Born : 6lbs
Skinny kid - people were always trying to make me eat!
Lost weight with both pregnancies
Started to put on weight in my late thirties
Went on a diet - lost 20 lbs - I innocently thought that since I wasn't naturally fat, that the weight would just stay off.
Lost 30 lbs
Lost 40 lbs
Now looking at a goal of loosing 50 lbs.
I think as I aged, my metabolism has slowed down. I don't get any exercise. I indulge in much more mindless eating - when my kids were little it seemed like I didn't have time to eat. I went on a bread making spree last year and ate lots of warm bread with real butter. That kind of thing.
I am good at loosing weight. What I need to "get" is maintenance. I have been studying Thin for Life. I think now, at least, I "get" the facts. Now all I have to do is "get" the rest of it. The hard part.
I've been fat for as long as I can remember. Not heavy, nit a little chubby, but fat. I got made fun of from about 1st all the way through 8th grade, with occasional episodes also occurring in early high school. Of course, I would come home from school, cry, and eat secretly. Even though I was quite active (softball every spring, dance classes year-round until I was 10, lots of after school activities, etc.), I apparently always ate more calories than I burned. I remember looking forward to things like family parties and picnics for the food. My mother ran a day care out of our home when I was little until I was maybe 7, so breakfast was always sugary cereal, and lunches were things like mac n cheese, hotdogs, or spaghetti Os.
Once I was old enough to make my own food choices, it became the one thing where I didn't have to listen to anyone else. I was always trying so hard to please everyone (audition for this, apply for that, "howcome you got a B; why wasn't it an A?") that food became MY decision, and I was going to eat what I wanted--Reese's pieces, McDonald's, cheesecake, etc.
Of course, with college came binge drinking, which also brought drunken munchies (what college campus DOESN'T have a pizza place open till 3am with $5 large cheese pizzas?). I always cared that I was fat--it was always very apparent to me. But I didn't make any serious attempts at changing it until after college. And by that time, life just kept (and keeps!) getting in the way. I moved, lived with my sister, started my first full-time job, met a boy (*gasp* who liked me despite my weight), moved again, changed jobs, got a second job, moved again, changed jobs 2 more times, bought a house (just closed yesterday!), and am moving again in a few weeks...and I just graduated from college less than 4 years ago
And so, life made me fat--the way I chose to live it, the way I chose to handle it, and the way I chose to stay fat. I can't say getting fat was my choice, but I will say that staying fat or getting even fatter was my own doing.
i was always a chubby kid once puberty started.
then i lost a lot of weight at 12 years old - walking, eating, etc...
at 13 years old one of my moms friends told me "you dont need to lose anymore weight and if you keep working out like you are, you're going to get really muscular. it doesnt look good on women."
and i stopped everything. i made a conscious decision to stop.
and it spiraled from there. at 13 years old, i didnt understand maintaining and other peoples opinions of what i should do held a lot of weight...
I started getting pudgy around 1st grade. I don't remember my diet back then, but I doubt it was restricted. I was around 120 pounds going into 4th grade and I gained about 40 pounds each of the next 3 years. So going into junior high, I was already well into the 200's. I gained more weight over the next 2 years and sort of leveled off in time for high school, where I was probably around 275 the entire time. When I got out of school, I got down to around 250 but then gained the little I had lot back with even more. Somewhere in the 290's is my highest weight.
I don't have anything to blame it on except eating too much and not being active enough. My mom is an amazing cook, it just isn't healthy food. Lots of meats, fried foods, sweets... My parents were both heavy when I was growing up and I seemed to have no control over my weight gain as a kid. I was an active kid, but I gave up most exercise around junior high.
My dad was an alcoholic and I did a lot of emotional eating when I was young. I was really depressed and started really binge eating my freshman year of high school. In therapy, I was also diagnosed with a thyroid problem, but I haven't had it checked out since then. So it was pretty easy to maintain the weight and even add more pounds eating all the bad food I did... And I don't really think genetics has ever been on my side, either.
I was not a fat child but I was not as thin as my sister (very small and petite) and my cousin. My mom and Grandmother pointed this out rather regularly. My mom was consistently bombarding me with "diets" and then telling me that I looked fine. Messes with the head! This has been the core and the hardest thing to overcome, still working on it after 41 years.
I left HS weighing 127# Felt great. looked great. College put 10# on. Married at age 18. (ex) husband ate a lot and I fell right in.
got pg weighing 130#. had preclampsia gained 30#.
