Gina - I love that - SLEEP away the pounds. I would surely love to do that!!! Being a working Mama doesn't allow for much sleep time. I sure do miss being a stay-at-home Mama.
Joyce - thanks for routing for me - I haven't given up on my mini goal yet
I really do know that everyone that has posted is right. We just have those times when the scale just doesn't cooperate or those times when we are hungrier than others and we just have to deal with it.
This will probably be more info than you guys really want to know but I am going to share a little here. Like a lot of you, I am an emotional eater from way back. I have gained and lost and gained my entire life. When I got married back in 1994 (I was a late bloomer
), I was 230ish but my 170 pound husband (and that is soaking wet) thought I was beautiful and loved me anyway. So again, I did the dieting yo-yo thing and right around when we adopted our second daughter, I joined WW and lost 45 pounds. I was about 202 at that point and thrilled. And then it happened.....
My husband is a construction worker and has always had issues with his back. There were times throughout our lives where he would be out of work for a few weeks due to his bad back but always bounced back. He was 80% in pain all the time but is a very tough man and worked through it. He worked hard enough so that I could quit teaching so that we could adopt 2 little girls from China and stay at home to take care of them. Well, back in April 2003 his back went out for the final time. He could no longer work (he was 39 yrs old) and because he was laid off the day before he hurt himself, we were able to collect unemployment (what a blessing that was). We kept waiting for him to recover and go back to work.
Well, it was obvious that wasn't going to happen and I now had to face going back into the work force - not as a Christian school teacher (because that really doesn't pay well monetarily) but as a professional in the corporate world (I used to work as a contracts administrator before I taught third grade). I cried and cried because I did not want to leave my babies (they were 3 and 4 then). But I had to do what I had to do. So the Lord blessed me with a very good job and a descent pay. But now I was the only breadwinner and still had to take care of my husband and my kids and a full time job and church responsibilities. It was really tough for the first year.
After the first year the girls were in school and my husband got well enough to be able to at least make dinner and take care of the girls pretty well after school. He couldn't clean or do laundry or anything like that but he could shop for food and make dinner - that was a great help!! But unfortuantely being supermom caused me to emotionally eat myself up to 275 pounds.
It is funny because I trusted in the Lord for the finances and my family to be alright but I couldn't let go of the emotional hold food had on me. I am not sure what changed but toward the end of last year I knew that I had to do something and do it fast. My blood tests were not good and I was always tired. I still had all the responsibilites and my family counting on me but I just couldn't face it any more. I was tired and just wanted to get off the roller coaster ride that I was on. I needed to be healthier for my kids and my husband but especially for ME!!!
That is when I found out about Medifast from a friend at church. She looked amazing and I asked her secret. It was the answer I needed. It was expensive but my husband said we would make it work. It has been really good for me not only for the loss of weight but for the energy that I needed to keep going in my hectic life. However, that tendency to emotionally eat or beat myself up if I don't lose like I think I should, rears its ugly head every once in a while.
That is why I love this board. It not only makes me accountable but allows me to express my thoughts and fears and frustrations to people who most likely understand exactly what I am talking about.
Thank you all for indulging me in this memory lane post and for letting me air post my thoughts. I actually feel better just writing this down. It is a brief synopsis of what I have had to go through over the past few years and especially the last 3; but it is a window to why you will see me beat myself up over no losses when I should just be happy and pleased with myself for where I have come.
Thanks again for letting me ramble on.............