41 yr old, mom of 6, working on Nurse Practitioner

From the age of 32 onward, I have found the weight creeping in on me. I am a momma of 6 kids. I had my first three, Kolbi (19), Kali (17) & Kenna (15) in my early 20's. Then after 9 years of infertility we started our next round of babies. We've added Khloe (5), Kamille (4) & Karley (2). Yes, I have 1 son & 5 girls. LOL!

I was incredibly active throughout all my pregnancies & gained the right amount of weight. The problem is that at age 35, I was weighing in at 189 pounds. I was a member of MFP for a while but never really put much effort into it due to 6 kids, college & clinical rotations. But now ... well it is time.

Here is my issue! After giving birth to Karley 2 years ago, I developed postpartum preeclampsia (yes, after the pregnancy). That threw me right into a very rare, random form of heart failure. I have since recovered, at least on paper I look great, but still battle low/high pulse around the time of my menstrual cycle. There are days I feel great & there are days I feel like moving around is beyond a workout. Since exercise is tough for me at times, I am going to have to start slow.

I have about 65 pounds to lose now & I would love to have someone with similar issues, lifestyle, age to connect with for motivation & co-cheerleading. Despite having all this medical knowledge, I was given one very short semester in diet & nutrition therapy. I feel incredibly ignorant when it comes to eating right, exercising properly & knowing what to do to boost weight loss. Have I mentioned yet that I have a strong dislike for most vegetables?!?!? LOL! I am trying new things & last night was asparagus. It was horrid & I hated it. LOL! This is precisely the reason I've taken to juicing it or getting veggies in smoothies at this point.

I started walking & dieting this Tuesday. So far, I've managed to drop 4 pounds. Woo Hoo! I am weaning off caffeine now & it is going pretty well. I am open to any suggestions regarding boosting weight loss, exercise programs that would be a tad easier for me to do at this point with my health & any good suggestions on combating age & wrinkles would be a huge bonus too! :-)