Hi there, just found this site and thought I would say Hi
My name is Gail and I am a 50 year old mother of 2 girls (Carly) aged 26 and(Amber) 13, yes long time between drinks
I live in the mountains in Tasmania Australia with my husband, youngest daughter and my brood of georgeous animals. Eldest girl is a chef and lives in the capital city of Hobart about a 40minute drive away.
I have struggled with my weight most of my life, at 19 I lost a massive 120 pounds in around 12 months and managed to keep most it off until falling pregnant at 36 with Amber. I ballooned to say the least during prenancy and almost lost the baby due to a liver malfunction. To cut a very long story short I am now morbidly obese, I would estimate at least 290/300 pound as I would not dream of weighing myself at the moment as I am depressed enough. I have made all the excuses under the sun, too old, I dont eat that much, etc, etc. I have got to the stage where I dread leaving the property, even going to the local shops has become a nightmare. This is so unfair to my family,my blood pressure has sky rocketed and I am missing out on life in general. I seriously need to get this weight off and start living. Any tips anyone out there could give me to start living again would be most appreciated Thanks in advance Gail

GAIL!! Or should I say GOODDAY!

Any ideas of a plan? There are tons of different plans - something for everyone. For me - calorie counting and exercise has been the way to go. Surf around, ask questions...so glad you came here.

G'day Chick!!
Thanks for your reply, no real plan of action yet, eating healthy, laying off the bread, eating more fruit and veg and staying away from alcohol would be a good start for me! Its keeping up the will power that lets me down, I know if I can stick at it for more than a few weeks I have a chance of success, fingers crossed this time!!

No you don't need luck. Your plan is decent - can I suggest adding logging what you eat to keep track of the calories? I know it sounds annoying and time consuming - but I swear it works. Maybe not even worrying about how many calories it is at first, just doing the things you already mentioned. I like Fitday because it's free - but even just a spreadsheet or a notebook. Just to start making a habit of keeping track.

Hi again, will follow that advice and write a journal, thanks again.
It's my daughters 13th birthday on Thursday and she's having 5 girls over for a sleepover, lotsa pizza, nibbles and cake!! If I can get through that without being tempted LOL,I will be on track.
Whats fitday and how does that work? Cheers Gail

Fitday is a site where you set up an account and log what you eat and your exercise. If you look in my profile there is a link to my account. You can chose whether or not you can make your account public or not - it's your choice. The Daily Plate is another site you can use. if it might be annoying to try to find foods you eat in Austrailia...

I just think it's quite an eye opener to see what calories are in certain foods. I still get surprised sometimes at things I think should be pretty healthy that are jam packed with calories.

As for the pizza - maybe make a special pizza for yourself, thin crust with lotsa veggies and easy on the cheese. Then you won't be so tempted to eat what the kids are having.

Thanks chick, I will check them out. Just looked at your before and afters, wow, congrats, if I could get down to your size I would be stoked.

Thanks! It has been a long and interesting road. I am pretty stoked - I still wanna be smaller - but I think I can live like this for the rest of my life.