Hi guys,
If you've been on here for a little while, you might remember me. I was on here pretty much every day from June until mid-September. Everyone here was super helpful, whether I needed advice or just a little cheerleading to get me through the day...I managed to lose about 40 lbs between the beginning of June and the end of August, and I was feeling good...
...then September 14th happened. While I was riding my bike home from the grocery store, a man jumped out of his car, pushed me off of my bike, and tried to drag me into the car with him. I screamed at him in 3 languages, probably broke a few of his ribs by slamming him against the car trying to avoid the open door, and managed to punch him in the face before another truck came up the road and the headlights spooked the guy. When I called the police, rather than trying to help me, they told me that I was stupid for being alone at night in such a dangerous area (mind you, it was 9pm on a Friday night roughly 2 minutes from my apartment). They made it sound like it was my fault, and it made me feel incredibly unsafe and insecure. Since people were already blaming me, I blamed the weight I'd lost...after all, no one would have wanted me if I was still almost 200 lbs and invisible. So I stopped counting my calories and left the site.
Since then I haven't exactly been good with my eating, but I haven't been exceptionally bad either. Recently I found a gym half an hour's bike ride from my new apartment (in a better lit area, on the busiest street in town, so even if some jackass wanted to try grabbing me from behind a guardrail, they would have an awful lot of trouble stopping, never mind trying to keep people from noticing) and I've been going pretty regularly after work. I stepped on the scale this morning and my weight was a few hundred grams less than when I left off here, so rather than wasting another 2 months, I think it's high time to come back.
When I logged on, I came back to an inbox stuffed with well wishes and support, which frankly was quite the surprise. I don't know anyone on here irl, yet so many people reached out when I was in a time of need. So thank you, lovely ladies of 3FC. It really means a lot to me that you would care so much about a complete stranger.
Seriously. Thank you.