I'm a mom of two boys ages 9 and 10. I have been married to my husband for 11 years. I am a yo-yo dieter. I am fat. In high school I remember riding the bus with a friend and each week it was a contest who weighed less even if it was a pound. My family ate everything fried. My grandma made cakes or cookies everyday. We had to eat everything on our plate even if we were full. My parents never made me go out and play. I was never taught totally how to live a healthy lifestyle. My grandma went into a diabetic shock ,I found her. She died a few weeks later. My mom changed our eating habits because later she found out she was diabetic and started baking everything instead of frying but by then I was overweight. My mom dropped all her excess weight and got down to 155. I decided I would drop all that weight too after I had my kids and did get down to 155. It took eating basically nothing but fruits and vegetables and working out on an elliptical 2 hours a day everyday. Eventually we couldnt afford to continually eat healthy. In the summer we did because I plant a huge garden and fresh stuff to eat everyday..but winter is expensive. I also got tired of having to carve out 2 hours a day every single day to work my butt off in these high intensity workouts. I started skipping days and then was skipping everyday. When I weighed 155 my mom and sister weighed around the same. We took a picture. I call this my skinny picture. I looked too thin there and I had to work too hard. So I stopped and gained it all back. I believe the weight chart is a load of crap. For my height I still would have to lose more weight and be under 155 to be at my "ideal" weight. I want to be a healthy weight instead. A weight were I enjoy exercising but dont have to kill myself, a weight were I eat 90% healthy whole foods and not have to deprive myself of the occasional bad food. Whatever weight that is then great.
My goal of 160 is just a mark to go by not what I have to be.