Hello!!
I'm Ashleigh
. I'll start off with a little about me, my weight loss history, why I'm here, and finally what I'm doing now.
I am a 22 year old university student, studying Tourism and Recreation Management on Vancouver Island. I don't define myself as what I do for a living but as what I do for fun: I like to travel, meet new people, eat new foods, drink wine, and read.
The whole eat new food thing really doesn't work when 'dieting'! I have always been overweight. My mom put me on my first 'diet' in grade 6 and from there I continued to gain weight, lose it, and gain it back plus 10 more pounds. You can say I rebelled against my mother by sneaking 'bad' food, thus the gaining 10 more pounds problem. Well now I'm an adult that has been living on my own for four years. I relished in the fact that my mother no longer had control over what I put in my mouth and I went CRAZY. Don't get my wrong my mom meant well, but my relationship with food has been screwed up since I was a kid. So finally, I'm on my own buying my own groceries and cooking my own food. I was in heaven. And I quickly gained 40 pounds.
So,I decided in January 2012 I was not happy, I was fat, didn't have a social life, had NO energy, and was generally depressed. So I joined Ideal Protein at the weight of 225. I lost 30 pounds FAST. And when I couldn't handle the restricted meal plans anymore, I gained 25 pounds back even faster.
So now, here I am back on this forum to have support from people who won't force me to do anything. Support from those that understand!
Given my history it is clear that as soon as a food becomes restricted or 'bad' I want it! And boy do I want it bad! So I've decided 'screw it' diets don't work for me. I've changed my whole perspective and decided that the ONLY way I am going to live a long happy healthy lifestyle is if I change the way I view food, and the way I feel about myself. I watched the movie 'Hunger for Change' and it's clear now. Eat what you want when you want, just add the healthy stuff. Eventually all you will want is the healthy stuff. I have been doing this for 3 weeks and guess what. I lost 9 pounds. And I don't feel miserable, I'm not craving anything, I know I can have that chocolate bar but I DON'T WANT IT. Woah!!! So here I am, changing my life and I want to share my experiences with you dear reader and fellow weight loss champion.
I hope I can inspire someone, and I hope I can learn so much more from you. Cheers to your success and future success I hope we can all get healthy together!
Love, Ashleigh
Done with diets - Why not change my lifestyle?
