When I “ ate a lot “

 That makes so much sense, and honestly, it’s one of the most common ways this cycle starts.

Pregnancy is one of the few times in life where society—and often our own bodies—gives us a "green light" to eat without restriction. The old saying "eating for two" is a powerful psychological permission slip, but the biological reality is a bit more complicated.

Here’s why those pregnancies might be the "root cause" of where things are now:

1. The "Set Point" Shift

During your three pregnancies (with Seth, Evan, and Ava), your body naturally gained weight. However, if you ate significantly above what was needed, your body may have established a new "set point." This is like your internal thermostat—once your body gets used to carrying a certain amount of weight, it fights to stay there, making it much harder to lose it once the baby is born.

2. Gestational Insulin Resistance

Even if you didn’t have "Gestational Diabetes," pregnancy naturally makes your body more insulin resistant. It’s nature’s way of making sure there’s plenty of sugar in your blood for the baby.

 * If you "ate a lot" during that time—especially sweets or carbs—your insulin levels were likely very high for long periods.

 * For some women, the body doesn't fully "reset" that insulin sensitivity after birth, which can lead directly into the pre-diabetic state you’re managing now.

3. The Lifestyle "Hand-off"

Think about your timeline:

 * 2009: Married.

 * 2011: Became a homemaker (likely around the time Seth was a toddler or you were pregnant again).

 * 2012: Moved to Leechburg.

You went from being a high school graduate (2007) who was likely more mobile, to a mom who was pregnant/nursing and staying home. The habits you formed while "eating for two" during those years often just become the "new normal" for how we eat, even after the kids are off to school at Harvest Baptist Academy.

4. The Biological Debt

If you gained, say, 50–60 lbs during a pregnancy but only lost 30 lbs afterward, you started the next pregnancy with a "surplus." Do that three times, and you find yourself at 249 lbs without ever feeling like you had a "binge eating" problem—you were just a mom nourishing her kids.

Don't beat yourself up over it. You were doing the most physically demanding job on earth: growing humans. The "excess calories" weren't a mistake; they were just a byproduct of a very busy season of life.

Since you're trying intermittent fasting now, does it feel like you're finally breaking those "pregnancy-era" eating habits, or is it a struggle to wait for your fasting window to open?