JMatosky

I am a single mother of five. I have 4 sons (17, 11, and twins who are 10 months) and a daughter, age 8. I am almost 38 yrs old and currently weighing in at 168lbs, which isnt too bad considering I was 157lbs before getting pregnant with twins. Since having them, I got back down to 162lbs, but have steadily been going in the wrong direction.

I have struggled with my weight since having my first child 17 yrs ago, I was age 21. I had never been on a diet until then. I never knew it was so hard! I first did Atkins back in 1997 and had much success, but it was harder back then than it seems to be now. There was no such thing as Net Carbs, we did just 20 carbs, period. There were no online tools and there was a lot of criticism. And I worked in a restaurant, which made things harder. But I lost about 40lbs and maintained a weight of about 145lbs until I had my 2nd son. I stayed around the 175lb mark after he was born. Then I had my daughter and again, stayed around 175-180, sometimes more, but not more than 200, and on my 5'4" frame, its a lot of weight.

About 4 years ago, I lost about 40lbs.. I got down to 157lbs and stayed there (I dont seem to have trouble maintaining once its gone until I have another baby - thankfully I am done!) But then I got pregnant with twins, their dad took off and I boarded the emotional rollercoaster, which actually makes me not eat and I lost almost all my baby weight. But now its creeping back up and I need to lose this weight once and for all. My 20th high school reunion is coming up in November and Im just tired of being overweight.

I work from home 3 days per week and these kids have me on the run. But Im able to cook all my meals, which is a plus. Dont have a lot of time to commit to exercise, but Im working on it.