Hello!
To be honest I'm not really sure how to start other than I hope all ya'll are the people I'm looking for. As my username implies I have been trying to loose weight since 2001 and for a while it was going great....and now it's not. My dilemma is a bit of a long one, but I'll try for the Reader's Digest version. I have three major factors in my story: family/medical problems/lack of a support system. The first, family, refers to the genetics, as well as their attitudes. You see, one side of my family is prone to obesity and diabetes for that matter and they all just accept it. They eat just junk or huge portion of meat and potatoes that are piled with butter and a whole host of artery-clogging junk. The other are slender and tend to be healthy as horses. They can eat practically anything and be fine. I, of course, take after the larger side of the family and ever since 2001 I have been fighting it. I refuse(d?) to let the genetics and predisposition take over as they all seem to have. I started going to the gym, eating healthy, etc. I dropped from a size 16 to a size 6 and lost 35 pounds....then I went to vet school. I managed to keep the weight mostly off until my senior year and the I dropped the proverbial ball, which is where problem 2 comes in. Medical problems. That year was so overrun with stress, lack of sleep, hurried "meals" and sleepless nights that I concentrated my or surviving and less on physical maintenance. I was previously diagnosed with a moderate case of IBS, which came out in full force that year. I also was newly diagnosed with chronic migraines. The migraines themselves were awful, but add to this the fact that since then I have been on a few medications that a) have side effects like weight gain, increased fatigue, decreased heart rate, and decreased blood pressure and I went spiraling into weight gain central with seemingly no way out. Again, this leads to problem #3, lack of support system. Since I've been at this so long, my family has now termed me as "obsessed" and I just don't feel I can go to them or my friends anymore. None of them have the same problems, or if they do, they refuse to see them as a problem (it may not be for them, which is fine, I just hope their health doesn't deteriorate because of it!).
So this leads me to the reason that I joined this website. I was hoping to find a group of individuals that could become my support system and help me get through the second round of weight loss. Of course I would love to apart of theirs too. I find encouraging and helping people achieve their goals very rewarding, not to mention that there is a certain "give and take" to something like a support system. My experiences or encouragement could lend to someone else’s strength to achieve their goals and visa-versa. So if anyone would like to talk or have any idea on how to kind of kick start my keester into a "you can do this attitude" I'm all ears. If nothing else, thanks for listening!!!
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