Hello all, my name is Heather; I am married and have a 3 year old son.

Ok to begin my story...

I have always had a problem with my weight. From the time I can remember I was always on the heavier side. At 12 or so I weighed like 120 lbs and that’s when the weight gain really started. As I was becoming a woman... lol I still laugh at the thought of why they say we become women. Anyways, by the time I started 9th grade I was in a 38dd and about 140 lbs if not heavier. I was always teased by the other girls in my class.

Ok fast-forward a little bit… by the time I was 16 which was in 1999, is where things really began. I met my husband which at the time I weighed 150 lbs and was in a size 18-20 for most of my clothes. I met him during a summer job so that I could make some money as well as get a little bit more exercise in as I wasn’t happy with the way I looked at the time either.

In 2000, at the age of 17, I found pregnant for the first time and unfortunately lost the baby which I now see as although a sad thing, a good thing. As neither my hubby or I was really ready at that age for the responsibilities of raising a child. I had gained weight by then as we weren’t really paying much attention to how we ate at that age.

In 2001 I graduated High School at the age of 18 and was at what I thought was my heaviest weight yet I had weighed 200 lbs.

In June of 2002, my now hubby who at the time was just my boyfriend and I got married. This was after he had joined the Army. We then moved to Southern Cali. That year we had started going to the gym every few days but eventually gave up as our work schedules were making it hard to continue to go together and neither of us wanted to do it alone. I was steadily gaining weight as I was working at Burger King… my food when I was on the clock was 50 % off which didn’t help when all I wanted to do was eat… I never seemed to have portion control over things like that.

In 2003 I got pregnant again with my son, Alexander who is now three. When I found out I was pregnant and went to the doc they weighed me which was a bit of a shock as we didn’t own a scale at home so I had no clue how much I had actually gained over the years. I was now at my heaviest point in my life at 220 lbs at the start of my pregnancy. In June of 2004, I had my little boy at 34wks5days along. I weighed 241lbs when they checked me in at the hospital. Which to me sounded like I had gained quite a bit considering I was only told to gain 10-15 lbs as I was overweight to begin with. According to the doc I had only gained a total of 12 lbs because I had lost weight due to morning sickness.

Ok so now its 2007 and I am at a grand total of 261 pounds which according to my doc I have lost 5 lbs from the last time I had seen him which was in October of 2006. So if you add that to my current weight my highest weight on record is 266 lbs. Which I had never thought I would ever allow myself to get that heavy.

The whole reason I am starting the journey is to surprise my husband and also get healthier so that I can be around to see my son and possibly future children grow up.

I am currently starting to really watch what I eat as well as count calories and make sure to eat healthier meals instead of going out to eat or eat a lot of junk food. I am also on 2 meds which seem to help me in my journey so far as I am much happier now that I am on them. I was always depressed and when depressed or stressed I tend to eat and not healthy foods either. Which we all know in the weight loss world isn’t a good thing. I am currently hoping to lose 111 lbs which would bring me to a goal weight of 150 lbs. At that time I will rethink and focus my attention on whether I am happy being at that weight or try to lose more. I am giving myself a year to get to my goal weight but would really love to see some improvement in my weight loss by the time I see my husband again which is in 9months, 1 week and a day. Unless the military changes the dates as he’s in the army, currently stationed in Afghanistan. I have been using my walk away the pounds DVDs and taking daily walks to the park with my son who loves the outdoors and also playing with our dogs. I am using some small 3 pound hand weights to do some muscle toning but not really focusing on that as much as I am just trying to lose weight.

To me the best support comes from family and friends whether they are in person or online. My best friend autumn, who has helped me through so many things, is the greatest. She is the one who told me about this site. I feel that my goals are pretty realistic and that as long as I keep focused and motivated I will be able to reach them. I plan on starting right away and hope that by the time I see my hubby again I will be a new person… lol in the way I look and feel but not so much in how I am as a person per say… Good luck to all in their goals and any advice or recommendations are welcome.

welcome to the site - enjoy your stay and have fun while you are here

U made me cry, I love u and alex so much, even thou we are a state apart we can do this together.. This is for u and only u and im glad ur doing it, babysteps babe and u can do it..

You know I love you all too. I wouldn't be able to get through some of the things I have if it wasn't for you being there for me cause besides you and my other friend alison, none of my other friends give a damn. They could care less if I am having a rough time or if things with phillip and I aren't going good. anyways just thought i would say thanks again for getting me started on this forum. I sure hope we can do this together and screw both of our hubby's if they don't like that we are making healthier choices for our families.

something new? I just got started again on trying to lose weight as the last time i did this I found out i was pregnant with my son. Anyways, I am sick again and so is my son. I have a throat infection according to what my doc said so now i am on antibotics for that.. and my son has a double ear infection and sinus infection. anyways for my small update besides that I was able to do 75 sit ups and a bunch of different upper and lower body exercises while using my 3 lb hand weights. so that made me feel good. Gotta remember to take baby steps but I am not a very patient person and never have been... I am hoping and praying that I can keep this up each day so that when I see my hubby again I surprise him by how good I look and feel about myself, even though he says he loves me just the way I am.

