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Hi! My name is Tanya, and I've been poking around on these forums for the last couple of days — Fitday seems like a really friendly, helpful, and supportive place to be, so I'm really glad to be here :)

I've lived with hormone imbalance for most of my adult life, and we only figured that out about 4 years ago — my body just doesn't make enough estrogen or progesterone, so I generally have a lot of hormone-related medical problems when I'm not on BHRT (bioidentical hormone replacement therapy) until we can establish a new homeostasis for my body ("Oh, is THAT how much of that stuff I'm supposed to make? Okie-dokey!" LOL). Stress seems to be one of the easiest ways for my hormones to get whacked out, and last summer my stress levels were through the roof with work — my hormone levels (which we'd finally gotten to the right levels for the first time EVER) took a nose dive, and I've been struggling with getting my body to function properly ever since.

Over the past couple of months I've worked with my very accommodating employer to reduce my job-related stress (I'm an editor/tech writer), so that's a start. I have a great doc whose holistic approach to medicine meshes well with my own philosophy about health and wellness, so we've got me back on a BHRT regimen again as well, along with a cocktail of nutritional supplements. I've always thought we eat pretty "clean" (not a lot of canned/prepackaged food, mostly fresh or frozen, and I cook mainly from scratch), so I'm now using the food tracking tool here to see if that's actually the case. I never had to worry about counting calories when I was younger (I'll be 40 next month), so this calorie stuff is all pretty new to me.

The thing is, nothing about our diet has changed, but I know my hormone levels have. This time one of the most obvious effects of my hormone deficiencies has been a sudden weight gain: I put on 30 lbs in 6 months, so I weigh as much now as I did when I was 9 months pregnant with my daughter! I'm uncomfortable, my clothes don't fit, I feel sluggish, and I'm just worried that I'm in a downward spiral with my overall health. My kids are all young (3 kids, ranging from 8 to 11), so I'd really like to be able to keep up with them! Plus my weight gain has mostly been around my midsection (also bust and upper arms, hips, and thighs), and I know it's not healthy to be carrying all that belly fat.

Not sure exactly why, but something just "clicked" in me a week or so ago, and I feel really driven to start incorporating regular exercise into my goals for total wellness — something tells me my BHRT will be more effective and I can get off it sooner if I'm in better overall physical condition. My plan is basically 4 parts:

1) I'm going to start paying more attention to what I eat and when, so I can make baby-step changes there.
2) My main focus is going to be working exercise back into my daily routine. It was so easy before kids! :rolleyes: LOL Of course, it doesn't help that I'm still recovering from tendinitis in my left foot, plus I have an RSI in my left hand, and I don't want to flare up back problems from an old auto injury either, so I know I really need to take things slowly. I've got a simple little fitness app for bodyweight workouts that I downloaded to my iPad (Gorilla Workout Lite — thought I'd give the free version a shot before I spring for the paid app with expanded workout options), so I figured I'd start with that. I'm also going to bite the bullet and take a "before" pic of myself :eek: so I have a frame of reference to visually gauge my progress.
3) I'm going to use the journals on this site to track food/calories, activity, body size, etc. — I have a natural analytic bent, so I like charts and stats LOL I think the calorie bit is going to be hardest for me, since I've got to figure out how to calculate calories for a lot of homemade foods. Any suggestions there?
4) Last but certainly not least, I'm going to ask all of you lovely people to help me stay motivated!

Okay, so now that my post officially falls in the "tl;dr" category, I think I'll shut up LOL I'm just really happy to be here among other people with not only varying levels of fitness but also varied fitness interests :)

~~T

Hi Tanya, we're glad to have you here at FitDay and hope to be seeing a lot of you in the forums. You sound as if you're taking a thorough and thoughtful approach to your situation and FitDay feeds right into the "pathology" of those of us who are analytical and a bit OCD, so jump right in and take advantage of its tools. If you've had a chance to take a peek over at the Women's Forum, you may have seen the 7-Day Motivational Thread; we start each Monday with goals, laughs, slumps, and most of all motivation. There are no rules (other than the general "play nice"), so feel free to join in if you'd like. It's a great place to find support, a cheerleader or two, a shoulder to cry on, or a kick in the pants. In truth, most of the forums here are, so just let us know how we can be of service :).

Thanks for the welcome, Cassie! I did see the 7-Day thread on the women's forum, so I'll be sure to check in there tomorrow. :)

BTW, I love the quote in your signature — it IS brilliant!

~~T