Welcome to the Group

Welcome! We would love get to know you, so please tell us a little bit about yourself. You can choose any format you'd like, but most of us here share some or all of the following details:

1. History with weight loss:
2. History with Calorie Count:
3. Reason for joining this group:
4. Some interesting details about yourself, such as your job, your family, your pets and your interests:

And now just go ahead and make that first post!

Hi!

1. I've been struggling with weight loss for 20 years.  Last year I went to an integrative medicine doctor and have been learning a LOT about the ways that individual nutrition needs may differ based on genetics and past medical history.

2. I joined Calorie Count in January 2006 and have lost over 40 lbs since then - still a long way to go, I'm afraid.

3. I believe that nutrition science and endocrinology are in their medical infancy, so I'm always interested to learn more.

4. I'm a librarian; almost 40; one daughter from a previous marriage; no pets; my interests include reading, UNC basketball (woo!), playing golf and I really want to take Tae Kwon Do lessons. 

Hi.........

I had a medical procedure about 10 years ago and my weight strated to creep up after that. Prior to that I never struggled with my weight. When I remarried I developed a sedentary lifestyle and that impacted on me as well. I've always had an interest in nutrition and exercise was always a part of my life. About four years ago my weight really started to climb. I was experiencing some personal problems (I.e. disabled son, disgruntled husband and depressed me). I ate and ate and swallowed and swallowed and got sadder and sadder. My spirituality was at an all time low. In January of 2008, after doing some other things to take care of myself, I decided to address my weight. I spent time thinking about why I was holding onto my weight and started losing. The weight came off easily once I discovered the crux of my problem. I regularly meditate, listen to my body and try to be as kind to myself as I am to others. I left my husband in April, purchased a new house in May, had difficulty with my son in June, broke my foot in July and then experienced other health problems in early August. I lost center. I'm feeling better, more centered and peaceful and am grateful for the learnings I've had. I'm not a dieter. I am, however, committed to my health. I work with adults who have mental health problems and have six children. I spent a large portion of my life as a single parent. I have wonderfully supportive friends and really have a pretty great life. Nice to meet you nomoreexcuses and Igor. I hope we can learn from each other and help each other.

Patricia

Hi everyone,

What a great idea for a group!  The energetics of food, what a facsinating subjuct. (Correct me if I'm misunderstanding here ) But it's not just about what we eat, but why and how and what we attach to what we eat. If you want to go deeper Thich Nhat Hanh says that when we eat an animal that had a sad constricted life and a terrifying death that we're actually consuming that sad/frightened energy.  Wow.

I fully believe that the reason we become overweight is that we are:

1. stuffing our feelings

2. hiding/protecting ourselves

3. filling a void

There's so much more to it than calories in/out.  We will only be sucessful if we address why we got there in the first place.

I've had body issues most of my life.  But made an essential connection when I started kung-fu. I lost 30 pounds in a way that felt effortless. My kung-fu school recently closed and I saw myself staying at the top of my ususal weight fluctuation so I signed up here to keep track. 

I'm 45, 5'4" 133 lbs- an artist, wife, mother, I love to read, hike, practice chi gong, study energy and create art.

 

Hi, I am 27, 5'9", and weigh 129 lbs. I am pretty much emaciated. It's gross. I want to gain weight, but I don't eat properly. I usually only consume one or two meals a day, it's not healthy. I know that I need to eat more, and eat regularly. I can do that, for a day or two, maybe three at most, but then I fall off. I have no consistency. I've just joined calorie count for the first time in the hopes that it may bring some accountability to my life. Again, I struggle with consistency. The first day I logged all my food, and even though I fell short of my calorie goal, I still managed to get myself to eat three healthy meals. Yesterday I ate all my meals, but logged only one. Today I feel even less motivated. There is always some kind of barrier between me and food. If it's not because I don't know how to cook something "properly" then it's because I don't have the dishes done. My head is always getting in the way, always over thinking. I don't want to continue like this. I'm ready and willing to change. 

Hi Collinsta, I'm glad you're here seeking help. Your willingness to change is the first hard step. Have you always been like this or is it recent?

I'm a Nutrition Sciences major and I'm enthusiastic about a healthy, balanced diet and regular exercise. I really enjoy giving advice on healthy eating because I've learned so much and it's helped me in so many ways. My weight has yo-yoed through the past few years but now I've finally found a comfortable weight and I'm looking foward to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Hi my name is kerry im 22 and i have been fighting my battle with my weight for a good decade now. I struggle wityh my weight bc of poor habits but mostly bc i have a disease called Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome that makes your weight flutuate like crazy.

