From skinny to fat

Yes, that's me!
I stopped putting me first and ate too much trying to find comfort ( emotional eater).
Problem with being thin ( until my mid twenties) is I continue to see the fat girl in the mirror even though I've come a long way.

What I am doing now is putting myself and my needs on the top of the priority list. I will not fail again! My weight has yo-yo'd many times in my adult life...but, this time is going to be different because this is my new lifestyle!

Good luck on your journey! I am rediscovering who I am on mine

Making a long story shorter, I went from being super super thin to reasonably fit in my 20s and then had a severe back injury (prolapsed disc). In addition to this I had moved overseas to England. I was able to control my weight because I walked. Then I got a car after a while and that's when the weight started creeping up. By then I had really fallen out of the habit of getting vigorous exercise, even though I missed it, but was also wary of getting injured again. Gradually I went from average to a few pounds overweight. I had also been battling a lot of work stress and depression. I just wasn't comfortable in my skin in general and just a shell, trying to come to terms with the fact that I'd left behind all my family, friends, familiarity and country, and had to adjust to a new, foreign place.

This year I decided to invest in a gym membership and it improved my life tremendously. I'm just back to a normal weight, though I'd like to be super fit so I'm aiming for about 10 more pounds. :smokin: I'm also wanting to build up strength and stamina for the potential of pregnancy and motherhood in the future.

Where I used to be too tired to cook and we often ate ready meals, now I have genuinely started to enjoy cooking as a solace in the evening rather than just vegetating on the internet. Most importantly I just have so much more energy again and it helps collar the depression beast. (Still get PMS grumps though)

I was always that annoying super skinny girl that everyone thought was anorexic, 5'6, 110 pounds, 24 inch waist. Then I turned 30 and got a desk job, and discovered snacks, all in one year! The result: I'm now 165 pounds, with a 37 inch waist, just 18 months later. No one, least of all me, can believe my transformation, and having been spoiled by a fast metabolism all these years, I'm finding it hard to deal with emotionally. It also makes it hard for me to commit to conscious eating.

I looked in the mirror one day and realized that this was all up to me. I quit making excuses for why I couldn't do it. I listened to people on MFP and here's what I learned:

Eat at a caloric deficit from your TDEE
Weigh, measure & log everything you eat - Everything
Find exercise that you like and do it consistently
Most importantly: BE PATIENT

Now I'm doing it. So the question is - Why not you?

I'm also one of those super skinny girls where it was easy to maintain my weight (127 lbs and 5'7") until I hit 40. After that, the lbs. started creeping on until one morning, I hit 150 lbs at 55 years old. I felt awful. I'd gone up two sizes in my clothes. That skinny girl was still inside me but I couldn't figure out where she went and why I couldn't eat like I used to. Once I decided that I was NOT going over 150 lbs., I got serious and joined MFP. I've only lost about 10-12 lbs, but it makes a huge difference. I'll never be that 127 lb girl again (which I had to come to terms with), but at least I feel good and fit in my clothes again. It's a really tough adjustment, both physically and mentally for us former beanpoles. .