[JoannaC]

Hi everyone, I am a newbie to this forum and just wanted to say hi. I have had a rough couple years with moving overseas for grad school, the transition to being back home, moving out on my own again, getting career established etc. Right now, I am juggling a full-time job which ends in June (teaching-related, so only for school year) with part-time babysitting, Sunday school teaching, freelance writing, looking for summer job, looking for September job, studying for course to upgrade my teaching credential...the list goes on and on I guess I allowed myself to get a little slack with the diet and exercise stuff, and now I am restarting my fitness program (I enjoy exercise videos) and trying to clean up the eating I have been fooling myself about my weight, making excuses that I just put on muscle easily etc (which is partly true, I do look like I weigh less than I really do and I do put on muscle easily) but the reality is, I need to lose about 20 pounds.

Four weeks ago, I found the Richard Simmons food mover on sale for $6 )with some videos which I gave away, Simmons is not my thing for videos) and have been LOVING the food mover since. I always had trouble with weight watchers because if I was out somewhere and did not have nutritional info for stuff, it was hard to know the points. The food mover is based on portion sizes so you do not need to know numbers for any foods. Just look at the portion size. It is so easy to follow and I love the little gizmo.

I felt, given my activity level, that 1200 calories was too low for me, so I upgraded myself to the next tier up, and am taking the 'slow and steady' route. I have so far lost 6.5 pounds and will very soon dip below 140 for the first time in probably years! That will be exciting. I also need to get a little more consistent with the working out. I used to be so much better at that!

Anyway, that's me. I am enjoying exploring the forum. So much info here!

[JayEll]

Hey, JoannaC,

Glad to see you here! I know what you mean about "fooling yourself" about your weight and also telling yourself that you put on muscle easily. I believed both of those for a long time. What I have to lose now is not muscle, not by any stretch of the imagination!

I'm glad you've found something that you like! That's great. For me, it's a combination of getting used to portion sizes and tracking calories carefully. It seems to be working so far.

Good luck, and stick around! We have lots of different forums here, as you can see.

Jay