So far for as eating I have had :

Brunch 11:45am
2 hambuger pattys with 1 slice of cheese and 2 pieces of bacon. No bun or sauces.. and 16 oz of Powerade.

Afternoon snack for me is going to be 1 slice of toast with peanut butter on it. Yum... lol

Dinner: not sure yet as we haven't figured out what to cook since i forgot to take something out of the fridge yet again but will probalby make soup and sandwiches. Thinking Grilled cheese and Chicken Noodle soup.

Well I did not do as good as I had hoped for my food today as I had doc appts for both me and my son today So i didn't eat until 11:45 this morning.

Brunch: 2 Bacon Cheeseburgers today but didn't eat the bun and had no ketchup or mustard on them at all. not sure if the calories and stuff is right for this since i didn't eat the bun but it says 480 cals, 25grams of fat, 36 carbs and 28grams of protein.

16oz Mountain blast Powerade- 120cals, 0fat, 34carbs, 0 protein

No afternoon snack as I wasn't hungry. which i had originially planned to have a slice of whole wheat toast with pb on it.

Dinner was KFC's Popcorn chicken individual size 400cals, 26fat, 22carbs, 21 protein
side mashed potatoes w/gravy.. was bad had 2 sides of them. was meaning to be good but they tasted good and since i haven't been eating very much today i went ahead and ate them. 280cals, 10fat, 40carbs, 4 protein

Also had a 20 oz mug rootbeer with dinner 243cals, 0fat, 63cals, 0 protein

water had 64 oz and will probably drink more as its only 8pm and i probably won't go to bed for another 4 hours.

Total for today is 1523 calories 61grams of fat, 195 carbs, 53grams of protein


exercise: Lower body and abs.
Crunches 50, Lunges 2 sets of 20, Toe Taps 2 sets of 50, Calves 2 sets of 40
Abductors 2 sets of 20, Adductors 2 sets of 40, Leg Curl 2 sets of 40
Leg Extensions 2 sets of 40

I sure hope I did a pretty good job today as I feel good about it although i probably could have done without the second set of mashed potatoes but its only a small thing so i guess that's good. Plus they felt pretty good on my throat which is pretty sore since i have an infection.

Are you feeling any better today?

Its great that you got some exercise in eventhough you weren't feeling well.
Keep going and you'll see results.
It'll get easier to get your eating on schedule once it becomes a habit.

~Jenna

[QUOTE=momma4alex;289577]
I sure hope I did a pretty good job today as I feel good about it although i probably could have done without the second set of mashed potatoes but its only a small thing so i guess that's good. /QUOTE]

Good job in just getting started. That is half the battle...really being motivated to do the work to lose weight. I've spent my whole life wanting to be thin, but not really interested in making any real kind of effort. So, good for you and keep going!

And hey, don't beat yourself up over the bad choices in one day (not that you are), just focus on doing better the next day. Flab isn't lost all in one day...

[QUOTE=takingcontrol;291523]You know your absoutely right it's not all lost in one day and like you have have been wanting to be thin my whole life. My little sister always complained about how small she was but to me it seemed like a crazy thing since she's never been more then 135 lbs in her life. I can't wait to get down to 150 if not lower but I know its going to take time and major effort to change things on my part. I have been working pretty good on cutting things out of my diet. I cut out all sodas just about except caffine free sodas so far and am working on cutting those out too. I try to only have 1 soda a day if i have any at all. overall i think I am doing pretty good so far.

so thanks for the encouragement. I am going to check out your diary again as don't know how to check if i subscribed to it to watch your progress as i am also watching erica's progress. since we are all in similar age and weight range.

i was going to just type it all out again but its easier to just post the link to my fitday thing on here instead since that shows everything all in one spot.

FitDay.com - Diet and Fitness journal for ajfavegrl

anyways thanks to everyone who posted on my page so far. Its been very helpful and motivating reading your post and some of the other diaries on this forum. I hope I can be just as motivating and supportive as everyone else is

Hi Heather

I'm glad to see you take the steps to living better and living longer. I hope you commit the time and resources to food education and grocery store discipline. Combine these two changes with a passionate determination and any goal you dream of will become your reality.

Best of luck and give the processed foods and fast foods a heave, you'll enjoy a much smoother weight loss

Just believe.

Thanks Randy, I really hope to give all I can to losing weight and getting healthier in the process. My son and my life both depend on it so I am doing whatever it takes. Now to just get rid of the fast food. I don't really know how to cook much so I am learning a whole new thing. My speciality is baking. which is bad when most of it is sugary stuff... kwim?

Anyways Thanks again, I hope i can accomplish this goal and make myself and everyone else proud of me too

The struggles are real but worth the pain. Convert your anguish into hope. You can do this, Heather.

Have you looked into getting some cookbooks that only have healthy recipes in them. I know how to cook... pretty well too it was always something we did growing up... but I definitly still use cookbooks because there's always soo much to learn. Eating Well has a great series of cookbooks

Thanks your right the struggles are worth the pain. My husband use to say anything worth having is worth the work to get it. So I am taking that as the pain i go through trying to lose weight and get my lifestyle back on track as a good thing. As being healthy is for sure worth it.

Now to get back to working out after i get my son down for his nap.