Hi folks! New here!
My name is (in fact) Franny, I'm 43, a mother of one (23), grandmother of two (2 1/2 & 11 mos.), and I've been fat pretty much my whole life.
I was recalling certain weight "milestones" just the other day... In third grade (back when they still weighed kids in school) I was 92 pounds. When I was swimming competitively I was 126, at around age 13. I remember my coach freaking out and telling me I had to lose 6 pounds or else I was off the relay team. Six pounds, bah! If it were that easy now! At 19 I was 170. When I was pregnant with my daughter I gained 50 more pounds, and topped the scale at 220 at the age of 20. Never saw less than 200 again, and have pretty much fluctuated between 220 and 235 for the past 23 years.
This past April I had enough of the fatness. I started by eliminating the one can of soda I had with my evening meals, the Quad Venti White Mocha from Starbucks I had every day, and started walking about 30 minutes 5 days a week, gradually moving up to 45 minutes, then 60, then 90. Also increasing speed, treadmill incline, and the amount of $$ spent on iTunes for new songs to play while I walked. That's all I did to start with. Shortly thereafter, I started counting every single calorie I put into my mouth... even the calories in gum.
At this point I'm obsessed with numbers - the numbers on my treadmill and on my calorie tracker, which I wear everywhere, number of laps, number of cals and fat cals burned, number of calories consumed, number of net calories, etc.
Add to that my latest (within the past month or so) obsession: cooking. Go figure. ME, someone who ate out every night and believed the oven was just for storage and the stove for decoration. Now I love, love, love searching for recipes online and going through healthy eating cookbooks and magazines looking for new flavor adventures.
Right now I'm at 175.5 pounds, down from 221 back in April (I'm 5'9"). I'm perfectly happy with my progress thus far, but my goal is to be somewhere between 150 and 160. I love being able to cross my legs and have the over leg actually cross and hang down, rather than shooting straight out... know what I mean? Shopping for clothes is a real kick now. And just today I had someone (who hadn't seen me in a while) look right past me like he didn't know me.
So, I think this is it for me. I'm pretty sure this is something I can stick with for the rest of my days... no rules carved in stone, no forbidden anything, just portion control and making sure calories burned are more than calories consumed at the end of the day. If I had only known this 23 years ago...!
Anyway, nice to be here!
My name is (in fact) Franny, I'm 43, a mother of one (23), grandmother of two (2 1/2 & 11 mos.), and I've been fat pretty much my whole life.
I was recalling certain weight "milestones" just the other day... In third grade (back when they still weighed kids in school) I was 92 pounds. When I was swimming competitively I was 126, at around age 13. I remember my coach freaking out and telling me I had to lose 6 pounds or else I was off the relay team. Six pounds, bah! If it were that easy now! At 19 I was 170. When I was pregnant with my daughter I gained 50 more pounds, and topped the scale at 220 at the age of 20. Never saw less than 200 again, and have pretty much fluctuated between 220 and 235 for the past 23 years.
This past April I had enough of the fatness. I started by eliminating the one can of soda I had with my evening meals, the Quad Venti White Mocha from Starbucks I had every day, and started walking about 30 minutes 5 days a week, gradually moving up to 45 minutes, then 60, then 90. Also increasing speed, treadmill incline, and the amount of $$ spent on iTunes for new songs to play while I walked. That's all I did to start with. Shortly thereafter, I started counting every single calorie I put into my mouth... even the calories in gum.
At this point I'm obsessed with numbers - the numbers on my treadmill and on my calorie tracker, which I wear everywhere, number of laps, number of cals and fat cals burned, number of calories consumed, number of net calories, etc.
Add to that my latest (within the past month or so) obsession: cooking. Go figure. ME, someone who ate out every night and believed the oven was just for storage and the stove for decoration. Now I love, love, love searching for recipes online and going through healthy eating cookbooks and magazines looking for new flavor adventures.
Right now I'm at 175.5 pounds, down from 221 back in April (I'm 5'9"). I'm perfectly happy with my progress thus far, but my goal is to be somewhere between 150 and 160. I love being able to cross my legs and have the over leg actually cross and hang down, rather than shooting straight out... know what I mean? Shopping for clothes is a real kick now. And just today I had someone (who hadn't seen me in a while) look right past me like he didn't know me.
So, I think this is it for me. I'm pretty sure this is something I can stick with for the rest of my days... no rules carved in stone, no forbidden anything, just portion control and making sure calories burned are more than calories consumed at the end of the day. If I had only known this 23 years ago...!
Anyway, nice to be here!
