My Healthy Summer and Weight loss Journey Part One

First a little background…
Throughout my entire life, I've always been overweight if not obese. Part of this is definitely genetic; almost every person in my extended family is overweight and most are obese. This has been going on for generations. Another large part is my family’s traditional diet. We all eat the same thing we have always eaten back to when we were farmers and factories workers. This means that my meals growing up have been predominantly home cooked, but also mostly meat, potatoes, and bread. I have very few vegetables and fresh fruit growing up. It just wasn't considered necessary or normal to eat a lot of raw vegetables. The final main part of this issue was my lack of exercise. Not to make too many excuses, but I live in a fairly rural area where there are I side walks or parks so there is no safe places to run or play sports. All exercise has to be done on private property or risk being hit by cars going around blind turns.
I have been dieting since around the age of ten or twelve. My mother has been a serial dieter for as long as I am remember. I didn't make any significant weight loss until I was 18 and went to college. A mixture of being able to choose what I wanted to eat and the portions I wanted (At home not eating what my mother made or eating too little always led to annoying comments) and being forced to walk between my dorms and classes and cafeterias led me to loose almost 20 pounds before Christmas.
I managed to keep this weight off until this past year. My senior year was very stressful and made me both mentally and physically ill. I has to go to the doctor several times for vertigo or almost fainting; to the point that she feared I had developed anemia. This stress meant I wanted to go out less, which meant less activity, and also that I stopped caring what I ate. I just wanted something quick and filling whereas before I would go out of my way for healthy option. I was also told that stress also causes the body to retain weight. I then gained the 20 pounds I has lost my freshman year.
Needless to say this was distressful for me. It also came as a surprise. I has though I gained a bit of weight because I knew I had been eating poorly and had been feeling bloated. But no one commented that I looked bigger; my mother was surprised to learn how much I weighed. This summer I made it my goal to loose those 20 pounds I had gained or possibly more. In my next post I will explain my diet plan and plans for the future!