Hello, ladies! The headline is a pretty accurate portrayal of how I feel right now. If you'll all bear with me, I'll tell you all a little about myself and maybe I'll find some kindred souls and some more support because, boy, I could really use it right now!

I am a 30 year old married mother of two children. My 8 yr old daughter has borderline Precocious Puberty and my 6 yr old son has mild/moderate Autism. As a child, I was the tiny kid with an appetite that came and went but I was moderately active so that helped on the days I would binge. As a teen, I was average sized and still moderately active but also still waffling between picking and binging. At 20, I ruptured a disc in my lower back without knowing it and had two children in the space of two years. The weight piled on. The disc went undiagnosed and untreated for 6 whole years before I had a diskectomy to remove the tissue that was pressing on my sciatic nerve. There's still pain and muscle degeneration, but I've put on 100 pounds in 10 years and I want it off!

I could make excuses for why I haven't exercised but that's all they would be... excuses. I have no consistency in my day to day menu, no exercise regime and no justification for sitting on my duff when I should be outside doing something (anything!) to raise my heart rate and burn some of this fat off.

So, it's time for a change. I didn't want to make a New Year's resolution, I wanted to make a permanent change. My husband had great luck with WW (lost 80 pounds in 10 months with zero exercise!) but I want to learn how to eat like a normal person and how to exercise in order to lose weight as well as how to tone up later.

I need a lot of support. I need someone to kick me in the butt and get me out of bed. I'm sure I have some form of depression and I'm perfectly willing to get some help with that. I would love to have people who could help me with tried and true family friendly recipes, pushing through the bad days and who knows how it feels to be The Fat Chick.

Oh my, I've rambled on. I do that, a lot. Sorry!

Hello there, chicklets, and

I'm really glad you're here, because it seems like you need a bit of guidance. But first I have to play bad cop for a second (I'll go back to good...don't worry).

The only person who can motivate you, who can get you out of bed, who can plan your meals, who can get your body moving, who can make the behaviors happen that lead to long term success...the only person who can do that is you. This board is great for ideas, for inspiration, for meals, for asking questions and getting answers, but ultimately, the person who will drag you out of bed in the morning is YOU. This can be discouraging (How will I EVER manage to do all of that work MYSELF??) but also empowering when you reach your goals (Wow! Look what I did all by myself!)

So, where can you start? We have a "Depression and Weight Issues" forum for those who struggle with depression. I will say that, though depression makes it harder to get started on a fitness program, it REALLY motivates me to CONTINUE my program, because the depression symptoms are SO much better when I work out. We have the 100 lb club, a wonderful, supportive group for those who are on their way to losing or who have lost 100 lbs or more. We have any number of groups by eating plan or age range, so check those out.

For that extra motivation to push yourself you might look at some of our challenges and clubs, as well.

Wherever you settle, stick around. I'm so glad you've found us and can't wait to get to know you better!

I second everything Mandalinn has said.

The thing about eating like a normal person is that, most of us here at 3FC have no idea what that means. In order to eat normally we have to monitor what we eat (either by calorie counting, or carb counting or counting WW points) and often we have to consider the monitoring a permanent change. I'm a WW member and have lost over 100 lbs with the program (including exercising), but I know that I will have to continue to count my points in order to keep on eating like a normal person.

There are SO many recipes around 3FC. Take your time in looking around, but they'll pop up all over the place Some fancier, but most I would say try to be as simple and quick as possible.

Please post wherever you're comfortable. Know that you can do this, you just have to keep going no matter what speedbumps appear.

Best of success!