[coolmommychick]

Hello, I am a mom of 2 boys ages 6 and 2 1/2 and this is my story.
(I type really fast, so its long)
Before I ever had kids I weighed a whopping 100 lbs when soaking wet. I was 5'1" and teeny tiny. I had to shop in the little girls section for clothing. Everything on me was tiny except for my feet size 8 1/2. I had never had any problem with weight, and didn't even have a problem with food. I ate a ton of food at meals and exercised all the time without thinking about it. I was just, very active. I walked pretty much everywhere and if not walking, I was swimming.
Getting pregnant for the first time at age 18 did it in for me. I gained 50 lbs at pregnancy, which I really wasn't worried about considering according to a lot of charts I have read, I was underwieght to begin with. After I had my baby I tried to whole breastfeeding thing, but without proper advice I stopped at about 3 weeks. I was around 145 at the time of my divorce 6 months later. When I met my now husban. I really wanted to do something to try and lose the weight. I decided that I wanted to dance and I really liked ballet. So with my now husband's help, I was able to take ballet classes. It was a lot of strenous stuff, stretching and a lot of bouncing and jumping for leg strengthening. Well, right before I became pregnant with my second child, a year after being in ballet, I still weighed 140.
During the pregnancy with my second child, I got up to 165. After giving birth and breastfeeding for 19 months successfully, I weighed 162. I wasn't couch lounging or anything, I did a lot of running around and stuff. But then at 162 I thought "I must not be excercizing enough",so, I decided to join a healthclub and do something more productive.
The healthclub helped me out with a routine filled with 30 min of cardio and then an hour of weight training.
I went no less than 3 times a week to the healthclub, and did the weights 3x a week, and the cardio sometimes 5x a week. After 2 months of this, I weighed myself, and I was 162. I wasn't eating or drinking anything that would cause me to not lose any weight. Not only that, but I was tired all the time. People kept telling me about the euphoria you get after excercizing?... all I felt was tired and sleepy. ALL THE TIME.
It was like, I would sleep for 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. hours in different nights to see if it had something to do with the amount I was sleeping. NOTHING HELPED. It was like I was sleepwalking through life. Coffee, tea, or soda did nothing to help. Cutting it out for a few weeks also did nothing to help. And no matter how much I excercized and cut out anything I could think of in my diet I didn't lose weight.
I DIDN'T GAIN ANY EITHER........
So, I *knew* something was wrong.
I decided to see a doctor about it.
The first one I went to I wanted to strangle because all he said was "oh well, the blood tests came back negative for anything, so, there is nothing I can think of."
I switched docs pretty fast and started seeing the family doc that was primarily my kid's doc.
She was great! She did blood tests also, and found nothing of course, but instead of saying "oh well" and turning me away, she said "I have a new diet program I want you to try." And she prescribed me phentermine.
I have been on and off it for about 6 months (off it to see if my metabolism kicked in, but it didn't) and I have lost 22 lbs!
I know that I am not just crazy or something because I was off of it for a month and the weight before and after was exactly the same.
Since being on it, I have had to quit the diet. I was on 1000 calories a day plus the phen, but with that restriction I was losing weight way too fast. I now eat what I normally ate before and continue to lose weight. I hope to have a smaller belly in the next 6 months.
I am so glad that I found the right doctor that believed I wasn't crazy and that I don't lose weight or gain weight, at least not without help or a pregnancy.
Thank you phentermine!