Hello! Here is my (longish) story!

Hey there,

I've never been much of a forum user. I get bogged down with the idea of checking it regularly but I have been thinking that having some support will keep me on track. So, hello, my name is Gabrielle and I am 27 years old. Right now I weigh about 215 pounds. The highest weight I have been is 320, and I lost most of that after having a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy two years ago. I didn't get the miracle bod that people think you will prior to having it done but, man, I wouldn't go back and change it for anything. I was so lost inside my own self-hatred/self-defeat back then. I didn't think I would EVER lose weight and so I resigned myself to a life of misery. Having that surgery gave me the jump start I needed to go forward and never look back. Now, I lost about 130lbs after the surgery (which, for those of you with superb math skills) put me at 190. This last six months or so I went nuts with the calorie intake and put on quite a few pounds. The idea behind that surgery is that you cannot eat much anymore, but, as anyone who has explored that avenue has heard, you can certainly eat around that. And in my case, I drank around it. I became a bit of a booze hound by accident. Stupid transfer addictions. That, however, is a thing of the past now and I am itching to get back on track. A little over a year ago, I fell in love with running. After pushing myself for a long time I was able to run a 5k race and pretty much run 3 miles 5 times a week. I kept that up for a long time, adding in hiking and other types of outdoor exercises. I have spent the last year hitch hiking around the country and I never kept track of exactly what that meant calorie wise but I can see in my shoulder muscles what months on end of carrying 70 pounds on my back will do. Also, the traveling is a life style for me that I intend to continue. My fiancee and I have just recently bought and RV we are restoring so that we can continue to travel but it'll be less stressful on ourselves and our big dog. Unfortunately, traveling in an RV will be a lot less exercise oriented so I will have to push myself to get out there. We both love hiking and nature, though, so I think I can do it. So, all in all, I have set myself up with a goal of 170lbs. I'm about 5'7" but I am rather muscular in places, and while 170 isn't my ideal recommended weight, it's what I think I'd feel most comfortable at and, when I get there if I decided to take it further, so be it. Right now, 170 it is. I have been tracking my calories and exercise for a good three weeks now and have lost about 5lbs. Most of my exercise comes from the treadmill and shoveling snow (stupid North East weather) but I have recently taken up a temporary gym membership and my super fit, marathon running mother has been beating me up there as much as possible. My biggest issue with dieting is that I just CRAVE food all the time. It doesn't have to be junk food, and it's mostly at night when I'm done for the day. But once I sit down to relax for an hour before bed, I turn into a human vacuum. I can't even get myself to stop thinking about it! Does anyone else have this experience or have any ideas on how to curb it? I am not about to let myself get back into the rut I was in a few years ago, I AM dedicated to being happy and healthy! Thanks for listening to my long, poorly structured story!