Thanks for sharing your stories !

Well where can I start...... I'm a wife and mother of 4 children, and work full time.

I guess at some point in my life I forgot about me.... My husband and children came first while juggling work it was a never ending circle. When I met my husband I was at a size 8 now I'm size 22( yay!! Seriously).
I hated looking in mirrors and taking pictures ( I haven't taken a family photo for over 7 years)
I guess my turning point was giving birth to my last child, the pregnancy went well but giving birth I nearly died and was unable to be with my child for a while, I'm so greatful for a second chance!!
Reality is I don't know where to start but I know that this is not about weight loss alone but it's a journey of discovering who I am loving me and for being more healthier for myself and family.
Simply things like playing in the park without being out of breath within minutes, and yes of course being that women my husband fell in love with( even though he says he loves me for me)

My short term goal is to get from a size 22 to a size 18 then evaluate once again.

Any advice would be helpful!!

I was a sedentary kid but wasn't overly fat. I remember weighing myself when i was 18 at the end of high school and i weighed 65kgs which was "overweight" for my age and height. I always had a body image problem as most of my friends were skinny.
Around a year later i started hitting the nightclubs and everyone i hung out with was into party drugs. I got the taste of it and couldn't go clubbing without them. Before long i had dropped a *kitten* load of weight and loved it. At my lowest i weighed 49kgs. My mum thought i had anorexia at one stage. But even then i still had a body image problem. But of course when i stopped partying i put some of the weight back on.
Fast forward 4 years and i decided to give up smoking cold turkey. I lived on top of a massive hill so i decided to walk it everyday (sometimes twice a day), i also did squats,push ups and crunches. I gave up simple carbs. I was sucking on lollipops to curb my ciggie cravings and also ate mints (not chocolate ones). I don't how much weight i lost as i didn't weigh myself but looking in the mirror i could tell i had lost abit and when we went on holidays to visit family everyone complemented me on how good i looked.
Fast forward three years and i fell pregnant with my first child. I remember someone saying eat what you want enjoy it. The first five months i craved cheeseburgers and quarter pounders. I didnt have the energy to exercise as i worked. I put on over 30kgs. After i had my daughter i talked about losing weight but never did anything about it until she was 4. I joined the gym and had lost 5kgs and then 6 months later i fell preggers again. This time because i was still overweight my midwife put me onto a food diary and i only managed to put on 16kgs this time around.
So when my son was 6 months old (July 2013) i started my weightloss journey again. I was 73kgs. I had my doctor put me on Duromine (an appetite suppressant) and with proper eating habits and exercise i lost 4kgs in one month..69kgs. I was seeing a personal trainer twice a week and i also did a 12week challange twice. A friend and i also worked out together 3 days a week. By December 2014 i had dropped 14kgs (i was 4kgs off my goal weight). Then i lost all motivation. I stopped working out and started eating crap and drinking alcohol. By November 2015 I had put on half of what i had previously lost.
With me Iv never had a problem with the exercise, its the junk food and drink. So I started back up with my trainer once a week, started eating better (not completely good though).im down 4kgs (could have been more but iv fallen off the wagon a couple of times in between).
I just want to feel good about myself again but its hard when my partner isnt a healthy eater or into exercise. My mum is obese and my 2 sister are really overweight aswell. I dont want to be like that and thats my why.

Being raised in a family of 4 girls I was always the “fat” one. As a teen at 5’3” I had lousy eating habits and weighed in at over 150 lbs. I might not have been the fat friend, but I was by far a skinny/healthy looking kid. I would come home from school starving and eat an entire bag of tater tots with ketchup (mmmmmm... haven't had those in DECADES). Food had no boundaries for me. Food was my companion.

I was the odd girl in college in that prior to my freshman year I joined a gym (for all the wrong reasons - see my bio page) and DROPPED 15 lbs. That’s when I developed a love of lifting weights.

With the birth of my two sons (1999 and 2002) I was back up to my 150+ lbs.

In 2009, with two herniated discs in my lower back and not realizing how out-of-shape I was, my stars collided:

- I took up tennis and threw my back out to the point I couldn’t walk
- I started reading Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet
- I tried running which caused me to injure my iliotibial bands
- I had a girlfriend who was trying to get me to buy a facial line of skin care because it was “better for me.”
- I went out to dinner with a friend who looked amazing. He did it by going back to the gym and lifting weights “an hour every morning with some cardio.”
- I was approaching 40 and was determined that I was NOT going to look frumpy and 40!

Something clicked in me. I realized at that moment that I needed to do what I LOVE (lift) and not what the skinny chicks in my neighborhood did (jog), and that if I care enough about what I put ON my skin, shouldn’t I care about what I’m putting IN my body?

I committed to myself to change. Within three months of eating “clean”, logging every bite into a spreadsheet (MFP before apps were born), and working out, I went from 150 to 127 lbs. I went from size 12 to size 4/6. I had a skin condition on my forehead that cleared up (and has been gone since). I slept better, had more energy, could fit into my clothes, and was happier with my attitude! Since then it's been maintenance (a lot of ups and downs), but maintenance that I'm happy to deal with.

I have yet to determine what my challenge will be starting Monday. I joined because I am continuously inspired by those who walk the walk, talk the talk, and have overcome obstacles to get where they are. I’m determined to not live within the typecast of my friends who are starting to whine “it sucks getting old!" No, it does not suck getting old... It sucks LETTING yourself get old. I’m proof that you don’t have to settle, you can change. And I want to continue to change, push my limits, evolve, and be the best I can be.

Wowza....great inspiration! Mine is pretty basic. I was always fit, not skinny-fat, but actually fit. Trained regularly in the gym, competition stuff. Also running marathon style....I used to run regularly 8 to 10 miles a day. Crazy business maintaining that.

"Life" happened....marriage happened, twins happened, divorce happened, major auto accident happened.....NOW I am getting MY life back again.

It's not a very moving or emotional story, it's not an inspirational story, but it is a basic story and sometimes BACK TO BASIC is the foundation we look for to rebuild again.

As always, MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!