Very First Blog Post

Ok, I'm a little nervous. I've never blogged before, but I think it will suit my writing style. The purpose of this blog is twofold:

1. I hope it will prove to be therapeutic in my weight loss attempts, as well as keeping me more accountable, not to mention being (hopefully) helpful and entertaining to others
2. An attempt to keep me writing, especially as I approach unemployment

Back in Jr. High, my English teacher, on whom I had a crush but still can't recall his name, suggested I keep a journal just to keep me writing. I did that...for years. The good, the bad, I chronicled it. I had a vast collection of what were in the 70's called 'nothing' books filled from cover to cover. I remember my college roommate wanted to read them, but I wouldn't let her. I finally disposed of them when I moved from MA to TX in an attempt to purge before moving. Secretly, I didn't want my new husband to catch a glimpse of some of the lower points in my life.

As is my typical style, I am sort of babbling. I want this blog to chronicle my weight loss attempts, or adventures, if you will. Forgive me if this blog is not great, it, much like I, am a work in progress.

But, before I conclude my very first blog entry, I do need to give some weight loss background, because otherwise it really wouldn't be a weight loss blog, now would it?

I was a fat kid. I was grew up being plus-sized before plus-size existed. I remember the family slides, one in particular where my Dad snapped a shot of me at a family cookout, a profile shot, and my mother had made the most unfortunate choice to dress me in horizontal stripes. No wonder I have nine million complexes about my weight. I looked pregnant in that shot, and I was only eight years old!! My siblings never missed an opportunity to tease me about that slide either.

When I was 17, a friend convinced me to join Weight Watchers with her. I did. I lost 40 pounds. I looked better. Still about 30 pounds from where the average 17 year old should be, but definitely better.

I went off to college, and gained the usual freshman 15. Although in my case it was closer to 25. I stayed that weight all through college until the last semester of my junior year. My roommate Lori was working on a psych experiment for a class, and enlisted me to join her in the experiment. It turned out to be the "perfect weight loss storm" for me. I had a crush on a guy in my English class, another friend had convinced me to take a gym class with her, and Lori and I were doing the 'Jane Fonda' workout nightly. All three things caused me to lose again 40 pounds. Once again...I looked better.

I graduated college (never did get the attention of that guy I had a crush on) and did the usual up 20 down 20 routine, till somewhere along the line I forgot to lose an additional 20. I lost 10 pounds when I first met my now husband. I was so enthralled I just couldn't eat. But then I gained 10 right before the wedding because he gave me a bread maker for Valentines Day a few months before the wedding. Hmmm enabler you say??

Back in 2000 I again joined weight watchers. This time I enlisted a co-worker to join me. I had just lost my father, and my mother's health had rapidly deteriorated due to diabetes and her lack of taking care of herself, and I vowed, I would not let what happened to her, happen to me. Maybe it was the 'perfect storm' again, cause I lost that magic number of 40 pounds...again. I was probably, for the second time in my life, at a normal weight. Comparatively I looked FABULOUS. But even then, I wished I could get some liposuction, a personal trainer, and anything else that would help make me look like a Victoria Secret model. When I think back on it, I looked pretty good for a middle aged chick. But alas, my head would never allow me to think like that.

Over the course of the past ten years, I quit smoking, but still managed to maintain my weight loss for several years, till gradually I started to gain weight again. I leveled off at a 20 pound gain. I stayed there for a few years, then my thyroid went a little crazy and I seemed to put on 20 more pounds overnight. The additional 10 came out of nowhere. Before I knew it, I was approaching my heaviest weight again. And alas, that's where our story begins....