hi everyone! i'm new to this forum, but i always stop by and visit 3fc's web site for recipes and reviews. i was pretty overwhelmed with all the different forums/discussion boards, but this was the first one i came to because i know how inspiring it always is for me to read other people's stories of success. maybe someone else will find my success story helpful.
i'm 24 years old, and i have either been overweight or felt that i was overweight for about 10 years. over those 10 years, my weight kept escalating until i was over 170 pounds. i am only 5' 1", so this amount of weight was quite a lot on my small frame. it was horrible trying to find clothes that fit because i could no longer shop in the petite section for short length clothes because i had jumped up to a size 18.
my officemate told me about weight watchers, and from the first meeting we went to, i knew that i could do this. (i joined around mid-october 1999.)
as of now, i have lost over 40 pounds and am only about 4 pounds from goal. (my present weight is 125 pounds.) it has taken a long time because this past summer i took a little "break" from journeling my food and was not so dilligent, therefore i only maintained my weight. i never stopped going to meetings or believing that i could get to goal, so my hiatus from losing weight never really bothered me. i knew that even if i was overindulging, i could never go back to the eating habits i had before i started weight watchers. i had already made so many permanent changes in my life, and i figured when i was ready to focus on losing weight again, i would be able to do it. and i have.
i still have my ups and downs, but that's ok. the journey has been slow, but i've enjoyed it a lot more than other people i know who have tried losing weight on very strict diet regimens (especially low-carb plans) only to get to the point where they can no longer take it and resort to old habits again.
i think that losing the physical weight is only half of the battle. the rest is in your mind. i find that even though i am thinner now than i was when i was 14, i am still dealing with my perception of my body. i know i look and feel a whole lot better now than i have for a long time, but there's still the part of me that thinks i don't look as skinny as i should. maybe toning exercises would help with that. sometimes i look in the mirror and i love what i see. but there are times (i find this true especially when i look at pictures of myself) when i feel it looks like i still need to lose 20 pounds. i know i need to work on this, but this mental aspect of losing weight seems to be the toughest part.
maybe the fat person never really goes away. but if it did, i guess i wouldn't feel compelled to work so hard to stay healthy.
okay, i've gone on long enough. i just want to wish everyone out there good luck on their weight loss/maintenance journeys. enjoy yourselves...enjoy your food. (that's been so important to me with weight watchers because i feel i truly can enjoy myself and still lose weight.) you can do it!!
-beth
