Hey Everyone,
My name is Sunny and I live in Washington, DC. I joined today for weight loss tips and support. Not new to dieting, and wouldn't say I have a history of weight problems, but I do occasionally "blow up" and have to work hard at maintaining the skinny. I just turned 35 years old last week and really feel motivated to get the weight off.
I'll share a little bit about my weight history (well maybe not a little bit, more like a lot, because I'm an over-sharer).
After my first year away at college I freaked out because I'd gotten up in weight to 140lbs. Whoa!
To me it was a lot and I hot tailed it to Jenny Craig for help. After I told my b/f and mother that I'd joined the weight-loss center they laughed at me and told me to go back up there and get my money back. So I did, I dropped out after a week, but I kept the 1st weeks food and the diet plan. It worked and I think I lost like 7lbs the 1st week.
I stayed on the "Sunny-modified" Jenny plan (low cal./low fat) and ate lean cuisine brand dinners. I was afraid of mayo and butter during that time and started taking lotsa herbal diet pills. It worked and I maintained a weight of about 125lbs. or so. Even after I was off the diet, I stayed at this size with little to no effort well into my early twenties.
Fast forward, all of sudden I was putting on weight again I was still in my early twenties, but being dumb--and fast approaching 25 (gasp!), I thought
"this is what happens when you turn 25! I'm old now!" So I resigned myself to my "old" lady fat body. I probably weighed 140lbs at that point, and again to me, it was a lot of weight to carry.
Mysteriously, that year I started losing the "old lady" weight I'd gained, but my diet nor exercise had changed. In fact I was eating fast food all the time and doing no exercise at all. I thought I was one of the lucky ones. That the little fat phase had passed. I told myself "I've always been small and will always be small!"
Fast forward again, at this point I'm 26 years old and skinny, no one thinks I'm too skinny, but my Mom thinks there could be something wrong.
So I went to the doctor at her urging and to my shock he diagnosed me with hyperthyroidism. It's a condition that causes you to lose weight, but, and this is a big BUT, it has many downsides. Oh joy! Forget all the other problems associated with hyperthyroidism, I loved the diagnosis.
A little over a year later, things got serious. It got really bad b/c I was ignoring the health risks and I wasn't taking my medication because I didn't want to treat the "skinny" disease. I didn't want to take a pill that might take away my skinny super-powers. It is crazy that I risked my health, but finally I woke up. By then though, things were really out of hand and I had to have my thyroid gland removed entirely and go on a daily thyroid hormone replacement pill for the rest of my life. I gained a lot of weight.
To lose it I started low-carbs. It was 2001 and I was in my late twenties. I had never even heard of this way of eating or diet. My roomate at the time, said it worked and she had some Suzanne "the thigh master" Sommers diet book with all kinds of low carb wisdom. So I did that. It worked.
I stayed enviably thin for a long time, with some yo-yo periods in between. But whenever I'd gain, I get back on the low-carb diet.
By the time I turned 30 I was using the low-carb diet effectively for more than four years to manage my weight. I'm never really satisfied though, and I thought I could lose more, but honestly I can look back and say I looked healthy and great during that time.
Between then and now, I have kept using low-carbs as my go-to diet. But at this time I am the heaviest I have ever been in my life and I have not been following the plan or exercising.
I hate my size right now (size 14), but I don't hate myself. Inside I still have the self esteem of the 125lb-Sunny. But for me to be truly happy I have to reflect that on the outside too.
My starting weight today is 188lbs.
Let's see if I can get to 129lbs., I will even settle for 130, but 129 just sounds better!
Thanks in advance for not writing this off as "tl;dr". I hope to see you around and read all about your success too!
Love and Happiness,
Sunny
Making it up as I go, fast and free
