Hello!

My story is like so many others, I've been overweight my whole life. I would never notice I was gaining weight not even when I reached a size 24! It was only recently when I ate so much that I felt sick so I went into the bathroom and contemplated making myself sick. That was the lowest I had ever felt in my life, here I am 21 years old and eating my life away. I'm pretty active, I work as an au pair so I am constantly running around with the kids and taking walks daily. In high school I was on the track team (the field more like!) and I had to run during warm ups and after meets, and I was fine. I was overweight but active. I lived in the three worst places to lose weight in my life; the US where fast food is literally around every corner, Italy where pasta and bread are at least once a day, and Germany where bread and sausage are eating essentials! But I've decided to cut out the excuses and focus on eating better, for the past 9 days I've logged all the food I eat in a notebook that I can travel with. There is a big difference from when I started to where I am now. I no longer shove food into my mouth without thinking about it, and try to eat when I'm hungary, not because it is there. I started trying to lose weight last week; I had 95 days until I go back home and I wanted to lose weight. I'm not talking 100 pounds, but a nice even 20 would do! I am commited now to losing the weight, and I know it is a long term goal and it is something I want to work at. I want to be able to work for the FBI when I finish my Criminology/Russian degree and in order to do that I have to be fit. It is something that means a lot to me so hopefully I can achieve my goal. I've been lurking around the board for the last few days and I am impressed by how much knowledge and support there is on this board. I can't wait to talk to you all more!

Meagan

Meagan,
You have very admirable goals. 20 lbs is very reasonable, and a great way to start. Keeping a calorie journal is a great way to stay true to yourself and your diet plan. I know you are already bery active in your busy life, but it doesn't sound like there is much structured exercise - which will be necessary for you to gain strength and endurance for your career goals. You seem like you have a level head and know where you want to go - all you need now is to find the strength within you. You can do this!

Hi there &

You've made some positive changes already! That's great to see

You may like to jump into the 100 lb club or the 20-somethings, or both! Please keep posting, we'd all love to get to know you more.

Best of success!

Welcome, Meagan!

This is a great place to find motivation and support. You might like to check out the Fitness boards, for ideas and encouragement in that area. Also, if you're interested in running, check the Exercise forum, as a bunch of folks just started up on the Couch to 5K (C25K for short) program, which is a great program to ease into running.

Thanks guys for the encouragement! Over the last few days fitness has become my obsession I can't wait to start really getting involved in this community and meeting everyone! Thanks for the warm welcome!

Sure Meagan, I would love to be weight loss buds, sounds great.
I read a few of your posts / threads, and it sounds like we have alot in common. I've also been overweight most of my life, previously worked with children - now I get to work with my own . Quite a bit of a perfectionist, seemingly becoming obsessed with losing weght, etc.
I saw that you were bummed about a few things, that's very understandable. Journaling has started helping me ALOT! I can get stuff out so to speak. I have a dilemna with no scale also and it's really buggin me cause I have'nt weighed in about 2 weeks but I can tell a difference in the way things fit and I want to know how much I've lost. I thrive off seeing the pounds drop.
Do you have access to a vcr or dvd you could use privately ? You could try exercise videos or dvd's. I record denise Austin off of cable or use my treadmill.
Just stick with your healthy eating, and try to be as active as possible. Set your timer for 30 minutes and make your own little aerobics routine. I bet you could even find something on the net to help you put one together or even an exercise video to follow. Just stick with the things that you know are right and eventually it will come off. Remember a healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs. a week for us bigger girls it may take a little while longer to see the results than on a smaller person, but the reward will be so much greater !
Be encouraged ! TTYS
PS - Itried to pm this to you but it wont let me because I don't have enough posts yet, we'll work it out.