by request

As requested in my handy Skribit suggestion box:

"write about your weightloss journey and how it all started and where you are at now! Successes!"

Hmmm. What to say about my weight loss journey. I was not heavy throughout most of my childhood & my teen years, in fact, I went through a stage in about the 8th grade where I was too skinny. However, as happens to a lot of people, once I settled down & got married the pounds started piling on. By the time we'd been married 8 years or so I'd put on about 100 pounds. Not good. I was 100 pounds overweight when I got pregnant with Jonathan, but thankfully didn't experience any weight related complications. (I had plenty of those without them being weight related.)

I had tried several different methods over the years, some successfully, but never stuck with any of them long term. I even joined Weight Watchers at one point in 2001 (I think) and lost about 40 pounds. Unfortunately I got comfortable with where I was & went back to my old ways. Those 40 pounds came back and they each brought a friend.

I kept waiting for a "defining moment" or some grand epiphany to happen so I would be ready to lose the weight. One never came. Finally I decided that I had to do something about it whether or not some life changing event occurred. Jonathan was getting to the age where he was more & more mobile and I wanted to be able to keep up with him. I had joined a mom's group and met another mother who had recently joined Weight Watchers so I decided to re-join & attend meetings with her. I don't know how to explain it, but for some reason it just really clicked this time.

I joined in November 2007 and have not once even thought about quitting. Sure, I have days where I don't do as well as I should, but I know that "tomorrow is a new day" and I can get right back on plan. I can actually see myself reaching my goal weight & maintaining it. I'm certainly not saying that I think it will be easy, I know it's something I'll struggle with for the rest of my life. But thankfully, Weight Watchers isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle change. It's something you can do forever. The basic principle is portion control. I love that I can eat anything I want.... within moderation. If I want to have a hamburger from Wendy's, then by golly I have one. But I've learned to cut my portions back significantly by ordering off the kids menu.

Goodness... it feels like I'm rambling. Well, here are a couple of pictures.

The first one was taken on Halloween 2007, just a couple of weeks before I joined WW.

The next one is the most recent picture I have of me. It was taken at my birthday party on 7/5/08. As of the date of this picture I had lost 43.6 pounds. I've lost another 3.4 since then so that puts my total at 47 pounds lost. I'm almost halfway there!!!

I still have a lot of work to do, but I know I can succeed. Chris & the rest of my family & friends have been so supportive during this journey and I'm eternally grateful to them. I couldn't do it without y'all.

Well, that turned out to be a novel. I have a couple of more suggestions in my box; I'll try to get to them over the next day or so. Stay tuned!!!