Some updates and memory lane!

I was sitting here trying to decide what my next post should be about. I began thinking about this blog and how it all got started. I realized that I've had this blog up and running for 2 1/2 years now, started in February of 2007! Originally it was supposed to be about my weight loss, which it was for the first year or so. I did lose some weight a long the way and think this blog helped me a lot!

I was sifting through some of my very first posts and wow it brought back some memories! I thought it would be fun to share them with some of my newer readers who may not have read them!

This one is my very first post telling a bit about myself and the blog: Who Am I?

These are a few of my favorites articles that I wrote in the beginning and am excited to have some of you read them again!

Being The Fat Girl

Eat To Live Don't Live To Eat

Last year, I turned over a new leaf with the blog and sort of switched more into talking about my depression. I wanted to cover a bit of everything; my fight with depression, information on depression and other mental illnesses AND weight loss!

Weight loss has been an on going struggle for me since I was a kid! I'm still struggling with it. I've gained some of the weight back that I lost. It's the one thing that I absolutely hate about myself and feel that I can not control! I don't want to be the fat mom, I don't want to end up like MY mom who has problems walking now because she has literally no knee left in her leg because of her weight.

I'm trying to start over with the weight loss. I hate calling it a diet! I'm not going to do anything drastic, just start eating healthier foods and controlling my portions of the "bad" foods. Also, want to try to get more exercise again. A friend of mine is trying to set up a weight loss support group, so I am very excited about that! I have to do something, I have to save my life! My husband has a lot of health problems stemming from his eating habits. He knows that he has to eat better and lose weight however he just talks about it but never does it. We both have to change our eating habits and be healthier for our kids and each other so we can grow old together!

Sooo, this blog will be a bit about both weight loss and depression/mental health as I believe that they can both go hand in hand. I believe the better mental health you are in, the more willing you will be to treat your body better!

Also, next month I'm starting a new blog! Yes, I've been itching to start something new (as if I'm not busy enough, right??). This one is going to be a personal blog, where I will post more personal things going on in my life, my family, my job, my friends..etc. It's going to be raw and opinionated and hey, I might even throw in a few curse words here and there! I'm not going to worry about how much readership I have or any of that, it's just going to be my own personal blog to vent in or share things in that I don't normally share in my other blogs. I'm sure I will post lots of pics and lots of random things. Once I get it up and running I will post a link here in case anyone may be interested!

Is depression inherited or not??

I was doing some research earlier to find out whether or not Depression can be inherited or not? There are various answers to this question. The main answer I came up with is some can inherit it and some don't.

However, think about it. If you are raised by a parent who suffers from depression and you were around that every day, wouldn't it rub off on you and you start to learn that same behavior that your parent exhibited? It would make sense that it would become sort of chiseled into your head subconsciously after growing up around it constantly. I notice in myself that some of the symptoms I have remind me of things that my mother did or how she reacts to things. Do you think we can teach our children to be depressed without knowing it?? Makes me very glad that I'm on medication now to help me control my symptoms. I never want my kids to go through the sort of depression that I have gone through.

I read somewhere that there is a depression gene that can be passed from parent to child. It may be laying there dormant until the person goes through something traumatic and it sort of "activates" the gene. That would make sense, too, considering that some depression is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. A chemical imbalance can not be learned, can it?

I'm not a doctor, just thinking out loud and hope to get some opinions on this subject? Anyone???