First Weigh-in 6 lbs, 13 ounces...How Did I Get Here?

My Weighty History

I was born long ago in a small village...just kidding. I was probably an average-sized kid, who got tall before she got fat, but around 10-11 years old was much bigger than her not-yet-tall friends. And being different (bigger) was not a good thing moving into middle school. I never dieted, ate 3 squares like a good midwesterner, but gradually moved a lot less (not running around outside as I moved into my teens) and ate a lot more junk. Some numbers I remember along the way ("weigh" ha ha): 6th grade - 130 lbs. Not sure how tall I was, but remember being very unhappy and rather annoyed that we had to be weighed in gym class! In 8th grade I weighed 185 lbs. Yikes, so that means I gained 55 lbs in (at most) 3 years?! Well I strategically avoided the scale until I joined WW at the age of 18.

WW - Old School

In 1988 I contracted a horrendous intestinal flu. I was out of commission for over a week, at one point vomiting almost every hour on the hour for 24 hours! The doctor had me on an IV at one point. Then for a week, had me slowly work back up to solid food, literally starting with a tablespoon of apple juice every hour, if I kept it down, 2 tablespoons, etc. I was so weak and miserable, but happy to be done vomiting. So fastforward a week and I returned to the crappy waitress job I had at the time, doctor's note in hand, but still not really up to solid foods yet. Well I passed out in a cloud of dishwasher steam in the kitchen and fessed up I hadn't really gotten completely back into real meals yet. A nice co-worker made me some toast and sent me home. And I recall sitting down to ponder, "Hmm, now that I haven't eaten for almost 2 weeks, what should I eat?? I wonder if I've lost weight...maybe I could lose weight...how would I do that, if that was something I wanted to do, not that I do?" And I stumbled on to Weight Watchers. I think it was in January, so there were lots of New Year's adverts & specials. So there I was weighing in at 235. (So who knows what a "high" weight was after 2 weeks of starvation mode?) And I took the pamphlets and went to the grocery store and made navigating the program my secret part-time job for a good six months. This was back in the day with "Exchanges", not Points. So I could have, say, 3 "Fruit Exchanges" in a day. There was a handy booklet to tell you, for example, 1 small apple or 20 grapes, are 1 Exchange. (I remember the grapes in particular because I used to count them out! Watch out you don't eat 21 grapes and blow the whole program!)

Finding my weigh on WW

So after my first week on WW, I gained 2 lbs! The leader grilled me on my Exchange knowledge and I was too stupid to tell her that instead of a Last Supper approach to joining WW like so many in the room, I had come to the program after a 2 week Flu Fast. I lost 6 lbs the next week and pretty much kept on keeping on thereafter, until I had lost over 80 pounds total.

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, into the future

I mostly kept it off, eventually going off program and settling into the 170-180 range for most of my adult life. Over a year ago I met, and soon moved in with, my fabulous boyfriend. For the first time, my fitness slid as I chose a.m. snuggles to pre-work sweat sessions, romantic wine-soaked dinners out to the sensible repertoire of recipes I used to live by. And soon my clothes were tight, then tighter, then unwearable. My pull-a-12-off-the-shelf shopping style became, "Do these come in a 16?" My 185-is-my-scary-weight became "This-scale's-broken-there-is-no-WAY-I-weigh-200!"

Program (if you can call it that)

So, long post short: I got myself into a funk and decided fitness would be my cure. I use a Bodybugg (it was a gift, I'll talk more about how I use it in a later post.) I am doing C25K. I am not on a diet (ugh), trying not to deny myself, cut out food groups or do anything crazy or otherwise make myself miserable. Basically I want to be more active, eat less, but still enjoy the ride. Sort of like taking the maintenance philosophy into the weight loss phase. I expect it to be slow, but I like it like that. This is how I intend to eat the rest of my life, basically. I will weigh in weekly. That is really the core of my "program" - keeping myself accountable. In the past, knowing I'd had a rough week made me want to skip the scale and make up the damage to have a better weigh-result the next week. ("But now that I'm writing this week off...mmm, donuts!") Weigh in weekly and deal with it! Own your journey! (That's me talking to me.)

Hopefully that provides readers ("reader"?) with a little background for now. I'll try to add more useful info in an easy-on-the-eye format soonish!