It's time for a change, and I'm going to make it.

Hi loseit!

Well, I guess a little bit of background before I get started. Growing up I was always the chubby girl, for as long as I could remember, as the years past, I went from the chubby girl to just the fat girl. I grew up in a pretty typical Greek Family, so we ate A LOT, and some things were healthy....others weren't so. If you didn't want seconds, you'd get thirds without a blink of an eye from the chef that day. Being 6, 7, 8, 9, etc, I didn't really understand the impact it would have on my eating habits later in life, and just smiled and did as my Grandma told me. Now, I'm in no way blaming my current state on anyone but myself, because as I age, things didn't change much.

I ate more than I burned, and by a long shot. In high school, I was involved in various sporting teams, rugby and soccer, but that was the extent of my exercise, I still went home and over ate, and at the time, didn't care much of it.

Fast forward a few years, I'm in my mid twenties now, and really fed up with the way I look, and how I feel. I don't think I really understood or even noticed how bad it got, until I went to buy some clothes a few months ago, and can now only (barely) fit into size 26 pants. Ugh! Heartbroken, and most of my pants now have elastic waists, instead of button/zipper closure. I think that was a really big defining moment for me, and a lot of the good in my life started to decline. I stopped wanting to hang out with my friends, stopped having sex with my partner, etc.

I recently started to make progress in changing my life. First, I quit smoking... almost completely. I don't smoke at home/on weekends, but it's hard to kick it while at work so I still have a cig or two during the day. I've decided now though, instead of using that 7 or so minutes to smoke when I crave, I'll take a walk around the building instead.

To me, kicking the smoking habit was step one in my transformation. Step 2? Hit the gym. Step 3? Change the way I eat.

My friend and I have decided to join a gym, and will be going no less than 4 times a week, starting asap (we just have to get money together for the membership, yearly its 350, so we are going to go with monthly memberships for now.). Neither of us are professionals by any means, so any advice you can give, it would be really appreciated! Routine ideas, anything, really! We're going to be gym newbies, and some guidance would be great (I guess thats why I'm here too!)

As for eating, to be completely honest, I overeat (yep, still). I don't eat breakfast (during the work week), rarely eat lunch, and when I get home from work, I eat supper, and usually a full plate - rarely seconds, but the full plate is really hardy (i.e, 2 homemade hamburgers, big pile of spaghetti, 3 pieces of sheps pie, weekend breakfast is usually 2 eggs, 3 saucsages, 6 half slices of bacon, and toast, etc.). Most of the food I make is home made, we rarely buy frozen or 'quick' dinners, so incorporating more veggies, and healthy food is easy enough. I don't drink soda or coffee, but drink tea 3-4 times a week, chocolate & chips I don't eat A LOT of, but when I do I make a small bowl of nachos, or have a chocolate bar - we snack a lot on nuts at home, ice cream (thatll be a hard one to kick). But Im finding it harder now not to snack at home since I quick smoking. I'm so used to just popping a cigg in my mouth and be done with the little craving.

Ideally, I'd love to lose 100lbs, which is my goal. I figure I'm about 250 now - the last time I weighed myself I was 220, and much has changed since then. Oh, also, I'm about 5'2, and I know 150/160 is still considered overweight for my height but, I think I'd be really happy at that number. I also have ridiculously large breasts, so I'm really hoping ill lose fat from those puppies too.

So, I guess what Im looking for are tips? Maybe meal ideas, or anything really that you can think of!

tl;dr: fat girl, quit smoking, wants to lose weight.

Thanks so much, loseit!

Oh quick edit, English isn't my first language, so my apologies if things are a little off - especially in the grammar section. I'm still learning :)