kind of new
Hello!
I've been lurking/posting intermittantly for about two months now, so I thought I'd introduce myself.
I hit puberty early, around age 12, and maintained my normal womanly weight of 135 lbs. at 5'7" until I was 19. I thought I'd be thin my whole life. No offense to anyone here, but at the time I couldn't comprehend how someone could eat enough food to make herself overweight. I ate in moderation, including junk food, and it just didn't seem possible to me that my eating habits would go downhill enough to make me fat. Little did I know how easy it is to slip into overeating.
In college I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I began taking the medication lithium, which is notorious for causing weight gain. There are several reasons why lithium tends to be associated with gaining weight. For me personally, it was most likely because lithium kept me on the depressed side of bipolar, and I ate a lot of junk food to lift my mood and give myself energy.
Like many bipolar people, I went on and off lithium, and my weight fluctuated accordingly. Eventually, during law school, I realized that in order to function well in life, I will have to stay on medication. Once I consistently took lithium every day like a good little girl, my weight ballooned up to 180 lbs. Needless to say, the weight gain made me even more depressed.
The breakthrough came when my doctor switched me from lithium to lamictal, a relatively new medication. I stopped gaining weight and lost about ten pounds right away. Now I am working on losing the rest of the lithium weight. I joined WW, am taking it slowly, and hope to meet my goal in eight months or so.
Nice to meet you all!
|
