounds.
My current goal is to lose 33lbs and to get lean and muscular enough to have a visible chick's pack.
I would love it if anyone on this site could can help me to fulfill my dream.