So I had to lose at least 10%

It was October 2004, I was about 5 months pregnant with my second daughter (Summer) and completely overwhelmed by the fact that I had been diagnosed with some bizarre unfamiliar condition called pseudotumor cerebri  (or benign intracranial hypertension) that threatened my vision.  A not so sympathetic neurologist told me that my only choice was to lose about 10% of my body weight and hope that it resolved my condition before I suffered any permanent damage. After a lot of self-pity and a gallon of tears it finally sank in that I just needed to get my act together and I started to make “little” changes to my eating habits. Of course I lost a few pounds but it wasn’t until Summer was about 3 months old and our move to Hawaii that I began to make big changes.  I met with my new doctor who checked my thyroid and adjusted my medication (for my Hypothyroidism). She enrolled me into a medical weight loss program through the hospital that included a weeklong course on nutrition. I took it very seriously, I walked, logged all my food (on Fitday.com) and went to every weekly meetings. It only took a few months and I lost about 40lbs but I grew tired of the journaling and began to slack off. I did the best I “thought” I could with my food choices and there I stayed at about 275lbs with no further weight loss. When the scale began to move upward again I panicked and went right back to logging my food but I was stuck. This time was even more challenging then before. I hadn’t adjusted well to our move, now having two small children, my husband working horribly long hours and having no friends or family on the island had caused me to sink into a state of depression. Call it Postpartum; call it Adjustment disorder, whatever it was I needed some support. I went to therapy where I was encouraged to seek out a moms group and regain control over my weight. With time and the support of my new friends I felt better and was able to get back on the path to weight loss. Even without any real attempt at exercise I was able to get down to about 250lbs by simply logging my food. Being aware of the amount of calories and fat I was consuming was all it took for me to successfully lose a total of 65lbs. Now I knew that it wasn’t my thyroid or genetics that was causing me to be overweight, it was the food I had chosen to eat. What a revelation, right?