Hi KellyAF! Welcome back to the forums.
I too have been a member for awhile. The last time I was actively posting on here, I lost around 35 lbs. I stopped what I was doing and gained it all back. Since then I've had a couple of life changes...changed jobs, moved 2 and a half hrs away from my family. That kinda stuff. It seems like there's always an excuse to eat your problems away. I teach Kindergarten and have a ROUGH class this year. The whole first semester I ate to relieve stress. This semester I'm changing my mindset and exercise to relieve stress.
I exercise almost every day. It's actually much more effective. Ha! Plus there's no guilt after exercising...unlike when you eat an entire king size pack of Reese's cups.
Anyway...I've set my goal weight for 150 right now which means I need to drop a total of 60 lbs. I'm not totally sure what I want my goal weight to be. I figure I can tweak it as I get closer. I don't have any set time frame to lose it in really, just hopefully by the end of the year. I'm going to be in a wedding in May so I want to lose as much as possible by then. I refuse to get in a bridesmaid dress looking like a whale.
I'm totally motivated right now...working out, eating healthy foods all that good stuff. I've let myself cheat a couple of days and eaten things that weren't good for me. But I didn't gorge myself and the next day I was back on plan.
I'm happy with that cause I know that at some point I'm going to want to eat junk. (I've often said that a life of never eating another french fry again is not a life worth living.) I'm proud of my progress so far. I'm trying to make this time a lifestyle change rather than just a diet. The only thing I really miss is sweet tea....sigh....
I'm a little wordy and tend to ramble, so I'll finally get to my point. I'm also looking for an accountability buddy to help keep me motivated when things aren't so easy.