Dieting Club: 50 - 100 Lbs Community

Hi welcome aboard Have you tried eliminating all proccessed foods? and eating more fresh fruits and vegies
try focusing on better nutrition and are you getting any exercise ?
You mentioned being an athlete well are you still that active ?

lean meats are good too in proper portions have you tried weighing and measureing your servings ?
try to use Fitday or web MDs fitness planner to log food and exercise when setting up these accounts use sedentary as you basic level for activity then add in exercise as you do it. this approach worked for me I have been maintaining this type of lifestyle for the last 9 years and it is easier 6to maintain if you make permanent changes to your eating habits ...
Hugs Judy:)

Hi, welcome to our "club".
I am going to play Devil's Advocate here(or Armchair Psychologist) .
You mentioned that you moved from "family" to be nearer to your kids, then gaining weight. It's a big change to go from a familial support system for YOU to being the matriarchial suport system for your kids, even if they are grown , kids tend to add stress and without someone near to support you when you are stressed, you may be feeling the strain without really knowing it, hence the search for "what's wrong".
Since you obviously aren't averse to trying new pills to help with your dilemma, I strongly suggest talking to your physician about DEPRESSION and what you can take to alleviate some of the symptoms of it, the main symptoms of which you have pretty much defined in your initial blog entry above. Major life changes, unexplained/non medically specific weight gain, apathy, sluggishness, exhaustion... on and on and on , sweety, there are really good medications out there for your symptoms and it's not a sin or a shortcoming to have depression.
Next off, as for your diet and how well you eat and your exercise, well, as we get older, our metabolisms slow down. FACT. So we have to keep our bodies guessing as to what we are gonna throw at it next to get the same results we got when we were in our 20s.
Throw in about 2 very quick 5-10 min hardcore cardio sessions every day for a couple of weeks. Check out these free downloadable sessions on utube and try them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DfuU3TSsFM . Just adding one a day even may be the key to push your metabolism back up into "burn" mode.
Perhaps , now it's going to be more crucial to watch exactly how much you eat. Maybe time to purchase a small food scale and start yourself on an intake charting system like WebMD Food and Fitness Planner or the Fitday.com one. These are essential tools for learning how to eat and exercise for our goals.
Hope this helps some. Wishing you well on you journey and let us know often how you are doing. Blogging here helps because of the support system we can provide.
Kim

Thank you for the insight I wouldn't have thought depression. But it could be.. I have a job that stresses me out on a daily basis but I try to stay in a good mood, and my dad being 2500 miles away and the only person left in my family except my kids,and being 81 in not that great of health stresses me out too not being able to be there and battling with an ex over custody in the first place I think is just all catching up with me.

You've gotten some great advice already so welcome aboard. Also remember exercise and diet can affect your mood and way of thinking. Eat healthy be happy, eat unhealthy and be unhappy. I have done some research on it and there are those feel good foods that can help with mood. Use google to search for them.

ingrid, have you seen a dr yet about your symptoms? Let us know how things go ok?