It’s been 4 years since I joined SparkPeople. I think it’s a wonderful web site and I am so glad I joined. Even though I have been through a lot of ups and downs in the last 4 years, I still weigh less now that I did 4 years ago.

Four years ago, I was sitting at my desk at work typing and I notice that I was having a hard time breathing. I felt so heavy, like something was pusshing on my stomach and my chest. Of course, what was pushing was actually my fat. All my fat is in my stomach and back and my chest. My body shape is an apple with toothpicks for legs.

Also, every time I got up from desk, I had to lean on my desk to get up. I felt like I was in my 80, not 40s. My legs were not working. I could not push myself up from desk with just my legs. I had to rely on my arms for help.

I kept asking myself over and over again why I was gaining weight. I didn’t eat that much. I knew I was not exercising, but I really didn’t eat that much. At least I thought I didn’t eat that much compared with some other people. I did go out for lunch every day at work, but I didn’t get the fries with the burger and I didn’t get the bigger sandiwch and I didn’t get the bigger plate of food. But, little by little that little bit of food kept storing itself in my belly. Of course, back then I was not fully aware of how my body works and I did not realize that I was actually causing myself to gain more weight by starving between lunch and dinner and skipping breakfast.

When I realized I had to do something, I started looking at different diet web sites. I knew a little about diet web sites from my sister-n-law. She had tried several and always gained weight back. Then I saw SparkPeople. It was free and it had many member saying they lost weight and kept it off. Wow!! I had to join.

SP tought me so many things. The first and most important is that everything that I was eating was junk full of calories and fat. I might not have been eating a lot, but it was enough for me to gain some serious weight. Also, SP taught me that I don’t need an hour long heavy earobic exercise class to loose weight, especially since I could hardly move when I started. Another important lesson that SP taught me is that I don’t have to starve or give up all my favorite foods. This is great since I love food. As my mother, the deibetic, says when she steals sweets off my kid’s plates, sometimes you just need to eat certain food fo r your soul to be happy.

The major life style changes that I made was bringing lunch to work from home, eating big breakfast and parking my car as far away from a door as possible. I started walking at our local mall on my lunch break until my husabnd bought me a treadmill for my birthday. I loved it. I rented all the shows from HBO and other networks that we don’t get and watched the shows while I walked. It was not only exdecise time, it was also “me” time. I lost almost all the weight I wanted to. 3 years ago, I was 5 lbs away from ideal weight.

Then, about 2 years ago, I stopped exercising. I can’t point to a specific reason. There were my migraines and kids getting sick and issues at work. There was just a lot going on and I was really tired. Of course I gained some weight again. BUT, I never went back to the weight I was 4 years ago and I believe it is due to the life style changes that I made. Life style changes really work, you all. Trust me.

I am now exercising again and loosing weight. It seems my body changed shape since I started 4 years ago (it went south), but that’s OK. I am getting there. Hopefully, this time with kids being older and my migraines a little under control, I can keep on exercising and never gaining weight back again.