What made you start your journey

Found myself gaining weight, mostly in the stomach area, fighting fatigue & sluggishness. Went to the doc for full blood profile. All results were NORMAL! Good news I guess, but I wanted an excuse for the weight gain? Could it be peri-menopause? Possibly, but I'm going to fight the fat! Don't want to be a 47 year old with a whiskey barrel body. I'm taking control of my life, my eating habits, and exercise routine.

Today is a new day. I hope to lose weight, feel better, and have more energy than ever. Any suggestions from anyone concerning foods that boost metabolism and give you natural energy? If so, I'd love to hear it. Thanks and good luck to you!

Why did you decide to make a health change? What sparked it.

For me (and this is the watered down version) I hated my previous job, there was drama and lying and **** going on behind my back. I got caught into a bad situation and I was losing sleep over it. So I decided to take control of my life, since I couldn't do anything (at the time) when it came to my job.

I dropped weight, lowered cholstrol, beat anxiety, gained muscle, gained confidence, sped up my metabolism, lowered body fat and...the ultimate...found a new job!



What's your journey? Lets keep this positive, I'm sick of all the fighting on the forums lately.





OMG your story is exactly what im going through the only thing I havent done is got the new job yet because of anxitey, but i am volunteering!

well done on your new found confidence and job and beat anxitey

I had a beautiful baby boy last year in April, and at the end of November I was up a pant size from when I gave birth. Those pants were beginning to get too tight and it was the beginning of January - I REFUSED to buy yet another bigger size - that's when I joined MFP and started logging everyday and exercising more. I'm down 17lbs now - and 2 pant sizes Joining MFP was the best decision I could ever make for my health.

23 wasted years of eating disorders, to a point I don't even know how to eat anymore, how to choose, or how to eat normally.
I just want to find a way now of eating in a healthy way that allows me to be comfortable in my body, and to feel well with food not controlling my life and mood.

Getting really personal here. I feel like I've had good judgement in every other part of my life except fitness and health. I've been overweight basically since puberty and although I've lost about 70 lbs over the last 6 years (and kept it off), I don't feel like I've done it in a smart or healthy way. Not to mention, I still battle eating disorders (seeing someone for this) and I believe a large part of my struggle has been my unrealistic views on weight loss and overall body image/expectations.

I'm not an idiot or lazy, but for some reason, my concept of weight loss was always clouded with fat diets, nutrition misconceptions and general apathy towards being truly healthy. I wanted to lose weight and be thin, but I didn't give a *kitten* about being active or in shape. It's a mindset that's unfortunately ubiquitous, and will only change when a person is truly ready to change.

With education, the quality of my diet has greatly improved over the last couple years, but the biggest change has been that I am now an active person. I don't just exercise because I have to, I do it because I now genuinely enjoy it. I mostly do group classes (boot camps, spin, etc) and I've also been weight training, which I absolutely love. Being active, for me, has made the biggest difference.

I went to my friend's house over Christmas last year and all of the pictures taken from that evening made me want to loose weight! I didn't recognise myself in a lot of them and it made me realise that I'd put on a heck of a lot of weight without realising it. So since then I found MFP and lost over a stone so far

Lent. I decided I should start taking better care of my body because St. Paul wrote that it's the temple of the Holy Spirit, and I certainly wasn't treating it as such. Among other things I quit smoking and started eating better and doing cross fit because I got a Groupon for it. Many positive mental benefits ensued - more energy during the day, better mood, which is a big deal for me because I take medication for bipolar and anxiety. So now that Lent is over I'm continuing with more of the same because life without habits that are detrimental to my body and soul is better than life with them.

The realization that most of the girls I know, love and admire are half my size and how bad I feel about that. I also don't want to be one of those fat brides if we ever get married. Then there are my kids, one of which is a girl, who I know will have a poor self image if she never sees that being thinner is better than being fat. I cannot allow myself to be such a lousy role model for my children.

I'm actually surprised everyone's story is so short since for me it was so many things... but I'll hit the highlights.

I struggled with my weight most of my life. In 05 my hubby and I lost our extra weight. We were living healthy and figuring this out. I was cycling and hiking, etc... Then in 07, we decided to adopt a 3 year old and he moved into our home. I was going to go cycling with friends, usually a 5 hour ordeal and I felt like I had already missed so much of his little life that I didn't want to miss anymore... so we baked cookies instead. I've often relived that moment in my head.

Now we have four children (2 adopted and 2 relatives) and last year was horrendous for me. I have completely put my health on hold. My asthma/pneumonia, etc has flared up and I developed atelectasis. I couldn't move and breath. I just realized that this is not what I wanted... I did not want to become a mother to teach my children that being sedentary and watching TV was a way to live. I wanted to live again.

and I wanted to teach them that living, moving, breathing, exploring the world is what life is about...

I also look at my precious daughter, so young, so perfect... her little healthy body... and I never want her to feel the way I feel about my body... so we are focusing on what we can do now and it's working... and I'm hoping I am teaching them to eat healthy and to enjoy moving.

Well i guess for me..i have seen a few photos of me recently that made me realise i needed to make a change. Ive struggled with eating disorders most my life, been both anorexic and bulimic. Am not overly active either due to the fact i wont go out of the house on my own, as suffered with agrophobia (i am getting better though). Im not a very confident person and abuse over the years gave me low self esteem i guess, and so i guess i did things to my body, i.e drink alot, take drugs, eat the wrong foods etc, because i felt so crap.

However after coming off medication for depression and anxiety, i kind of woke up from this self pity hazy cloud i was living in, and thought "do you know what, i can either carry on being pathetic and blaming my lifestyle on my past" etc.. or "i can get up and start bloody living again and get fit"!! I have chose that option because i believe i DESERVE to be happy, and i need to learn to love myself, as ive hated myself for too long. Might sound a bit dramamtic but its my honest account of things.:happy:

I work in the human services field where social workers notoriously work through lunch, take work home, and live off fast food. I went to the dr's and she told me I was pre-diabetic. Not enough for me to change. Went to OBGYN and she told me that I shouldn't have kids at this weight. Since I'm a newlywed and can't wait to have kids, that kicked my butt into gear. I want to lose 70 lbs by my one year wedding anniversary (September) and start to try to have kids. I need to take care of myself instead of caring for everyone else. That is one of the greatest challenges I've been up against, especially as the needy get needier and my work load seems heavier each day.