Hello.
I have been reading here a little while. I thought I might be brave and try jumping in. I am not sure how you do this but I will give it a shot. I will tell you a bit about me.

After being skinny as a child, I became overweight during puberty and fought the extra pounds ever since. During adulthood I climbed to 265. At the age of 38, I started to bring about a lifestyle change. I began walking, which turned to running. I also did aerobics and started going to the gym. I got down to 202 and felt great and more importantly I felt full of hope and power over my body for the first time in my life. Then I had a tragedy,a death of someone very close to me and everything went out the window. I stopped exercising and regained 40 pounds the year after the death.

It's been another year and I haven't regained more then the 40 pounds. I sometimes exercise. I suppose its a start. But I cant seem to get back the motivation and hope that I had or the feeling of power. Even when I workout it feels useless. Running has no attraction anymore. I started anti-depressants and it has taken the edge off my food cravings but I cant seem to get back what I had when I was running. And now I am so much fatter again, that runnnng with all this weight back on makes me feel bad.

Well, that is me in a nutshell. Trying to get back to where I was...running and losing and enjoying control. I will say this. After being so fat for most of my life, nothing ever felt as good as feeling the muslces in my body as I ran, feeling my hair blowing in the wind and listenting to my breath, feeling the fresh air in my lungs, and hearing the sound of my feet hit the pavement as I ran. It was the only time in my life that I was proud of myself. But.... as they say.... now I cant seem to get there from here.
Any advice would be greatly appriciated!

Thank You,
IsabellaMay

Welcome to you. You have come to the right place for support. My only advice to you would be to try and start slowly. Right now it seems you are not motivated to exercise but just the fact that you posted shows you are motivated.

Even better you managed to kept off 23 lbs. Do you have any idea what an accomplishment that is. I have lost and gained, lost and gained additional lbs more times that I can count. I now feel like I am ahead of the game, if I just stay the same for a few months.

Try setting mini goals for yourself.....20 mintes of exercise 3 times a week......64 ounces of water a day...whatever. Again, start small. And post, post, post. We are here for you. Well, I lurk, and then sometimes post....but there are soooooo many other people.

Good luck...........................................

Welcome! You'll find this is a supportive bunch of people.

Angi

Welcome! I can relate to the running thing - I used to run (a LONG time ago) and felt great! Now, much heavier, I can't do it ... it's just not enjoyable because I'm so out of shape now. About six months ago I started lifting weights, and my energy is so much better ... when I get thinner and my muscles are strong, I believe I may be able to get back into running.

I agree, start slowly, probably with walking because of those 40 pounds ... and possibly find something different to enjoy - swimming, cycling, weight-lifting, Pilates, yoga ... It may not be as great as that feeling you got when you were running, but hopefully you'll be able to build yourself back up and start running again someday.

Pen
265/217/150ish

I just wanted to say welcome to our group! We can all relate to losing and then gaining. Feel free to stop in daily, start threads, etc.. I feel the more I come here to give and get support the better I do.
take care!
laura
313/245/160

Welcome to our group!! I wish I couldn't relate to the re-gain issue, but that is what I do. Lose, gain, lose, gain. I am still holding off 27 lbs, much like you and I owe most of that to the support of the ladies here. Jump right in, glad to have you!!

Welcome aboard!!

Welcome!

We can all relate to losing & then regaining... It is especially difficult when something traumatic happens in our lives. But, I've found this to be a wonderful support group & I'm certain you'll find all the encouragement you need!

sorry to be so late. but i've been busy swimming [good grief!!! i NEVER thought i'd be able to say that!!!!]

and there's no need to be running!! there are plenty of other exercises you can do that won't ruin your knees. if you ruin them now by running when you're too overweight, you won't be able to do it when you're all nice and svelte again!

biking is much easier on the joints and it's still a great cardio workout.

my heart goes out to you... to have endured the loss of a loved one and to feel so out of control.. well, we've all been there. it's very very hard to get motivated under those circumstances.

maybe focus on just one change at a time? it's soooo overwhelming to think about everything at once... and then if you miss one thing - like a vow to not eat dessert except on saturday night and it's only tuesday and you've eaten 10 cookies - you feel like such a failure.

every journey starts with a single step. it'll be ok. i promise