What started it all

I have been thinking for a while about what the turning point was for me in starting a healthier life style. I actually didn't have any sort of click in my brain that made me want to lose weight. I have always wanted to lose weight but a lot of times was not motivated to bother. The only diet that I ever saw success with in the past was extreme low carb and I had no desire to go back to that and didn't feel like anything else would work so why bother (Stupid, huh?) So, the turning point for me was after I had my daughter. Most people try to get healthy and lose weight before they get pregnant and I did lose weight, but not in a healthy way so needless to say when I was pregnant I gained ALOT of weight (about 60-65lbs) which on top of already weighing 211 made me huge but I Loved the idea of eating for two and eating whatever I wanted. I used the pregnancy as an excuse to eat everything I loved. Anyways...I am rambling. So I had my daughter at the beginning of 2009 and wanted to make sure I was around for her for the next 50 years, but I didn't take any action towards that - Just thought to myself that I needed to change my lifestyle if I wanted to be around for her.

So what changed to make me want to lose weight/be healthy? Without going into a lot of details lets just say that I had a lot of hormonal issues in that first year after my daughter was born. I went to see an alternative medicine doctor in addition to my ObGYN and she gave me vitamins and a diet to follow and the OBgyn gave me prescription. I started both of these the same week and within a couple of weeks I was feeling immensely better. It might have just been the prescription from my doctor and it might have been getting all the junk out of my system, but the point is if only one thing made the change or if it was the combo of both I wasn't sure what was working. So I kept going. It helped me stick with it through all the times when I wanted to quit. I would think of my daughter and how much she needs me around I would not give up. Now, almost 4 months into it I feel 50 times better than ever and feel good about myself. A lot of people say that in order to be successful at losing weight you need to do it for yourself, but there is someone who means more to me than any instant gratification food can give me and that is my daughter, I am doing this for her (and me as well, but she is the motivation). I want to be around for her first day of kindergarten, soccer games, first date, graduation, etc. and I don't want to just be around I want to be active and be able to keep up with her. I feel I will succeed this time and I owe it all to my daughter, I may have given her life, but she gave me my life Back.