I am a 50 year old wife and mother of two wonderful kids. A full-time software engineer and I love my work but I don't like the fact that it is a very sedentary job. Most my life I was very fit, playing multiple sports growing up and soccer in college. Even with my job and pregnancies I managed to keep my weight under control - I'm 5'5" and I have weighed 107 to 125 the majority of my life. In 2016 however, I was dx with breast cancer - that changed everything! I had chemotherapy, a mastectomy and radiation therapy in 2017 and I've been clear of cancer since. One problem though, nobody tells you that most women between 45 to 55 gain weight when they go through intense chemo. For me it was a combination of the steroids given with each treatment and the constant nausea - I had to keep starchy food in my stomach at all times or I was going to vomit. This meant I basically snacked on crackers, breads and bagels for 4 months straight! I went all the way up to 147 pounds, the same that I weighed with my pregnancies. Since then I have tried various diets and exercise but nothing has helped and I am constantly tired with little energy to want to exercise. I remember when I use to increase my exercise randomly over the years, I always felt more energy... That is not the case since I had chemo and radiation, now I exercise and it just seems to make me more tired - even harder to get out of bed in the morning. I had a mastectomy on the other side back in October of last year but other than that it has been over a year and a half since I completed my radiation and almost 2 years since I completed chemo! I thought I would feel better by now and lost the extra weight.
Anyway, I joined FS so I could start tracking my calories and try to get on track. I'm grateful for the support I find here and I hope I can also help motivate and support everyone else! It feels good to be in this together!