My 2nd guest-blogger -- my friend Sarah

The wonderful Sarah is from Finding my Fabulosity!

I was glad to get a post from Sarah since she also likes the term "FAB."  As well, my step-daughter, like Sarah, has ADHD so it's something they have in common.

I introduce you to, Sarah...

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My name is Sarah, I am overweight, and I have ADHD (also known as Attention Hyperactive Attention Disorder).

Over the years, I have been on NUMEROUS “diets” such as the Atkins Diet, Weight Watchers, and multiple variations of these and counting calories.

I’ve been skinny twice in my life, well since hitting puberty that is, after doing the Atkins Diet at the end of 2003 and with Weight Watchers in 2006.

Both of those skinny times were because others were around me to help, in some way, shape or form. My family decided in 2003 to do the Atkins Diet, so it was easy to just eat the meals my mom made, not stray because there weren’t ANY temptations in the house, and just simply lose weight.

I would say I was about 178 lbs (a size 12) for about 6 months before some emotional issue sent me crawling back to food. In 2006, I had moved into my first apartment. My roomie was doing Weight Watchers, so I decided to try it. She kept me accountable, and helped me keep junk out of the apartment. That was my longest stretch of “skinnyness”, and it lasted about a year.

Weight loss is hard. Weight loss with a mental disorder is, honestly, harder. It’s one thing to eat mindlessly, but you eventually go “Why am I eating this?!” then put it away. With my disorder, I eat mindlessly, put it away, and 2 minutes later wonder WHAT I had just ate.

It’s a struggle for me to remember to do normal daily tasks, such as put on deodorant or brush my teeth; and yet I wonder why I can’t remember to take my multivitamin once a day.

“Out of sight, totally forgotten” should be the motto for anyone that has ADHD, or I will at least claim it’s my motto.

I wish I was somewhere near “normal”, but then I think I would take the weight loss for granted.

Since the end of July 2010, I have lost 23 lbs. However, at the peak of my weight loss, I had lost 31 lbs, but gained some back over the past few months.

This journey takes work, and I just have to work that much harder to get what I want. I should be used to it by now as that’s the way it is with everything for me, not just with weight loss.

My 1st guest-blogger - say hello to my friend, Ellen!

So, I was thinking it might be fun (and inspiring) to have some of my wonderful blogging friends to do a guest-post for my blog and my first guest-blogger is the wonderful, warm and inspiring Ellen from Fat Girl Wearing Thin.

We decided that she would do a post for my blog and that I would do a post for her blog.  Please go to her blog, read my guest post and then stick around because she's an awesome blogger!

I am waiting for guest blogs from some of my other friends which I hope to post in the future and if any of my readers would be interested - email me and we can talk about it.

Now, without further ado, here's ELLEN! :>

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When FAB asked me to guest post on her blog, I eagerly accepted.  While reading her blog I can’t help but be reminded of my own transition as I went from my heaviest weight of 235 pounds to a normal weight for my 5’2” frame of 130 pounds.  I didn’t have a blog when I began losing, however, I am frequently asked what it was that I did to jump-start my weight loss.

When I first started losing the weight I’d carried for so long, I wondered how I was going to convince myself that I actually had to exercise as part of my weight-loss program.  I hated to exercise; the pounds I carried made me feel awkward and uncomfortable.

The single biggest change I made was also one of the simplest: I purchased a pedometer. Wearing it gave me instant accountability and access to see how I was doing at any given time.  It wasn’t long before I was exceeding 10,000 steps a day, and this is how I did it:  I moved.  When I was on the phone, I walked around the house.  When I brushed my teeth, while waiting for my dog to come back inside, while waiting for my bathtub to fill with water, I stepped in place.  As long as I was standing anyway, I figured I could just as easily move around so that’s what I did.  Before long I was averaging 16,000 steps a day and it showed.

By creating one goal, just one – I didn’t feel as though I had turned my entire life upside down.  It really didn’t feel that different from before, other than the fact that I was becoming more aware of how much (or how little) I was moving.  I started feeling stronger; I wanted to move more.  And I wanted to eat healthier.  Notice that I emphasize on the word want.  I did it because I wanted to, not because it was part of a series of strict rules I had to follow.  Things began falling into place; one good habit triggered another, which triggered another, and so-on.

I am now entering my seventh year of maintenance, but being here has it’s challenges, too.  There was plenty of information out there to show me how to get to maintenance, but there is very little information as to how one stays in maintenance.  For example, I never realized how difficult it would be to start reintroducing foods back into my diet that were once forbidden, or only eaten in smaller portions.  As my body readjusted to being able to eat more calories I had to become keenly aware of how much or how little was acceptable in order to maintain my weight.  Learning how to achieve that kind of balance takes some trial and error; every person’s body is different and there’s no manual to show you how it’s done, but it can be done.  Awareness is key.

Whether you are working on losing your first 10 pounds or that stubborn last 5, I want to share with you something which I learned along the way that’s become the mantra of my blog:  You don’t have to wait to lose that weight in order to live your best life now. Changing my body did not change who I was.  In the end, I’m still me, a work in progress; whether I’m 235 pounds or 130 pounds.   Being of a desired size is simply a perk of an already fulfilling life.

Ellen, aka Fat Girl Wearing Thin
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http://fatgirlwearingthin.com