[sapphera83]

Hi! My name is Sapphera and I'm 31 years old. I have been struggling with weight issues for a few years, ever since I had my daughter, who is now 7. Before I got pregnant with her, I was always slender and the most I weighed was maybe 125 (I am 5'3.). I weighed 177 when I gave birth to her and lost quite a bit of that and was down to maybe 130 or 135. In the years since, I have struggled with depression and what is probably a fast food addiction and my weight has yoyoed all over the place, but now I find myself around 180 (I didn't officially weigh today, the day after Thanksgiving, because the thought seemed too depressing.) I did weight watchers last year and lost around 30 pounds but gained it back and then some. I have never been as heavy in my life as I am right now and I'm starting to notice other problems. When I sleep, I lay on my side and my hips have started to hurt, from the extra weight I presume, as well as my knees sometimes if I walk a lot or do a lot of squats. I was hoping that if I joined a message board community like this I might have more motivation to stick with a diet. I'm really at a loss as to where to start. My goal weight would probably be around 130, at which point I would reevaluate if I needed to lose more or not. Thank you to anyone for reading this.

[Seana]

Depression really makes losing weight hard. Then it becomes a vicious cycle. No advice just understanding.

[sapphera83]

It does. A lot of it is my situation (my husband and my daughter and I are living with his mother right now because he has had 2 surgeries this year and is working to find another job) and I'm working on finishing my college degree. It can be very frustrating at times.

[faiora]

I've been there with depression... and perhaps it's what spurred my first major weight gain. I don't think I ever tried dieting while depressed so the fact you're here at all seems just amazing to me.

I offer internet hugs and best wishes to you.

If I had any advice, I guess I would say to make a small change here and there. Maybe just change what items you have in the house, and make it more convenient to eat healthy food? I like getting pre-cut trays of fruits and veggies from costco for that reason. I'm likely to grab the simplest thing to eat, so if veggies are the simplest that works well for me.

[sapphera83]

Thanks for your kind words, Faiora. I like to keep pre cut fruit and baby carrots in the fridge. I normally eat those and lunch meat for lunch(I don't like bread), but then I usually end up eating fast food for dinner. (I don't like cooking).

[Seana]

Fast food will do it. But I agree with Faiora, small changes. Trying to change you whole life at once when you are depressed can be very stressful. Maybe try to make healthier choices when going the drive through. Grilled chicken over a burger. Skip the fries add a salad. Skip the soft drink.
I actually think that's pretty hard to do. So at the beginning I would recommend bargaining with your self. For every 3 healthy meals let yourself have an unhealthy meal. The up to 5 healthy meals, then 7. I like to think of will power as a muscle. When you first start, it's pretty weak, so you have to take it slow. Once you hit 10 days, you're probably not going to want to have an unhealthy meal on the 11th. Just remember, it's better to go slow than to not go at all.