Hello!
When I was 24 I had a rude awakening when one day I went through my kitchen (like I always did) to get to the front door. For some reason when I walked through this day, clipped my hip off of the dishwasher. I had never done that before! Odd....so I yelled out to my boyfriend, "Honey? Did you move the dishwasher??"
"No... why?"
That was the first time that it had dawned on me that I might have gained some extra inches. Once I had an inkling of awareness that I might have gained some weight, I started to notice other things. Had I really developed a bad back, or had it actually gotten harder to wipe after using the toilet? I could swear that I had lost some length in my arm... oh maybe had I gained enough inches to notice a difference in my ability to wipe my own ***? But that wasn't what finally did it for me.... it was when I got our photos back from our Disneyland trip. I remember when I first opened the attachment thinking, "Hey! Who's that??" It was one of the more disorientating feelings of my life when I realized that I didn't recognize myself. Somewhere beneath the excessive weight was my face that I knew so well.... but was that really me?
LA Weightloss was opened up across the street from me, but I had always been embarrassed to go in. It didn't help that I didn't actually think I was in need of any weight loss.... but finally after all of these realizations making it impossible not to realize that I had a weight problem, I went in. I remember the first weigh in like it was yesterday. I knew that I must be 30 or 40 pounds over weight, but being that I never really knew what my weight "should" be, I was unsure. The friendly young counselor did her hard sales speech, which I politely ignored and said, "No, I don't want the bars and I won't pay for another year of maintenance, but if you can guarantee that I will lose the weight, then I will pay what I need to minus the items I have already stipulated." That's when we did our weight in I stepped on the scale and weighed 234.... I knew it was a lot, but it wasn't until she did my calculations that she said, "According to what you said was a healthy weight for you, as well as your BMI, you have approximately 79 pounds to lose." I nearly choked... 79 pounds? HOW HAD THIS HAPPENED? I was embarrassed, but I felt empowered as I was now in their hands and today was the first day of the beginning of my liberation from my fat prison.
It took me 8 months and I lost 69 pounds. As I edged closer to my original goal weight, I realized that 150 would never be comfortable for me and that at 18 I could have felt comfortable there, but at 25, I needed to reassess.
So here I am again, at 185, having gained 15 pounds and working to get if off again. This time I would like to get to 165, and I am excited to do so. I'm pumped to be back on the plan - it's so absolutely liberating. AND my experience being on the forums was one of the only reasons I stuck with it when times got hard, so here I am again.
I look forward to hearing your stories, and helping where I can from my successes.
Dory