So, I am really glad I found this site. I've been at a few other forums that deal with weight loss, and this one seems the most positive and friendly so far! There's another one I go to where people are always picking at each other or downplaying others' successes, and that just doesn't work for me. I just loved spending time yesterday reading through the success stories and seeing the goals met and the before and after pictures! Mods must be doing a great job to keep this up.
My story, which I hope to repeat when I hit my goal weight
I'm 42 years old, 5'2.5" (yep, I own that .5 inch), currently 143 pounds (although I weighed in at 145 this morning because I ate a bunch of salty stuff Friday night and my weight hasn't gone back down yet). I started out at 151.2 pounds about four weeks ago and had a NO MORE moment.
So I developed very early (at the age of 10) and reached my full height in fourth grade, but I was always very slender throughout my teen years, pretty much eating whatever I wanted and staying slim. I was never on any kind of diet, although I'd say that I naturally never binged or had food issues that I remember. I ranged from about 100 pounds to 130, I'd guess. In college I had some ups and downs. I went WAY up my second year in college from eating like a hog in the dining area and often having two or three desserts per sitting and then later ordering late night pizza. It's sort of amazing that I didn't balloon up a lot bigger. Then I got very thin when I studied abroad for a year.
I got married when I was 22, and the year after, I hit my highest weight ever of 175. I did not own a scale, but I had seen a horrible picture of myself and I was in major denial/disbelief (oh my gosh is that ME? For real?). So that was during the low fat phase of the early 90s, so I did that for awhile and that was an utter fail. I maybe lost 5 pounds at the most. Then regained it and some to become a huge 185 (on my small frame, yikes). I decided I needed to do something and fast.
So I started to run for 30 minutes a day. I did that almost every day. Meanwhile, I reduced portions and ate much healthier, although I allowed treats on weekends. I got down to 150 within a few months. There I stalled for many years. I looked fit and toned so I wasn't that bothered by it.
Then in about 2003, I did the Akins diet for about a month and lost 10 more pounds. I stopped doing that diet after a month, but did not regain that weight. I remained about 140 that whole summer. Then very stressful circumstances caused me to start dropping weight like crazy. I got down to about 123 by the end of the year. Despite the reason for the loss, I was in LOVE with my body, haha. I was wearing a size 4 and sometimes even 2 in some things, people were always commenting on how tiny I was, and most importantly I felt comfortable in my own skin and loved myself in pictures.
I ended up moving to another state then. In the coming years, I gradually gained about 10 pounds and sat comfortably at about 133 for about five years. I was never satisfied with this, but I was having too much fun going out with friends, ordering food in with my husband, etc. to care that much. After all, I still looked pretty good in pics and I was still running, and that kept me looking more toned.
I moved overseas with my husband soon after, and while I was there, something really awful happened to me. I returned back home and put on some weight. Not a huge amount of weight, but up into the mid 140s. I was living with my parents for a few years and had no control over meals, etc. Eventually I moved into my own place, and my weight regulated down to the upper 130s for a few years.
Then this past summer my husband and I (who had mostly been living separately) got divorced. It was an amicable, mutual divorce, and we are still friends, but it was still highly stressful and sad, and I put on ten pounds this past summer. So for the past few months I have been hovering in the upper 140s/lower 150s. None of my clothes fit any more.
Finally last month I was able to take it back. I started running again (it had been a few months), and started really watching my food intake again. Not counting calories strictly, although I may have to do that again, but being very strict about eating sugar or white flour or grains on a big level. But I am allowing myself a day where I eat whatever I want once a week or so. The weight has finally started to move.
I started at 151.2 four weeks ago. On Friday of this past week I weighed in at 142.8. Right now I'm 145, but that's because of sodium and water retention. I think it will go away in a day or two.
So that's my story! I hope to meet other like-minded people here!
I have lost 6-8 pounds so far, about 30 more to go...
to the forum.
