Good morning
Hello everyone. I have been posting here and there for about two weeks now, and I felt it was time to introduce myself. I am in the United States Army and currently stationed here in San Antonio. I am studying to be a military cytotechnologist and will graduate from the George Washington University in July 2007.
When I was in eighth grade I was 150 lbs and 60 in tall. I hit a growth spurt in ninth grade and grew to 66 in and 135 lbs. (I think making the basketball and soccer team helped with the weight). The summer between my sophomore and junior year I began to work at Baskin Robbins. I can still remember opening and having a banana royale sundae for breakfast and a hot fudge brownie sundae for lunch – quite frequently actually. It also didn’t help the guys at the pizza joint next door would swap pizza for ice cream. By the time basketball season rolled around, I weighed in at 155 lbs. By the end of my senior year, I was 190 ish and miserable.
The summer after my senior year, I discovered coffee and cigarettes. My freshman year I discovered boys … one in particular, and we started dating. I still remember walking into my father’s house and my stepmother exclaiming, “Look’s like you’ve lost some weight.” I replied, “Really? I haven’t noticed.” I stepped on the scale and weighed 150 lbs and was 67 inches. I stayed at 150 until I graduated college the first time.
After joining the military, I watched my weight creep back up to 159 lbs by gaining 2 pounds a year. I never really watched what I ate or how much. I was just constantly busy and had other matters that we more important to me than I was to myself. Then, I applied to this program and came to here to begin studying. The first block I was not taking care of myself and was really unhealthy. When I came back from break, I realized something had to be done. We had started to study all the NON-GYN cancers and their respective body sites. Every new cancer we learned about seemed to have smoking either as the TOP risk factor or it was definitely in the top three. It seemed pretty hypocritical to be screening slides for cancer and to be a smoker at the same time. I decided to stop smoking.
I had tried to quit before and had always gained weight. I told myself that was not an option this time and started monitoring not only what I ate but also watching my portions. I run nearly every day at least once and do physical training five days a week in the morning (combination of running and strength training). As of 8 January 2007, I have lost 11 lbs and have not had a cigarette. I have found many parallels between both the smoking industry and the food industry, and I have decided that I did not want to let either have any control over me. I realized I am 28 and thought of all the benefits I am going to have if I started to take care of my body now. I have more energy than I have had in years, and I am committed to making these changes for the rest of my life.
That being said, I love the support I have received from 3FC. I don’t think I could do a support group where the meetings were face to face. I love being able to get on at three o’clock in the morning and read what everyone else is up to. It makes me realize everyone is in the same struggle … because if this was easy – we wouldn’t be here!! There are people on here who have already been through what I have, and it is nice to find common ground. THANK YOU!
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