My story so far.

Hello there!

I just started here at myfitnesspal, and--really-- I just started my diet/healthier eating regiment. Here's my deal; I'm not overweight, in fact, I'm pretty thin for the most part.

But ever since I got back from a vacation during which I ate a LOOOOOT without much exercise other than walking (although I did do a lot of it), I've noticed a particularly unwelcome excess amount of jiggle in my stomach, hip, butt, and thigh regions. Normally i wouldn't be stressed about this, I'm generally happy with my body.

BUT, I come from an obese family. I know how easy it is to put on a few pounds that then turns into a few more pounds, and before you know it they won't come back off. I've grown up with lesson after lesson about how important it is to stay healthy.
What I've been trying to do with MFP is work out a low calorie day time meal plan (shakes, bars, lots of veggies), then allow myself to have a more diverse meal for dinner (still low carb, high protein & veggies with lots of nutrition). I also take Once-A-Days and I try to work out at least a little bit every day, with most of the non-cardio-based exercises focused on my abs & thighs.
My diet here is not about weight loss for me, it's about weight management.

Having said that, here's my issue. This is only my first week here, so I haven't expected big results, but I'm a little puzzled by something. I've been ending up eating the 1200 calorie diet (give or take a few hundred every day) that the programed put as my goal. I know that this is a particularly low amount of calories, especially since I'm not looking to loose a lot of weight, I am actually hoping to just loose fat and gain muscle, which I know would be more of a trade off in the weight department. But after the first week my weight hasn't fluctuated in the least. In fact, I've gained almost half an inch around my stomach, even working out and with the cut calories.

I'm hoping this is just a first week, just getting started, gotta eat breakfast more often and stay healthy while my body catches up thing. But I'm actually kind of worried that it might be the new Birth Control pills I started about three weeks ago. I'm afraid that this might be one of those things where I work out and diet and try to keep my weight under control, but the pills keep me at standstill, making things worse little by little. It's probably just me being paranoid, but I know these things happen sometimes, and I'm worried it's happening to me. I just can't figure out how I'm eating far less than I should be, and exercising, but am still gaining weight (and i'm pretty sure it's not yet muscle weight)

I'm not entirely sure what I hope to gain from writing this post, but I wanted to introduce myself and I guess I needed an outlet to tell my story. I can't talk to people i know about my "diet" because they just instinctively go "girl, you don't need to be losing weight!" and chastise me without looking at what I'm actually trying to accomplish and listening to the fact that I'm not aaaactually trying to lose weight, I'm just trying to work at being healthier. Although the one thing I do want to lose is at least a little bit of this jiggle...

Anyway. Hi, again. I'm Cyn. Nice to meet you. I welcome any opinions about my issue, and any ideas about what might help me out. For now, I think breakfast & keeping up my metabolism is a big one, so that's my mission this week.
After that I'm working on boosting my calorie intake back up to healthy levels (i actually haven't been eating too little on purpose, which is weird) and figuring out my future goals!

Nice to meet you and good luck to you on your own mission!