[msrebridge]

Hello everyone! I am new here and am like a lot of other people who are reaching out for some support in this journey that I'm trying to take. No one in my family knows about it, but I'm trying to make changes to better myself and my life. I had lost about 60lbs two years ago and then lost a few very close people to me and the weight came back on and more. I am 30 years old and a senior in college (waited a long time to go back) and I'm at school about 45 hours a week, not including homework time and working in schools outside of being on campus. I am posting this from school right now actually, I'm here for just under 12 hours on Wednesday's! I need help, ideas, motivation and I hope I can be that for someone else, too!

[NEMom]

Welcome to the forum! You are a very busy woman, wow!
Do you know what food plan you are going to follow? There is a ton of information about many different food plans on this site. Pick a plan that fits in your lifestyle and you can follow long term. I chose calorie counting because it is free and flexible. It allows me to eat almost anything I wanted as long as it fits within my calorie range for the day and there are ton of free apps out there to help you track your food.
Give up the sugary drinks and drink lots and lots of water.
Incorporate some exercise into your weekly routine. You do not have to join an expensive gym try to walk more, use the stairs more, download videos off of YouTube or Hulu.com to work out to. There are a lot of things you can to do with spending a ton of money.
Lastly, if you have a bad meal, a bad day, heck, a bad food week. Do NOT let this be a reason to throw in the towel. Get back on track at the next meal. You can do this!!!
Best of luck to you!

[msrebridge]

I can say that I drink a lot of water. I usually range from two to three liters a day, but I am constantly drinking something. I'm a big tea drinker and naturally I have my cup of coffee in the morning (mostly black). I stopped drinking diet pop and switched to regular pop. I drink maybe 1/4 of the pop I used to drink. I was out of control with the zero calorie Pepsi Max.

I'm going back to calorie counting and using the daily fitness app that I have. I used to use the Livestrong app, but it put my calorie intake at a very high number and even my doctor said that was incorrect. So I went to the daily fitness app. Last night was the first night that I went out walking after a twelve hour day at school. I was sitting almost the entire day at school and then came home and walked about a mile and a half. I think the free time I have is just the hardest part. I'm preparing for my teaching licensing exams as well, so that thrown in with the massive projects I have just makes me crazy. Walking out it last night definitely helped to ease up some of the stress!