I jsut joined calorie counter and find it very eye opening i joined this group to help gain some knowledge and hoepully help find some better habits.

I married to a great man and we have fur kids for now bruiser is our lil dog and chubz is our cat, we also have a small flock of 18 chickens ( thats my new pet project)

Hello, my name is Amanda and I am also a Kentucky lady.

1. History with weight loss:  I really don't have a history with weight loss.  Until recently I just didn't have time to really notice how much I had gained.  All through high school and the first semester of college I ran track and field and cross country and weighed 102 at 19.  Now at 26 I reached my peak of 170 in May and almost fainted when I realized how unhealthy I really was.

2. History with Calorie Count:  I'm really new to calorie count, but so far I love it.  I can already see how much it is motivating me!

3. Reason for joining this group: I feel that there are so many levels of food relationships and until we address each one and make sure they are all healthy.  Food shouldn't be a bad guy.

4. Some interesting details about yourself, such as your job, your family, your pets and your interests:  I have been married almost 7 years, I have a 4 year old son and 2 year old bloodhound.  I love Nora Roberts novels, I can read one in a single day if I can sneak away from the boys long enough.  I have been a Domestic Violence Victims Advocate for 2 years and love it, although I did stress eat!

I look forward to getting to know all of you! 

Hello! Well i really dont have a history with weight loss. Until know that I want to! Im not really really fat! I just have a little belly wich it does not go at all with my skinny body.

2. History with calorie count. I've never done it! But I kinda like it :) I hope it helps me.

The reason why I want to join this group is to learn a little more about nutrition!

Something interesting about me... I JUST JOINED THE GYM LAST NIGHT! My hubby does not think I can do it BUT I will prove him wrong! ( Well At least I hope I can) Anyway have 2 go back to work! bye

Hi. I have been trying to lose weight FOREVER!. or at least it seems that way. i call myself the psycho diet princess because if it is out there, i probably have tried it. Fad diets, diet supplements, dvds, weights, bowflex.... you get the idea. I am also a scale slave so it is quite a ride on my diet roller coaster. Most recently i joined Weight Watchers, and have steadily been losing a pound, gain a little, lose a pound, etc. It is working, but if you are a psycho diet princess who is a scale slave and needs instant gratification, it is taking everything I got to not get discouraged and move on. I have been a CC member for a while now. I like the community blogs here which WW has too, but this one i always come back too. I know my biggest issue is to just get moving. i have all the right intentions and every excuse not too. then i feel bad because i didn't do at least a little something in the exercise department. So here i am, i love having spiritual faith in my life and trust me, it helps balance me out. So i have decided to combine my WW and CC together to ensure that the points i get in WW are not going over my daily allotment. Which up until last week, i wasn't sure and doing this i lost 1.5 pounds. I love healthy eating, but really need a group interested in the same things i am to help motivate me to move. Glad to be here.

I'm a yo-yo dieter. I binge and purge. Pig out and then cleanse... I started to get into Ayurveda recently and it has helped me to feel more complete about food. I understand why and how I do this to myself because of my prukruti and my vikruti and how I can get to feeling normal again. I don't binge as much...or purge as much. I am really feeling better and I want to find others who are into treating the whole person as well.

I have goals and I thought Calorie Count would help.

I joined this group in hopes of finding others who are into ayurveda. If you are, make me your friend and we can message each other about it. I really want to talk to someone who knows about as much as I do about it, so I can stop sounding like some sort of nut to my friends. (they're like "What's a dosa?" And I'm all...."No, its not a diet...its a philosophy...")

One day I would love to really study ayurveda professionally, but for now, I study at home as an amateur.

Hello! My name is Kayla and I've been dieting and trying almost everything pretty much since I was born (no joke). Lets just say my parents and family have always been involved in some sort of diet and it never lasts so we are all forced to go along with them and eat the food they fix for their diets. 

1. My history with weight loss has been unsuccessful.  Just recently I decided to stop following my families sporatic attempts at weight loss and do it on my own terms.  It hasn't worked out the way I've wanted but I'm at least maintaining my weight.

2. I just joined Calorie Count so I still don't know everything or enough to know if I'll stick with it.  It's inspirational to hear those who have had success with this site as well.  I actually was referenced over here while I was looking for the calories in something I ate a while back so I could record it for a health project. 

3. I joined this group because I know how important nutrition is in losing weight.

4. I am currently in college so I have no time for extra things (or money for extra things).

I did find something interesting recently.  I was involved in this weight loss program at a local gym with my parents and the nutritionist told our group something I had never heard before.  You may have a calorie goal but if you don't actually eat all of your calories you won't lose weight. It struck me as interesting because I've always thought the less or healthier you eat (meaning less calories) the more weight you will lose.

