newbie to fitness and the boards :)

hello! my name is jennifer, i'm 27, from new hampshire, and i'm new here. i've put on some weight since my wedding in march 2010 and i've recently started exercising regularly to lose weight. i'm also exercising to improve my general health and also for the endorphins my hubby and i joined our local planet fitness gym about two weeks ago and we've been going a few times a week. i have to say i love it! i just got back from the gym and feel tired but good. i managed a whole 17 minutes on the elliptical, which may not sound like a lot to some people, but it's the longest i've been able to do so far and i feel quite proud. i also did the 30-minute weight circuit. if one of the bikes was free i would have done that, too, but i suppose there is always tomorrow!

in addition to exercising, i'm trying to watch what i eat. as you can probably tell by my username, i am a vegan, and a very committed and passionate one! i became veg primarily for ethical reasons, but it's also great for health benefits. i've always been slim my whole life, and i owe a lot of that to my vegan diet (and when i was younger, my high metabolism). right now i weigh the most i have ever weighed in my life, and i'm not happy with that. the weight could be due to my love of carbs, or it could be due to my hypothyroidism-- while my condition is being treated with supplemental thyroid hormone, my thyroid still likes to go crazy and my levothyroxine dose has been increased a few times over the past six months. so, while i'm not ruling out my weight gain being due to a possible underlying medical issue, it doesn't mean that i'm going to sit around and just do nothing!

i'm still quite new to counting calories and learning what real portions look like, and i have to say that i absolutely love this website (and the iphone app). i've tried various websites, and this one so far is the best.

thanks for reading my intro and i'm looking forward to chatting and getting to know others here!