5 months later weighting 160# I was pg again. Gained 52#.
Went on Nurta system lost all my weight. 125#. Over the next 10 years I gain every ounce back and found myself at 212 again.
Found Eat Right For your Blood Type and lost 52# in 4 months. Stayed there for around 4 yrs and then got pg again. gained 20#. Lost it right after the birth.
Hubby likes to feed me and some other stress factors, also going onto Thyroid meds and becoming very depressed and animic and the fact that I stopped moving, I found 40# in 6 months. I stayed there until this last Christmas when I said ENOUGH and bought myself a treadmill.
In January of 1999, I found a man that I thought I would love. I knew he would never date a smoker, so I quit. I figured if it did not work out (and it did ) I would start again. We have been married seven years and have two kids.
Like many couples, the beginning was filled with lots of sex. We celebrated our sex with ice cream. Have a good romp? Then run to the freezer for ice cream to nibble while we stayed up all night talking.
Also, I started grad school the same month. No real meals from work to school. I was either up late studying or up late doing more fun things. To that point, I had been walking for 30 minutes every morning. No more. I was too tired, and it was too much fun to stay in bed and snuggle with Mr. Right.
I am only person I know who can gain 30 pounds while training to walk a mini-marathon.
Last edited by onthetee; 07-29-2007 at 01:47 PM.
Reason: typo
This is my fourth attempt at writing this lol: the first attempt was far too long, the second and third too short.
I was short stocky child and relatively strong for my age throughout elementary school. I felt fat compared to my lanky blond cousin, but I was only 65 pounds in the fourth grade.
I hit puberty at 13 and was chastised by my pediatrician for gaining weight and getting “plump” at 103 pounds. I started skipping lunch at school and dropped 10 pounds. I weighed 93 but I still felt fat because I wanted to weigh 85.
Then I went a boarding school with a cheap food budget, all starch and grease. Healthy foods like lean protein and vegetables were unavailable (too expensive) so the only way I could diet while I was there was by starving myself. I couldn't keep that up for long and I alternated the deprivation with binging on English muffins and peanut butter. By the time I graduated at 17 I was 40 pounds heavier and seriously depressed.
The doctor put me on Elavil and I gained 25 pounds in less than a month.
I quit the Elavil, starved myself for the next two years, and dropped 30 pounds. My system was so screwed up by this point I actually gained weight when I went to Weight Watchers, even though I followed their diet ( at that time an exchange program) strictly. At 135 pounds and just over five feet tall I still felt enormously fat.
I cut my calories to less than 500 a day ( one hard boiled egg in the morning, a green salad with vinegar for lunch and a slice of diet bread topped with 1 ounce of cheese for supper. If I went over my limit I took mega doses of strong laxatives, most which are no longer on the market.
I also exercised for up to six hours a day.
At 23 I weighed less than 100 pounds and wore a little girl's size 12 jeans. I was also constantly tired and sick to my stomach most of the time. I thought I might be anorexic, except that I still had fat legs and I still got my period.
Extreme stress ( I was the sole caretaker for my elderly parents who both needed round the clock care and should have been in nursing homes, except that none of the local nursing homes would take them) led to both binge eating and heavy drinking.
For the next six years I averaged three hours sleep a day, caught in fifteen minute snatches here and there.
I gained thirty five pounds.
After my parents died I struggled out of my depression, quit drinking and got a job on the night shift at an electronics plant, where I met my husband. He taught me how to cook using fresh healthy ingredients . For the next seven years we both maintained healthy weights ( he 165 pounds, me 115 pounds) even though we ate at odd hours ( a tiny dinner type meal at 8 A.M. , another larger meal of the same type at 9 P.M., nothing during the day and sweet tea throughout the work shift.)
A car accident screwed up DH's back in' 94 ( He has nine slipped discs in various areas of his spine, plus nerve damage [ and incidentally, he had a heart attack at 42 from the pain and stress]) all doctors he's consulted concluded surgery would make things worse, so he's been in constant agonizing pain and unable to work or do much around the house for the last 13 years.
Currently I work a physical job and also do most of the housework, plus extras like shopping. Over the last ten years I've bounced up and down twenty pounds ( up to 160, down to 120) depending on whether or not I'm working ( I tend to gain when I'm out of work) how depressed I am and how much I drink. I currently work days (I don't find it easy) which makes mealtimes hard since DH still follows a night shift eating schedule and after all this time he probably won't change.
