Battle of the Bulge

My youngest sister Colleen was super skinny as a kid.  We used to call her Little Teeny Colleeny-Weeny, she was so tiny.  When she was six, her favorite dress got a little tight and we all thought it was cute - she was gaining a little bit of weight.  By fourth grade, she was probably 15 pounds overweight and by college graduation she was very obese and remained that her whole life (she’s 44 now).

A couple years back, Colleen and I both began losing weight at about the same time.  She had lap band surgery and I started on Freshology.  Over the next several months, I lost 30 pounds and was thrilled.  I was certain I would keep it off, but alas, little by little the pounds began to creep back on.  Colleen, on the other hand, lost weight from the start and kept losing … and losing … and losing.  Now, for the first time ever in our adult lives, she weighs LESS than I do — not just less, but more than 25 pounds less.  As much as I hate to admit this, it’s what made me decide to get back on Freshology.  Silly sibling rivalry, I suppose - we have a big family reunion in August and I am bound and determined not to be heavier than she is.  Shallow, I know.   But I will take whatever motivation I can get.

I am extremely proud of Colleen and very happy for her, too.  This has not been an easy journey for her.  She was not the poster child for lap band surgery, as she ate wrong foods and/or too much food at times and really suffered for it.  But she learned her lessons and kept at it.  To date, she has lost 176 pounds!!  She has gone from 315 down to 139.  What’s more, her surgeon told her last week that 10-15 of the pounds she’s carrying is loose skin - so in essence, she’s actually underweight.   She told me yesterday she never thought she’d live to hear herself described as underweight.   She’s understandably thrilled and I’m thrilled for her!!

I’m happy to be losing weight again - this is Day #5 on my FreshLite plan and I can already see that I’ve lost some fat around my mid-section and my jeans are a little looser, too.  Thank God.  Losing feels SO MUCH BETTER than gaining!!

Realistically, I will likely lose 2 pounds per week on this plan.  That family reunion is still 13 weeks away, so I will be very happy if I show up 26 pounds lighter than I started out this time around.  If so, it means I will be 4 pounds lighter than where I ended up at this time last year - and that will feel so darn delicious.  I promise to keep you posted.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 5:49 am and is filed under Weight Loss Journey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.