My name is Lindsay and I joined this website to track my calories and hopefully grams of protein and carbs as well, although I haven't checked yet to see if that's possible. I have struggled with my weight for most of my life and on 2/23/09 I underwent gastric bypass surgery. My highest weight was 325 lbs and that was about 6 weeks ago, and now, 4 weeks post-op, I weigh 289.8 lbs. I am only 5'7" and according to the wrist test I have a small frame. My immediate family does not have weight problems like me. My dad is about 20 lbs overweight but that's it. Both my brothers are really tall and super-skinny. Now I have to conquer my food addiction and stick to the post-op diet restrictions so that I can get down to a healthy weight and improve my quality of life.

Hi there! I joined CC in January shortly before I decided to embark on a flexible vegitarian diet for health (as opposed to political) reasons. Being uninsured, I have symptoms that indicate uterine fibroids. My mom had them at this age (44). Two decades ago, in the six weeks before she had surgery, she ate only whole, mostly raw foods. After the surgery, her doctor asked what she had been doing because the fibroids had significantly reduced in size and mass, some had even resorbed. When my mom told her about her dietary shift, the doc said she would prescribe that to her patients from that point on!

All of this happened well before the Internet and Google, so I was excited to learn that there actually is a lot of anecdotal evidence to support this now on the Web.  So, as a prophylactic measure, I decided to go veggie.

Not quite 10 years ago, I woke up to realize that my weight had ballooned to 162, which on a 5'3" frame is quite hefty, unhealthy not to mention unattractive.  I shifted my diet to eating whole foods mostly prepared at home, and I added a flexible version of food combining (meat and veggies or starch and veggies, but never meat and starch together). I also eliminated dairy from my diet with the exception of yogurt. The meat I did eat was balanced more with fish and chicken than beef, pork or lamb. That new nutrition routine (which I loved!) plus a dedicated combination of exercise resulted in my losing 35lbs and looking and feeling better than I had since I graduated college!

Basically, I'm returning to that effort now for the abovementioned health reason and because in the past 3 years (after keeping the weight off for 4 years) I ballooned again with a vengeance -- 172lbs!1  I have found that routine exercise is a big challenge, but I'm really enjoying the vegitarian focus. I rarely even eat tuna anymore! I am also consuming whole raw, unpasteurized juices on a regular basis. The result is that I've lost 14lbs in 8 weeks. Even better, the gyne reasons that I started this in the first place have shown progress. My symptoms are almost non-existant plus for the first time since puberty I don't feel KO'd by mother nature each month. Really. It's the best, most normal EVER!

So, my challenge now is more about exercise. I so enjoy it when I go to the gym downstairs and hop on the elliptical. I really do! I just have no energy to go. I have found that my energy overall is less with the veggie diet although the positive dividends have been so wonderful (besides the gyne ones).

I'd love to learn more about nutrition so I can get more energy.

Sorry to be so long-winded! (Obviously this energy reduction hasn't effected my typing!)

Cheers-

kckatl

hi igor, and everyone on this thread... well, i have been a member of cc since mar 19... a part of the total committment that i have reinstated regarding my health and obesity as it plays a part in my overall health... right now i am abot 60 pounds overweight, about 35 of which i put on over the last 7-10 years... my main issues are hormonal, metabolic... life long pmdd, then peri-menopause, now menopause.. all messing me up.. the good news is that these issues forced me to learn a LOT about nutrition, herbalism, and other modalities, which, over the years i have become somewhat "expert" on.. since starting here, i am having a TERRIBLE time losing ANY weight.. i am sticking RELIGIOUSLY to a 12-1500 a day calories balanced nutritionally diet, and i have only missed two days of waling since the 19th... averaging about 2-4 miles a day... 3-3.5 mph ... yet i haven't moved ANY weight out.. i have decided to stop weighing myself.. instead i have chosen goal clothing items.. and i am trying them on regularly... this is, BEHAVIORALLY, very different for me.. as i have been avoiding paying a lot of attention to my clothes for the past decade... except for work... i am a teaaching artist, actor and writer, i am married for 20 years now and have a wonderful 16 year old son ... i love all kinds of movement...expecially dance, i love gardening, i love reading and study, and of course writing... i am willing to try anything that anyone has information (anecdotal is great) on regarding jumpstarting a sluggish metabolism without burning out... i am 5' 4".. a very solid 205 pounds.. 55...and i thought that at this point i would be down to 195 at least in two weeks... but NOTHING.. i refuse to give up... and i am committed to walking, but even with my religious walking.. this cannot be all muscle holding me back.. but maybe.. i don;t know.. so i am looking for answers, suggestions, somebody who has been here... thanks.. appreciate the welcome.. and enjoying the posts... lots of love, Bonnie/dramaqun

Hello, I am a 54 year "young" man trying to regain  health and fitness that I lost over last 8 years. I have gone from 32 inch waist to 38 plus and 172 to 208 or more with fluctuations between 183 and 210 over last 3 years. At same time i am job hunting and managing all the "fun" that that includes. I have had limited success since getting motivated in february as summarized below. I am new to Calorie counting and the CC site this year.

