Working Mom with Lots to Lose! :)

Hello, MFP Community! My name is Kelly and I'm a wife and working mother of five amazing little people. I exercise at home to DVDs and am marginal at eating good (I usually stay within my calorie goal but don't make the best choices). I would love to add additional working moms as friends and am sharing my story as an introduction.

I am 5' 9" and started my journey at 247 pounds back in early 2012. I successfully lost nearly 50 pounds in the spring of 2012. My progress was derailed, however, when my beloved mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She was initially told she had just weeks to live, but she was a fighter and prevailed for almost six months. I became mom's primary caregiver and was completely overwhelmed as I juggled my husband, my five kids, my career and my mother's care. Every minute of the juggle was worth it because I had the chance to serve my mom and the comfort of knowing she was well-cared-for.

Mom lost her battle just after midnight on Halloween in 2012. Having lost my dad suddenly to suicide when I was 22, I took her death hard, even though I had months to prepare for it. I struggled with deep depression for months and comforted myself with smoking (yes, the irony was severe) and food. I wound up regaining almost all of my weight loss and felt miserable.

I finally "came to" around the holidays this year and quit smoking. I also found a way to stop my middle-of-the-night binge eating. Now I'm back on track and am in a "no excuses" zone. With my body type, I do best with a mix of step aerobics and aerobics with weights. As I said before, I'm not the greatest eater in the world, but I log absolutely everything.

Well, this is probably the longest introduction in the history of MFP (can you tell I'm a talker?), so I will close with simply saying that I find a great deal of motivation in being accountable to my friends!!!