Moving, depression and weight gain

cecsav1 wrote: »

Ummm... how tall are you? At 124 lbs, unless you're super short, you're unlikely to be overweight.

I'm pretty sure this is exactly the opposite of what she was looking for.

Again, my apologies sincerely, my comment was out of concern, not any kind of ill will. I obviously misread your intent, and the fault is all mine. I did not respond in the best way possible, but wish you luck in your journey!

I'm in a similar situation so I completely understand where you're coming from!

We moved about a 1 1/2 yrs ago from a major TX city (lived there for almost 15 years) to small town MD due to my hubby's job transfer. While I have some people here that I'm friendly with, I have no true friends here like I did in TX (I've always found it hard to make true friends). I was fortunate enough to keep my job and worked out of a sister division office for a few months until that division was sold off and they moved in with their new owners. So now I telecommute full-time from my home office while hubby puts in 14 hour days (12 hours + 1 hour commute both ways). On the weekends I want to get OUT while he wants to stay home and chill so it's been a bit of a compromise there.

You didn't mention what kind of exercises you like to do (running, weights, classes, etc). If there are gyms in your area see if you can get a guest pass to try them out for a few days to find one that you like. We moved to an area that the closest gym is 10-15 miles away and is uber-expensive for what they have available. However, we do have a few decent walking paths (tourist town), so I jog 2-3 miles most mornings instead and now I'm trying to do some body weight exercises during the day - things like 10 push-ups while I wait on a report to run or dumbbell rows when I'm on a conference call (non-video ones obviously!).

I agree with jbee27 - I would go CRAZY here if I didn't at least have this job. On the days that I'm feeling really off and just need to be around people, I pack up work and head to the coffee shop in the neighboring town for a few hours.

Have you looked at adult education programs thru a local community college? I know the one in our area publishes a new class catalog every 3 or 4 months and offers a variety of classes during the days and evenings - foreign languages, painting, photography, cake decorating, fitness, etc.

What about looking for day-time volunteer opportunities or a part-time job? That would at least get you away from the neighbors for a few hours!

Feel free to friend me if you want.

I can sympathize. My husband and I moved back to the United States after spending three years in Japan for a job, where I stayed at home, due to being on a dependent visa. While in Japan, I filled my time with sightseeing, touring, travel, language learning, photography and also that was when I started really getting serious about my health and fitness. But when we moved back to the States, we were faced with a job search that had us living with my in-laws while he was on the job market. My in laws are very much NOT concerned with their health or weight and I struggled to continue healthy eating patterns and keeping up a certain amount of daily activity while fighting depression as the job search continued.

Things both got better and got worse when my husband secured a new position and we moved across the country. On one hand, we were out of my in-law's home and into an apartment of our own, which was fantastic. Unfortunately, we were in a town where we knew absolutely no one and now I was still at home, but without all of the novel things to do in Japan - and talking to my cat. By the way, my cat is a wonderful listener! Unfortunately, she wasn't really able to say more than "mrow!" when I started stuffing my face with chocolate, ice cream and just about anything else that slid back into previous unhealthy eating patterns.

What I ended up doing, after about six months and regaining more than half of the weight I'd managed to take off, was to join one of my local gyms. I picked one that was both inexpensive and within walking distance and it served multiple purposes for getting me out of the house, getting my steps in, getting a workout in and starting to meet people in the area. As it happens, within a couple of months, one of the gym's staff was leaving and I was asked to interview for a position there, which I did and successfully, so I added a job to my routine.

I will say that I'm still struggling a bit, but the best advice I can give you is to take it one day at a time and look for opportunities to get out into your new community and get to know people. Sites like Meetup might be good for that, just to get you out of the house and interacting with people who share similar interests as you.

Good luck!