Hello from Alberta Canada

Ugh, I had a nice big post typed up and when I hit send it went away into internet land, never to be seen again ( So, I'll try to retype it and hopefully I don't miss anything...hate it when that happens.

I kind of did this backwards, posted in fitness and exercise first but then i read an awesome success story that has inspired me so I thought I'd come and introduce myself. I'm open to having some friends join me on this journey, I've read on here that it really helps to have a support system so I'm all for it and I hope to be able to offer the support in return. I thought I'd post a little bit about me and my story and why I've decided that now is the time to make a change.

I'm turning 40 next month and I'm a wife and mother to 2 children (6 & 11). I've always struggled with my weight, it seems to fluctuate with what is happening in my life and I've always had a bad self image of myself. So, even at my lightest of 135 (I'm 5'3"), I thought I was fat. Boy do I have a different outlook on that now! When I look back at pictures I see how good I looked and I long to look that good again. 12 years ago I weighed that, 135lbs...sigh. Then I had a baby to which I never really lost all of the weight from (and I gained A LOT...tipped the scale at about 205lbs). Then 4 years later, I was pregnant with my second and even though I didn't gain as much as with my first, I was still sneaking up on the 200lbs mark. I never fully lost the weight from that pregnancy either. So, here I sit, 12 years later (from the 135lbs) longing to be that weight before having kids but sitting at almost the same weight as I was full term with my second child. I'm tired of not being able to find clothes I like in my size and I'm sick of the way i look and feel.

What has made me decide to embark on this weight loss journey you ask? Well, 2 things...1 being that I'm sitting at a weight I was when I was 9 months pregnant, and #2- being terrified of looking like my parents and having all the health problems they have because of being obese. I took a trip home over Easter to visit with family and it was then that I realized that I was closer to that reality than I thought. Although I don't have any health issue yet...if I keep going the way I am and don't make some drastic changes in my life, I'm going to be exactly like them and right now I'm well on my way and that scares the crap out of me.

My lifestyle/eating habits before this were terrible. I never drank water...ever! I went from coffee in the morning, to pop in the afternoon, to a couple of beers in the evening with my husband. I am/was a junk food junky. I love it! I would rather sit there and eat a large bag of chips than snack on a plate of veggies or fruit. I never ever exercised. The extent of my exercise was chasing kids around or watching them play (I run a day home) and the very occasional leisurely walk with my dogs. I would never break a sweat. I lived a very unhealthy lifestyle and it's time for a major change. As of April 14 I started drinking the recommended or more of water every day, I haven't touched junk food and am eating healthy snacks and foods, I'm watching/counting my calorie intake/used and I went and bought a treadmill. I've used my treadmill Sunday for 30 minutes, Monday for 2-30 minute sessions (1 in am & 1 in pm), and Tuesday for 40 minutes. I have been sweating more the past few days than I have in my life I think. Although, I went to use it today and after about 5-10 minutes my body was saying nope, don't think so. My mind was into it but after I would start getting into the workout and my heart rate started going up, my body just felt exhausted so I would have to stop. I originally wanted to work out M-F for 30 - 40 minutes but I'm thinking I might be pushing my body to much to fast and may have to change that to 1 day on, 1 day off or something. Any suggestions there would be good )

So, anyway, I think that with all the major changes I have made, I will be able to achieve my goal of loosing 50 - 55 lbs I'm hoping by October-ish with lots of hard work and life changes. This isn't written as well as the first one I tried and I probably left/missed a bunch of things I originally wrote but it will have to do I guess. I'm still new to all of this and have a lot to learn but I would be more than willing and open to new friends on here to both offer and receive support as we go through this weight loss journey.


Yup, I like my original post better...darn black hole of the internet world, lol.