[shannymarie]

hi there! my name is shantel. i am a 31yr old mother of two boys 9 and 11 from iowa. first off, i would like to say i can see that this will a good place for me to get advice and comfort towards my weight loss. let's start with my background. i weighed 135lbs in high school. then when i got pregnant with my oldest i gained alot of weight, due to the fact that i lived with my mother and she spoiled me. i was "eating for two"-lol. then after he was born i lost it, but not back to my original weight. then i got pregnant again. i have never lost the weight since. well, i take that back, 2 years ago i had no vehicle for about 6 months. so i walked to work the whole time, which was basically across my town. i lost alot of weight. i also rode a bike. since then i haven't really exercised. well except last year, i joined cardio plus gym. i worked on weights, treadmill, stationary bike, and other machines for each part of my body. it was kind of working, but i never really had the time to go and i was still eating all the wrong food. but this time i am making progress. i bought this really cool scale from walmart. it tracks 4 people's weights up to 10. and it shows BMI, put how much you want to weigh and when you weigh it tells you what you lost or gained, how much you still needed to lose and your BMI, also the total each time that you have lost so far. well i started on 5-19-06 weighing 248.2lbs. i am 5'8. my BMI was 37.6. so then i also started eating less meals, no junk food or soda. it appears to be working. sometimes i have cramps but they go away. now it's not so bad since i am losing it. here's my losses so far-
5-21-6 down 1.2 lbs
5-23-6 down 1.2 lbs
5-24-6 up .2 lbs
5-25-6 down 2.2 lbs
5-26-6 down .4 lbs
5-27-6 down .8 lbs
5-28-6 up .2 lbs
5-29-6 down 1.6 lbs
my BMI is at now 36.5. i lost a total of 7 lbs so far. my goal is to weigh 160ish. i work in a retail store, so i see all these cute clothes in there that i can't wait to wear. anyway i will keep everybody informed about my goal. hope to hear from everybody about their successes. bye

[ellis]

Shannymarie, welcome to 3FC!
You're making great progress... keep up the good work!!

[Tirzah]

Welcome Shanny!!!! I'm glad you're here

I can relate to the ups and downs and frustrations. It can really do your head in can't it. Congrats no your success so far. Keep going! You CAN do it. We're here to support you so keep posting!

Tirzah

[shannymarie]

well today i gained .4lbs.but it's not so bad. i started riding my bike to work today, which is about 2 miles total. it was real hard. i haven't been on a bike in 2 yrs. but between eating healthier and exercise, i hope to lose at least 20lbs, since i am close to 10 now. but we will see. tommorrow is another day. talk to you all later

[Tirzah]

Working out can cause the scale to show different numbers. Don't worry too much about that!

way to go on the 2 miles!! That's awesome!

[MsChris]

Hi Shany,

I am new too. I think it is great that you are focusing on losing weight and Welcome to 3FC. What plan are you following for your eating? I am currently doing Atkins Nutritional Approach.

I wanted to make a suggestion regarding your weighing. You should try picking one day per week that you can weigh in at the same time each week while wearing the same item of clothing - or none at all. It is better to weigh in the mornings after you wake up, and urinate, but before you eat anything.

It may be hard at first not knowing, but you have got to remember that the scale will go up and down even as much as 5 pounds during a single day. You may not be getting a true picture of your losses the way you are weighing currently.

** Just a suggestion!**