Hello I am a 24 year old female, mother of 2. I am 5'5" and weight 190lbs. I use to be very active when I was a teen. I use to weight 120lbs. I could ride my bike 30 miles and not feel worn and torn.

There are a number of things that has contributed to my weight gain. I live in a remote part of Michigan and after I had my first baby I was afraid to go walk or ride bikes with her. I also have an addiction to pop. I have tried diet pop but the aspartame gave me a horrific panic attack so that is no longer an option. I say I have an addiction because I try to cut back on pop and then after a few days I drink more and more until it's back to the same ol' thing. I hate water especially the well water we have up here. I don't over eat but I don't have enough physical stuff going on during the day.

I try to excercise but then I end up feeling like crap and I end up making excuses why I can't excercise. I am not a fan of fad diets I have a family to cook for and we do not have the money for me to buy special foods for my self.

I want to join the navy and I need to lose at least 30 lbs. I want to enlist in the begining of the year so that gives me 4 months little more time if needed. I just need some support and pointers to keep my self on track. I want this more than anything. Thanks.

Trust me, just dropping the soda will make a difference. There is so much sugar in soda (pop for you easterners). If you don't feel like going outdoors to exercise, buy a step (they're pretty cheap). You can step for an hour while you're watching tv. Also, you've got to drink more water. Maybe try bottled water? I find that I can drink bottled water better than water in a cup. Even if it's from the tap (which I don't usually drink) it seems to taste better if it's in a bottle. The main thing is that you've got to get into a routine. Work out at the same time every day and don't give up. You'll start to feel better and eventually you'll feel bad when you don't work out.

Thanks, It is very hard to drop the pop. I talked to my hubby and we decided to ween me off of it. I usually drink a 2 liter a day. I have decided to drop down to 1 20oz a day. I am going to go buy gallons of water, it is cheaper than buying pop.

I have started to ease my way into excercise. I don't want to start off gunho then I will get burn out and give up. I have started doing 40 sit ups soon as I wake up and then I go for a 1/2 hour to 45 min. bike ride 3 times a day. It don't sound like much but I can feel the burn so it is working. Thanks for the support it means alot to me.

I think your exercise plan sounds great!!! even adding just that little bit will make an amazing difference - so will cutting back on the pop...

Something that I have done instead of buying water is purchasing a brita filter (or whatever kind) and just keeping it full in the fridge - It has seemed to keep the taste out for me, but depending on your water, it may or may not help.

Good luck!!!

It's funny how different parts of the US have different names for soft drinks. I am in Alabama and everything down here is a Coke, whether it be sprite, dr. pepper, etc. I lived the first 10 years of my life in Pennsylvania and we called them sodas. The city I live in has really weird ways of saying things too.... When I first moved down here it was so hard to get used to someone saying "We were on my car" instead of in my car. Everytime someone said that I pictured someone of the top of the car hanging on for dear life while going down the road. Does anyone else say that?

Anyway... (sorry I got off of the topic here) dropping the soft drinks will make a HUGE difference in weight loss. It seems like I read somewhere that even people who drink diet drinks still have a risk at being overweight. Why is that? The darned things don't have any sugar, calories or fat. I have been trying to stick to my water but sometimes you just have to have that fizzy drink. I have "Zero" by Cola Cola in the fridge in the garage. I put it out there so I won't look at it everyday and get tempted to drink it.