I live the Southeast Texas very close to the Louisiana border.  I was raised in Port Arthur, Texas which is located on the Gulf Coast and have lived there most of my 52 years.  I am a very down to earth person that enjoys being outdoors. I love flowers, gardening and landscaping and I have a large greenhouse filled with plants of all kinds.  I love the water and everything it provides, (boating, fishing, swimming, skiing, diving, 4-wheelers).  I enjoy doing projects around my yard whether it be digging a Koi pond, landscaping new flower beds or laying a rock path to walk on.  My husband and I have recently moved 40 miles North to Vidor, TX where we have 20 acres of land that backs up to 100,000 acres of wooded land.  On my 20 acres my husband and I raise Fallow Deer and since I love nature and animals, I have teamed up with a local wildlife rehabilitator and work with her to introduce and release rehabilitated animals back into their natural habitat.  I have a full time job in Port Arthur, Texas where I work for a local Refinery, (major) so I am also in the Petrochemical field.  I have many interest that keep me busy including a 2 1/2 year old grandson that I keep on Fridays. 

Like most people I have battles in my life.  My major battle is my weight.  After gaining 100 lbs with the pregnancy of my daughter I managed to loose it.  Then I was very unhappy with my life and over several years regained the weight I had lost and got to 300 lbs.  I was misserable and couldn't do a thing with my daughter and was literally dying.  My insurance, at the time, payed for me to have my stomach banded, which is another story in it's self.  I lost down to 160 lbs. and was on my own to loose the rest.  I'm only 5' 1" so I needed to loose much more, so with a tremendous amount of work I got down to 120 lbs. I was in a size "2" jean and when I would pass a mirror and saw myself I would have to do a double take and convince myself that this was me I was looking at.  I stayed at that weight for 3 years, I loved the way I looked with my clothes on, but that was a lie to everyone I saw because I didn't look the same in the buff.  I needed much cosmetic surgery that I could not afford and I struggled with that every second of every single day.  I wanted so badly to have the surgeries that I needed to be happy when I looked at myself in the mirror.  I wanted to be healthier, so I quit smoking and then gained 40 lbs. over the next 8 months and this was so heart breaking!  Then I had to have a total hysterectomy and have not been able to find hormones that worked and kept me from being in total pain 24-7 for the last 2 years and I put on another 50 lbs. for a total of 90 lbs gained!!!!!!  Two months ago I requested that my Dr. put me on different hormones for the 5th time, this one seems to be the blessing I have been praying for.  I'm not looking forward to it, but since I'm not rithing with pain anymore it's time for me to get serious with my diet and start lifting and cardio exercises again as you can see my stomach banding is not working anymore, I wanted to have it redone but my insurance won't pay for it.  I stay starving all the time now that I've had the hysterectomy and have an insatiable desire to eat.  The only way I can control that is to be on prescription diet pills for now.  Every day I get up and say I'm going to be good today and I don't do good.  I'm seriously lacking in motivation and drive and wish I could afford a trainer to motivate and push me every day until I got in a healthy mindset again and saw progress being made.

Oh, the one thing I hate is my commute to and from work since I've moved from my hometown.  I have a 50 minutes commute every morning and every afternoon.  I still work in my hometown.  This commute take 2 hours out of my day and I work 4-10's so this makes working out very difficult.  I worked out for 2 hours every day when I was 120 lbs.  Something must change!