Hi all!!
My name is Stephanie and I live in Southern California. I am 29 years old (30 is less than 4 months away!). I have wonderful and very spunky 6 year old girl. I work with her father to keep the courts out of our lives while keeping her in both of ours so I only have her half the time. My current boyfriend and I have been together for almost 4 years and are planning on marriage and more babies in the next couple of years. I work in IT fixing other peoples headaches and I love to play video games with my guy.

My problem areas are 1. Portion Control – a few years back I lost a lot by simply doing portion control but my wonderful boyfriend and I started dating he loved to cook and I kept trying to eat everything he served me (cuz it was GOOD and I was afraid of hurting his feelings) but luckily we are on the same page (or closer) as to what is a good portion for me. 2. Chocolate – I LOVE LOVE LOVE chocolate and junk food! 3. Bacon – it just makes EVERYTHING better! 4. All of my hobbies are very lazy hobbies. Video games, reading, crocheting they all involve sitting here and being lazy.

The main ways I am trying to lose the weight boils down to eat less, move more. I am never going to give up bacon or chocolate entirely but I don’t need several pieces one will do so I better make that one awesome! I am eating smaller portions and just got a Fitbit which is already making me want to get up and go for a walk WAYYYYYYY more often which is just what I wanted.
Anyway if there is anything I left out ask away! Looking forward to losing with you!

Goof for you Stephanie. Awesome to the fitbit, I herd they are really neat..I just got a body bugg but Haven't activated it yet... didn't realize the membership would be so damn much! lol

AAUUUGGGHHHHH the dreaded portion control. You mean I shouldn't eat 2 slices of cake?? lol Although I must say your bf cooking....Yeah I am totally jealous...my husbands way of cooking is to put bread in the toaster butter it when done and then add garlic salt......what thats not how you make garlic bread??? lol he made me that when i was preggers with my son and i laughed so hard i peed my pants...lol

btw have you ever had chocolate covered bacon??

maybe 2 small slices?!? LOL I love that he not only likes to cook but is good at it. . . oh the things he does with homemade pizza /sigh. I haven't but you gave me your recipe awhile back (after you wrote about it on your blog) and it is in my list of stuff to try!

About me:
I am currently living in NorthWest Indiana, but I was born and raised in a small town outside of Pittsburg. In college, I met a boy, and the day after I graduated, I moved to Indiana with him. For any of you who have never been in Indiana, you are not missing much!! Anyway, we have been married for a little over 9 years now. We have 2 boys, Kayden 8 and Caleb 4, soon to be 5. Not having family, and life long friends here, it has pretty much been just my husband and I. With the kids and both of us working full time, eating healthy has not been at the top of my list. I have ate more mac and cheese, and chicken nuggets, that any 32 year old woman should in their adult life.
All of the KID food helped + pregnancy has helped me to put on 60+ pounds.

This summer, I began my weight loss mission with a biggest loser competition at work. In our 12 week game, I lost 18 pounds. That was HUGE for me, as every diet in the past has failed. A recent weigh in showed that I gained 3 pounds back. Which will be coming back off soon! Anyway, since our game ended, I did not keep on top of my food intake, so I decided to come back to MFP, and get back on track. Im still down 15 pounds!!

After the birth of my first son, my husband promised me, if I got within 10 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight that he would take me to Hawaii. He did not to give me a deadline! lol.... so I have 32 more pounds until we will be soaking up the rays. Or just me....... I might leave him at home...

1 WEIRD thing about me... I have an obsession with trees. in the past 5 years I have planted over 400 trees. Don't know why, but I REALLY like trees! :bigsmile:

Hi Everyone, my name is Melissa. I'm 32 years, will be 33 on January 31st and live in Toronto, Ontario and work as a law clerk (paralegal) for an employment and labour law firm doing wrongful dismissals and managing strikes - which surprising I absolutely love.

