Welcome

I've decided to start a little online journal to help me keep track of my healthier me journey.  My name is Jill and I'm 31 years old.  I have struggled with my weight most all of my life.. I've always been big.  I'm fairly tall 5'10 and have always been "well proportioned according to my mom",  I just call it big all over.. :)   About 5 or 6 years ago I did do weight watchers online and lost 118 pounds!  That was great and I felt good about myself but I didn't exercise hardly at all.   It was all about restricting what I ate and for some reason it was fairly easy for me to lose.   The problem was I looked at it as a diet,, I rarely allowed myself any treat and guess I assumed that I could go back to normal once I had lost the weight.    Long story short we decided to add another child to our family and I got pregnant, put on 60-70 pounds.  After giving birth I lost about 20 to 30 pounds and didn't lose anymore.  Over the next few years somehow I managed to gain another 15-20 more pounds so overall from my lowest weight when losing I had gained 66 pounds :(    I was constantly tired and felt big all the time!   This year I decided NO MORE!   I couldn't just let myself creep back up to where I was before,, no way no how I had to do something about it...

Some where around the end of January my husband and I decided to get serious about this.   Although I didn't want it to be like it was last time.  I wanted a lifestyle change and knew that I couldn't totally cut out everything I enjoyed this time unless I was never going to eat those foods again.   I am not on a diet,, although I am counting my calories using myfitnesspal.com.   The reason for that is just to keep me in check and see how much I'm eating and have a better idea about which food are better than others and know what I'm putting into my body.   I also decided that I needed to exercise and make that a part of my everyday life.  I want to look toned and I want to be fit.  We bought a elliptical to use here at home and dragged out my husbands weight bench that I had bought him years ago and he never used.  Now we work out 5 days a week.  A mixture of cardio and strength training.  

I will post here and write about some of the things I am doing and some of my thoughts during my journey.   Like I said this is not a diet it is my new way of life!