Introducing myself

[Guest guest]

Hi! My name is JJ. I just found this group and I'm very excited about it. I'm a teacher, and I'm about to be out for summer vacation, which leads to more resolutions and plans than New Years! I had already decided that I was going to use Thin Within OR Intuitive Eating principles to reform my relationship with my body and food this summer--but experience tells me that I need some people who understand cheering me on and offering support. Did I find the right group? I hope so! For years, I've weighed about 200 lbs. I'm 5'3, so that's even worse than it sounds, I would guess. Until the two or three years, I felt physically fine and had no physical issues, so I could shrug off being heavy by claiming I wasn't vain enough to care about weight...I am what I am, basically. I was in a

marriage where I was a roommate/caretaker (I understand how much I created and allowed that dynamic--he was morbidly obese--over 600 lbs, now--and I couldn't care enough to change him or our relationship.) Since then, I've separated and divorced him, and developed lower back pain due to a leg problem that we never realized I had. It's corrected now, but years of pressure on my back has added up to continued back pain. I'm working on getting that under control, but it's made me seriously consider my weight (which makes the problem worse), my aversion to exercise (which I need) and my relationship with food.Or more accurately, my relationship with Pepsi. I'm not a heavy eater. I can easily stay under the calorie limits on Weight Watchers and other plans....except for pop. Don't suggest diet pop--I've done that for years at a time, and never get used to the taste. AND the problem isn't the calories, it's how and why I drink it, I think. I get

stressed, I get tired, I don't plan for lunch at school....bingo, a dollar in the pop machine. I am out of school in three days. My plan is to have the specific goals/plans for this summer ready to go into place the first day of vacation. I want to focus--I think--on Mindful, conscious eating, but I'm thinking through what that means. I have a couple Geneen Roth books, the Thin Within book, and an old Intuitive Eating book that I was looking at just today at school....finding this group later in the day in a totally unrelated computer search is sort of eerie! That's my intro, kind of long and detailed, I know. Feedback and suggestions are welcome! And hi!