hello all. A lil about me. I am 47 years old, and was here about 3 years ago for a short time, but a lot has happened since then. In may of 09, i left England and moved back to oregon. I was leaving my hubby(too much to go into lol), and my plan was to move back here, get a job, and get my life going again. At first things went well. within a week of getting back here, i got a good job at the phone company. i was still hurting from leaving my husband, but things were working out. 30 days after i got back, my mother became ill, and ended up on hospice. hospice told me that if i didnt quit my job and take care of her( she needed 24 hr care) she would have to go into a home. so, i quit my job and took care of my mother till she passed in nov 09. once she passed, i had no money, no job, etc. my grown daughter lived in town, but i didnt want to barge in on her, her bf, and their roommates... just what a lot of 20 somethngs want, is a 40+ woman around. i ended up in a shelter but i still tried to keep my chin up. i looked for work, but i ran into a huge prob with background checks.. i was told time and time again that because i had lived out of the country for 3 years, they couldnt do a background check so i couldnt get hired. then my back started to really bother me... i slipped a disk at 25, and even tho it was sore a lot, i just got on with life. in the last year esp my back has gotten really bad. i guess i have loads of nerve dmg, along with degenerative disk disease, and was told at my last dr visit in feb..... if you lose control of your bowels, get to the ER immediately.... what?????????you hve to be kidding lol..thats all i need. as of now, i am at my daughters(she put her foot down lol), i have applied for ssd... and am trying to lose weight as i know that will help with my back and nerve issues. at the mo i am 5'3 and weigh 306lbs. i cant do strenuous exercise so im going to try walking in the house at first. my biggest problem with giving up all the things that are bad for me, is i have really low blood sugar.. yesterday i had gone 4 days without soda and ended up hitting the floor... my daughter gave me some soda when i woke up a bit and within 15-20 mins i was feeling much better... i am just not one of those thta can cut out all sugar... im going to have to figure it into my cals for the day and/or work it off..sorry this turned into a book intead of just a "howdy" lol.. i look forward to meeting everyone

Hi there
So sorry to read of your past and glad that you are now living in a place where you have one less worry. The job issue with background checks sounds crazy. Hope that improves for you.

When I started my journey a year ago I was 317lbs @ 5' 4"
I found sparkpeople and over a year I have lost 50lbs. I didn't cut any food out, still have sugar in my diet and I started to walk a short distance around the block. I was eating around 2000-2200 calories a day to start with and lost weight. I'm around 1800 calories a day right now and need to change up my exercise as I've reached a plateau.

What I'm trying to say is you don't have to cut sugar out completely and over time you will discover that your body wont need as much sugar. My husband was diabetic with an AC1 of over 16 [very very bad]. He would feel light headed and weak, cold sweats etc then over a few weeks it settled down until he was able to have a normal blood sugar.

You don't have to give up foods that are "bad" for you .... just use moderation. I find if I have a fum size candy bar every few days I loose weight, if not I put it on. I can control how much candy I eat if I have one every now and again. If I don't, I crave sugar and binge on it.

Sparkpeople is a wonderful site with lots of help and advice about eating healthy not dieting. It's all about life style changes and it's surprising how well it works, slowly yes but I believe that's the way my weight will stay off. Yes I sound like an advert but the best things about sparkpeople is that it's FREE Let me know if you join and I'll give you my username.

Sorry about the length but hoping you are inspired.

I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been going through. Hopefully things will start looking up from here!

You've come to the right place; there's a lot of really knowledgeable and friendly people on this site. I've had a rough couple of weeks but checking in here every day and reading through the posts is so inspirational. For the first time in my life I don't feel alone in my lifelong battle with weight!

As for your blood-sugar, everyone is different, and cutting sugar out of your diet probably isn't the best thing for you, even if it might be for someone else. You need to find a plan you can live with, and that may very well involve eating a diet that will keep your blood sugar at a decent level so you don't keel over on the floor! But perhaps instead of things like soda (which will give you a really quick hit and then leave you hanging) perhaps try implementing foods with less refined sugars -- honey, multi-grain breads, home-made juices, etc. HFCS should really be avoided.

You've got the right idea with the exercise. Every little bit counts. Start small, and as you start to drop some weight and alleviate a bit of the burden of carrying around extra pounds (which are probably exacerbating that old injury), exercising will be far less troublesome. When I started recently (I was 307) I began doing half-hour walks and they nearly killed me. I'm 23 and I felt much older; my back was killing me. I've dropped around 16 pounds now and the burden has eased. Now when I exercise I can go for longer and there's no pain.

Good luck with everything and I hope to see you around the forum!