Lately it seems like my metabolism has slowed and losing weight has gotten especially hard.
I still drink too much when I'm stressed and I constantly fight the lure of the vending machines at work even though, as Glory87 put it, “They contain nothing but crap and poison”.
So that's my story. I've been overweight a good part of my life, have sometimes been obese and occasionally have been too thin.
It started when I was 11 and spent a few weeks with my grandma and aunt, who were both obese. I learned all about hot dog sandwiches on white bread, popcorn mixed with milk duds, ice cream sundaes, and on and on. I remember when I came home the first words my dad said were, "You've gotten fat!"
The weight progressed from there. I was fairly normal in my late teens but thought I was huge, which didn't help me. I got married at 19 and was miserable, so I gained 70 lbs in a year.
Second marriage at 24 and a baby a year later. Then the next 14 years stuck in my house and miserable. Add a drug addiction, a Pepsi addiction, and NO support whatsoever and there you have it.
I'm now in a brand new life with the most loving, supportive man imaginable. I'm going to college at 41 and am happier than I ever dreamed I could be. I just have to get this weight off to feel that I have truly overcome my past and can embrace my future. With God's help and the support of my Sweetie and this wonderful board, I know I will do it!!
I'm not really sure. Along the way, I've had some AHA! moments when I thought I was on to something but ... I dunno
Some combination of ....
raised in a clean your plate home
being of sturdy Flemish stock
a terrible cardiovascular family history anyway
some childhood abuse issues
being in charge of my own groceries and eating what I wanted
three pregnancies
three c sections
loving food and lots of it
thinking being slightly overweight was appropriate at my age
already being slimmer than a number of my associates
depression
antidepressants
denial
don't caredness
laziness
poverty
... I'm not sure.
Last edited by srmb60; 07-29-2007 at 09:56 PM.
Reason: forgot one
Stress, and an income allowing Hubby and me to eat out all the time. It was novel to both of us to be able to go out whenever we wanted. Who wants to put a lot of effort into something boring, when we can sit down at a table,, talk to each other, and have good food appear? Short story: I'm lazy!
Now, I'm saving my pennies and eating what we have in the house.
I was a normal weight child. When I stopped growing taller (7th grade), I started growing wider. My family is all overweight, with shared poor eating habits. Eating was entertainment for us. A couple hours after dinner we would often sit around each having a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup on it, or huge bowls of popcorn, etc. I grew up thinking that Large or Extra-large was the right size to get of anything, with absolutely no sense of appropriate portion size. I don't think we ever stopped to consider if we were actually hungry, before deciding if we wanted to eat something.
We grew up on meat and potatoes. Vegetables were yucky, over-boiled, nasty things that were only eaten upon command. Mom even put sugar on iceberg lettuce, in some sort of sad attempt to get us kids to eat "salad". She admits that her mother didn't pass down much in the way of cooking skills to her. She and my Dad had to learn as they went along. As retired adults, they're wonderful cooks. They produce tasty, light and healthy meals all the time, now.
I was a college athlete. I played tennis for Northwestern University and did fitness competitions and fitness modeling. Then, I met my ex, who cooked nothing but soul food, and had my daughter and left my ex. I was eating about 5,000+ calories a day, carb-loading, because I was lifting three times a day, running 8-12 miles a day, playing tennis about 3-4 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, and was probably burning all those calories at the gym and sports practices.
Once I got pregnant, I wasn't able to work out as vigorously, but was eating the same high calorie diet (lots of nutritious foods mainly, but LOTS of them), without burning off the calories. Then, I left my ex and was a single mom for the past few years and wasn't as physically active as I would have liked. I still walked to work (an hour each way) and was always a stairs person, but I was eating a LOT of calories, and not burning very many.
Thankfully, I have two excellent things going for me that make it really easy to lose weight:
- My mom is vegan and I was raised on REALLY healthy organic foods (mostly home-grown), so I really LIKE healthy foods and know how to cook them.
- As an ex-athlete, I still have lots of muscle, and I'm disciplined enough that I know how to get my body back in the shape I was (I really want my six-pack back, but I have to get back to 11% body fat for that)
I'm hoping I can make this a permanent lifestyle change!
) I would start again. We have been married seven years and have two kids.