Best regards from the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Last Entry: 193 lbs (May 06 2009)
Goal Weight: monthly 5 lbs steps to 175 lbs than maintain for 6 ths prior to any further drop. I would like <170 but not sure if that is  realistic or sustainable.

Status: Lost 9 lbs, 18 lbs to go, since starting recording in February!

1. History with weight loss: I developed anorexia at the end of my freshman year of college. I was at a healthy weight before, so losing weight made me underweight. 3 1/2 years ago I went for treatment and gained back the weight I had lost (about 30 lbs). Since then my weight has gradually dropped, but for the most part has been at or close to a healthy weight.
2. History with Calorie Count: I joined a couple months ago to help me be accountable to getting enough in, receive support, and get ideas for healthy meals.
3. Reason for joining this group: I really like the wholistic idea; that it's not just about the food and the calories, but about our emotions, spirituality, etc as well.
4. Some interesting details about yourself, such as your job, your family, your pets and your interests: I'm getting my Master's in counseling (I guess probably why I was so interested in the wholistic aspect). I really want to help women and adolescents with eating disorders and eventually work at the place that I went for treatment (Remuda Ranch). I love to scrapbook/do crafty things, play board games, swim, and dance (especially ballet).

hi i'm a 14 year old Christian who's lost 10 pounds this year by completely switching from junk food to healthy food (i love healthy food but sometimes falter and have some variation of coffee, which is my weak spot) and is trying to take off those last 10 pounds. also i'm a pescitarian whose favourite foods are sushi and shepherd's pie. i'm considering becoming a nutritionist. kind of strange, right? the overweight girl wants to be a nutritionist.

Namaste! I'm Shayen and I'm 21 Years old.

I've had a rough history with weight. I was a very active child all the way into middle school. Life hit me real hard as a teenager and I dealt with each and every eating disorder, sadly. I actually got fatter from them! at 12 years old I was 98 pounds, active in physical activity and on the track team, and then at that age I developed joint and hip problems, early signs of arthritis, and asthma. By 14 I was 183 pounds. To cope with it I was very mean to my body, and after years and years of seeing that it wasn't working, I went back into my roots.

My mom is a Buddhist, raised me that way. She's also a yoga teacher, raised me with that, too. Somewhere along the way my ego took over and I dropped my healthy and spiritual parts and they sat dormant in my head waiting for me there.

Today I've been vegetarian for 5 years. I eat feta cheese and chocolate sometimes, mostly "that time of the month" cravings. Other than that, strictly raw foods. I've been doing yoga like crazy the past year and have gotten down to 137. Hooray! I look better and feel better than EVER! The best part is that I'm healthy and I really became aware of what my body needs to function properly, leading to a  healthy and happy mind at the same time.

I'm here for the resources- articles people post about nutrition and recipes and health facts. It's healthy for me to have a nice support base and inspiration and motivation to KEEP GOING and a reminder that I'm not alone [:

Like many others I've had weight issues most of my life going from a low of about 120 as a teen to a high of about 160 which on my 5'4" frame was a lot of weight to carry around.  I've been pretty stable for the last 20 years or so and have settled into around 135 which still feels too heavy for my frame--125 is my goal weight.  I recently turned 50 and really want to lose the last 10 lbs and finally feel like I have control over my weight like I've taken control over so many other parts of my life like career, etc.   

I've been with CC for about 6 months and haven't lost anything and have a very hard time estimating my food intake accurately.  I hate measuring everything and do ok for a few days then go out to eat and have no clue on how many calories it is and stop again.  I've always been interested in health and have read a lot of integrative nutrition and have done yoga off and on for years.  Lately been into local greengrocers and trying to buy more local foods; love cooking and entertaining.  I eat fairly healthy (except too much fats and chocolate I think) have a great job, family and life (maybe work too much) and am very happy except this inability to get my weight where I'd like it to be.  I've never been involved in a group online and am not real comfortable sharing so publicly but am a people person and look forward to getting to know everyone.