What can I tell you? I've been overweight my entire life, I come from an obese family - the only skinny person in my family was my sister who was belimic (sp?). I had a tough life growing up having people tell me I'd never find love because as long as I was overweight I'd always be ugly. That has caused me to have terrible self-esteem and weight problems - food gives me great comfort. Funny thing is that even though I've always been overweight all my life I've always been the most athletic person I know. I love running, mountain biking, snowboarding and really anything outdoors. Through my various sports I broke my hip, then my right knee, then my right ankle and then the left, all in the last 5 years, which left me unable to workout for extended periods of time and I gained about 40lbs. That started to cause problems with my boyfriend who felt he deserved to be with someone who was hot, which his definition meant thin. That again threw me for a loop as I had never gotten over my self-esteem issues and I gained more. Finally in 2009 I got my act together and started to work on me. I lost 30lbs and felt great. But then on October 22, 2009 my baby sister and best friend who had just turned 26 was murdered by her obsessive boyfriend and my world just crumbled. Although she lived in British Columbia we talked every day - we were each others support - her helping me with my confidence and weight problems and me helping her with her belimia and confidence to leave her boyfriend. The day finally came when she was going to leave, bags were packed - he was supposed to go to Florida for a conference, but he didn't go and he drown her in the bathtub. I instantly jumped on a plane to be with her while the police investigated her death and to bring her home. Surprisingly you learn a lot when someone dies. Members of my family, including my dad, didn't agree with me going to BC to bring my sister home and proceeded to bad mouth me to all of our family friends and disowned me. That just made things worse and I began to eat and eat and eat. I gained back those 30lbs and another 20lbs. Despite my friends telling me how strong I am, I was really dead inside. It wasn't until just recently that I regained my life, found my confidence and started to put myself first and stop worrying about everyone else. I'm feeling great and got back into working out. I took up boxing as a way to deal with my anger and depression and have lost about 10lbs and 3 pant sizes. I'm really happy with what I've accomplished so far and I am really looking forward to making 2012 the year of us with all of you and honestly being Happy again. I'm eager to get back my life! It's amazing how many things I had given up and missed out on but I'm not letting them pass me by anymore - I'm back to biking and snowboarding, I'm taking up photography and guitar and I am enjoying life - including working out and eating well. I warn you though when I get stressed (from family and work) I still want to just binge eat on the most unhealthy food ever - Taco Bell is my Kryptonite

I know my message was a downer but I wanted you guys to know really who I am and how I tick because I think that is the only way I'm going to be able to do this.

Honestly though, I really do love to have fun and laugh a lot so please don't write me off This year is going to be fun

Well, I am not as verbose as everyone else, but I"ll introduce myself. I'm Colleen and I live in Calgary Alberta (don't hold that against me ) I have lived all over Canada (including Toronto - where are you, FitMiss?) but have stayed here due to family.

My story is pretty simple. I have always been a bit big - though the bulk of my weight has been added later in life. As I get older my sedentary hobbies (reading, video games) and my love of pubs has caught up with me. I have 2 slipped discs in my back that don't bug me too much now, but caused huge issues for me - including almost having to learn how to walk again. That did not help my expanding belly either. I also have dealt with depression my whole life which does not lend itself to a highly motivated, energy filled state of being. I often say that I think 'tired' is my personality.

My life has recently changed for the much better - great boyfriend, went back to school and found a career that I love, so my whole self is ready for improvement - including losing weight. My health is important to me now like it never has been in the past.


I have to admit, I have not had time to read all the posts here, but I caught your story, FitMiss and it breaks my heart. I can't imagine NOT going to take care of my sister (I have 2 and I love them dearly). Good for you, stay strong. Gaining weight like that is never good, but I think that if you helped your sister then it was a sacrifice you made that was worth something big. That make any sense?

Anyway, thats a bit of me.

guess i missed this......i'll still reply
I am a 20 year old civil engineering student. I want to get into geotechnical engineering. born and raised in the suburbs of chicago (cubs and bears til i die). go to school at rose-hulman institute of technology in terre haute, in......um i swam and played water polo practically year round in high school. left swimming to do new things in college.still play water polo but only twice a week for 10 weeks in the spring. i have been an officer in my sorority since i joined (my school does not have the typical sororities, girls were just allowed in in 1997), officer last and this year for american society of civil engineers and have been an officer for the water polo club since i joined freshman year. soooooooo classes plus my responsibilities plus working ~13 hours a week plus engineering homework kinda killed my fitness (hence my 55 lb gain between end of senior year and winter of soph yr). got a harsh talking to about my weight/bp from my obgyn and tried losing weight. lost about 13 by summer, then joined this site. lost about 20 by the end of summer and then junior year and recruitment started (i was recruitment chair). i was in pure survival mode, lucky to sleep 3 hours a night. there was no time or energy to think about losing or maintaining, gained back about 8 pounds. recruitment ended and i rededicated myself. my friend and i dedicated ourselves to doing insanity as we are going to florida for spring break.

sorry, brain is quite tired so that is just a stream of thoughts...

dzmikki

Holy heck you have both my boy names I wanted! lol my hubby wouldn't let me name our boy either of them:( Ahhhh you have what I call sesame street syndrome:) lol Its where your so involved with your kids lives...either because you want to be or because like in my case I WAS STUCK INSIDE ALL THE TIME!!! lmao but anyway your stuck with the kids so you eat like them, play like them, talk like them, all you can talk about is them....ahhhhhhh its a vicious cycle! It does get better as they age though...or as you stop caring so much...lol jk. what a freaking cool goal! HAWAII! I would love to go there yet I never will...I am terrified of being trapped on an island??!! lol weird and stupid yet true :laugh: and SO not weird about the trees! THAT'S AWESOME!

ps i lived in Indiana also when I was in elementary school....south east part of the state.....i don't know about where you are but the peeps down near Kentucky...yeah they are strange...lol

Ok so I was just not sitting here reading about everyone AND I'll have to say I had to laugh when I read this reply about peeps near KY since I'm from KY! ha ha I guess that's part of you being honest! I'm just kidding but wanted to jab at you! ;w