HI everyone, my name is Joy and I began to gain serious weight when I returned to college about 8 years ago. Worst case scenario really: started back at college at age 28, gained about 40 lbs in 1 1/2 years, and have had a hell of a time losing it, especially since I have turned 30 and now am looking at my 36th B-day this January. My current weight right now has remained around 191, but I am hoping that will change with next week's weigh-in. In the last 30 days I have gone to a more whole foods diet and have returned to yoga, doign it at least 3 times a week. I have lost (what I gained back over the summer months) about 9 lbs in the last 30 days. I have no doubt that much of that was only the initial water weight related to too salty of foods and alcohol. Oh ya, that is also something that I have gotten in check, not drinking as much. In fact, over the weekend I had some alcohol but that was the first time in over 2 weeks, and I can say for a fact that the 3 lbs I lost over those 2 weeks was directly tied to that, maybe not completely, but definitely related.

My biggest issue right now, I hate exercising, especially when it is hot and humid out. I don't mind walking but not when I can't breath b/c the air is too thick. It reminds me of the days when I was a smoker and had a hard time breathing in that crap. I also suffer from chronic pain in my back and sciatica. So very intensive exercise tends to be very painful, however, I do like the challenge, too so it is a love-hate relationship. I made it to day 36 out of 64 of the Insanity workout just before summer but had to quit when I severely turned my ankle. I will admit, that deflated my desire to exercise and I am still struggling to get back into that mode.

So glad Amanda started this group! I hope we can inspire each other:) MY goal weight is 135, but I will need to reevaluate that as I lose b/c my goal is not just being skinny but being healthy overall.

Hi Everyone!

Thanks so much for starting this group! I'm in the same boat as many of you!

I'm a pretty positive person, but am feeling a bit defeated at this point. I'm a foodie and an emotional (angry, happy, bored) eater. I've always been/felt overweight. I lost about 50 pounds, getting to within pounds of goal, in 2002. It crept back up, and with two back-to-back pregnancies, I topped out at 278 pounds at full term. I've lost much of the weight, but had some health issues last year that at first caused some very unhealthy rapid weight loss, followed by steady, depressing weight gain. My husband is very supportive and accepting of me at any size, which is good and bad, since he doesn't stop me from digging into the ice cream. . . Right now I have about 80 pounds to lose.

Every week, I feel motivated to get back on track, and make this happen! After a few days of behaving, the scale is moving in the right direction, and I allow myself to derail. I just can't seem to make the decision on a daily, hourly basis to be successful in weight loss. With three kids (6,5 and 18mo), I want to be healthy enough to keep up with them, and don't want to pass on a warped food relationship to them!!

I enjoy encouraging others and am pretty faithful to logging, so feel free to add me as a friend!