Hi There!
 

Hi There!

My name is Holly, and I'm 52 years old. And I am fat.

I was never fat growing up,,in fact, I was so skinny I had trouble getting pregnant,,,,,,,the weight started piling on after my 3rd child, but even then not too bad,,,30 or 40 extra pounds I carried around for years,,,,

Then I got into my 40's and quit smoking and I carried around 50 or 60 extra pounds,,,

Now I am over 50, went through menopause and got a sit down job at Disney (reservations) and I am over 100 lbs overweight,,,,if I'm honest with myself, it's probably 150 lbs overweight,,,,,,,,twice what I should weigh.

For years, I considered weight loss something just too mysterious for me to understand,,,,,Oh, I know I ate too much, but the mysterious relationship between calories and fat and exercise and weight loss was totally lost on me,,,,,

and then I sat down with my sister (skinny) who has many many health problems that require very careful diet control and got a lesson in,,,,

Calorie intake,,,,,she advised me that it takes 4500 calories to MAINTAIN my 300 lb weight,,,and to LOSE or GAIN a lb it takes 3500 calories less or more,,,,

and for some reason,,,,,,it clicked. I don't know WHY it finally clicked,,,,,,but it CLICKED,,,,,

And so I started COUNTING calories,,,,,,

and I've lost weight in the past 3 weeks that I have been counting,,,,I cut out soda almost completely, diet soda on occasionally, drink water like it's the nectar of the gods, and really have had a positive experience with it,,,,

Until this morning,,,,when I weighed myself,,,,,,and after being very careful, I GAINED weight. I am almost positive it's water weight gain,,,,,,Usually by Friday my feet are totally swollen from sitting all day at work,,,,,,I can gain 10 lbs a week in water weight,,,,I've seen the scale even when I wasn't dieting,,,

I really should weigh myself on Sundays only,,,,because I do more running around on the weekends and usually shed a lot of that water weight,,,,

I've eaten about 1600-1800 calories for the past 2 weeks, and I've counted every bite that's gone into my mouth, so that's really the only thing I can think of that would make me gain a couple of pounds,,,,,

Anyway,,,,,,,,even knowing exactly what it is,,,,IT'S DOWNRIGHT DISCOURAGING!

so here I am,,,,trying to get some support so I don't give up before it's even really begun,,,,,

This isn't a sprint, right? It's a marathon,,,,,,,it's long term that matters,,,I keep telling myself that,,,,

Also, I am hoping to find some easy, simple quick recipes that actually taste good too,,,,,so I'm going to search this site for some,,,,because after about 3 weeks on a diet, I tend to quit because I get sick of eating the same dang things every day,,,

So,,,,any tips you guys have to keep the momentum going would be helpful :)

Nice to meet you all :)

Holly

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