Faith...The Facts

The picture on top is a photo of me prior to gaining the weight. The picture at the bottom is a photo taken last month at a photo booth in the local zoo. I, like quite a few people who are overweight, hate having my picture taken, so this recent picture is the only one I have for now. I will take another picture and add it soon. My current weight is 245 lbs. and I would like to lose at least 115 lbs.. That would put me at a weight of 130 lbs., which would be much better on my 5'1" body. My goal is not to be supermodel thin, but to be healthy, so that I can live a long, healthy, and active life with my husband and child. I was so shocked to find myself at 27 years old with high blood pressure and gallstones. I knew I had to do something about my weight due to my health problems and that I couldn't wait much longer. I feel that my weight gain was caused by the fact that once I had a family I had so little time to focus on myself...I was putting so much time and effort into everything else that I no longer paid attention to what I was eating or how often I exercised. Now don't get me wrong I love my family dearly and will always put them first, but looking back I see where I went wrong when it came to taking care of myself and the facts are the facts. My daughter was diagnosed at 2 weeks old with a heart condition. Due to her heart condition she spent quite a bit of the first 2 years of her life in the hospital. Thankfully, her doctor's finally found a good medicine dosage and medicine schedule for her and she has not had an episode with her heart since. Now, other than annual check ups with her cardiologist and taking medication 3 times a day she seems completely healthy and if you did not know she had a heart condition you could never tell. However, the high stress of those first 2 years of her life and more or less living out of the hospital at that time (I constantly stayed by her side and the furthest away I would go was the restroom) took it's toll on me, obviously emotionally and physically as well. I was constantly having someone bring me fast food or else I was eating out of vending machines (food also became a comfort for me during that time), so due to this I barely even lost any of the weight from my pregnancy. After my daughter's heart issues were under control and we were no longer constantly at the hospital, I still continued down the path of not paying attention to what I was eating or how much I was exercising. Of course my daughter screaming for McDonald's every time we pass the golden arches does not help my weight any, since I always find myself getting some yummy, fattening food when we stop l.o.l.. I am lucky, however that my daughter loves healthy food. My daughter loves to eat fruits and vegetables for snacks and due to her health I do try to make sure she eats healthy, but I still put myself on the back burner and usually just grab something quick, convenient, and unhealthy for myself. My food addictions are Chinese food and cheesecake...I think I could literally eat sweet and sour chicken, General Tso's chicken, terriyaki chicken, fried rice, pot stickers, and cheesecake 7 days a week for the rest of my life l.o.l..