Wow. I could have written this! (except for the coffee/cigarette diet part) -and that "apple cider vinegar" thing - OMG, I used to drink a HUGE cup of that driving to class every morning when I was in college - oh, some of the crazy crap I've done in order to "lose a few pounds"... and some even crazier stuff in order to lose "a bunch of pounds"....

I'm glad I"m sane now, & doing it THE RIGHT WAY, and yes, I too will NEVER "diet" again.

6th grade was the first time I tried and failed pretty miserably. In the summer between 8th grade and high school I started running and dropped a lot of weight, people really saw a difference. When I got to high school I joined the track team and maintained, freshman year I was obsessed with dieting and the scale...I would stay home some days from school so I could monitor my eating habits...the next three years were ok, not huge, maybe a 14 at the worst and a 10 at the best. College was another yo-yo of dieting b/w 10 and 14 sizes. I've never been bigger than a 14/16 [18/20 in bridesmaid/wedding sizes] and about 7 months ago was when I really took back my life. I have ulcerative colitis and I owe it to myself to eat in a healthy [not crazy yo-yo diet lifestyle] and work out. I would like to drop another size [the equivalent to about 10 lbs if I still went by the scale - which i DON'T] but I'm happy. I can run 2 - 3 miles, workout for an hour or more. I understand nutrition, I know I can cheat and get back on without beating myself up - I'm getting happy in my skin...FINALLY!!!

I remember staring at myself in the mirror and grabbing the extra fat on my stomach when I was 10-11. I remember crying myself to sleep every night because I felt huge. When I was 12 the yo-yo dieting really took off since I had more control over what I ate and what I put into my school lunches. I would eat a small bowl of cereal for breakfast, take nothing to school for lunch and come home and eat a measly dinner. Then late at night, I would pig out because I was so hungry.

Looking back on it, it was pretty ridiculous. I wasn't even fat or over weight at the time, I just thought I was.

First time... that's a LONG time ago, When in grade school, my father used to ride me about my weight, as well as my aunt (his twin sister) - my mother kept trying to get him to stop and said I was beautiful. Unfortunately eating disorders run rampant with the females around me, so was easy to learn at a very young age... hide, binge on what you want, go to the bathroom and make sure you get rid of it. Honestly though, that got real old real fast...didn't taste as good that way, so just decided to get super active. I was active into sports anyway, but time to pump it up. I was in 6th grade, 5'2.5 and weighed 135. I started jogging late nights (is the only time I have available due to being so busy with activities). Mom didn't allow me to, said too dangerous... but she worked shift work and when she was on nights, dad fully encouraged anything to help me get the weight off, so at 1am... jogging I would go. In 8th grade I quit basketball... there was much turmoil in the house from it and my father was not speaking to me unless in a derogatory manner.. on goes the weight out of emotional comfort food. Again, God love her, mom still thought I was beautiful. Freshman in high school, my father told me it was time to join Nutri-system as I ballooned to a 18. He took it with me (back home this required a 75 mile ride one way to get to the weekly meetings). We started working out at a gym in a neighboring town (we lived where there was nothing, lol), and my mom even joined us for the workout portion (yay!). I went down to 175 fairly quickly (of course dad was just a pound or two from goal at this time) and I plateaued! I was working out 3x/wk, I was jogging on off-days despite the onset of Juvenile RA, totally stuck to what they told me to and nothing. Dad accused me of cheating and I wasn't. He said I must be eating beyond the 1200, I wasn't. This is when I learned... eat less, lose weight... that wasn't pretty. I did break plateau, but I would hide "meals" from my mom (dad saw me ditch them and said nothing)... then.. I got so tired of the insults from dad, I stopped. No more. Then there was utter horror in our house for a few years due to crap my brother pulled... depression hit, eating happened, activity down. You get the picture. I weighed in 228 my highest in high school until I met my fiance... lost a bunch again... through adult history, very active, always bigger (except during a party stage... apparently a pack of ramen noodles and then drinking all night while dancing is good for weight loss, lol). I was steady at 200ish (give or take 3-5 lbs) even when waitressing and running on feet 8 hrs a day. I have played tennis, coached basketball, etc. Active. never lost a pound. Then ballooned when medical issues hit again in the last year and a half. My highest weight ever was at the start of this journey most recently. I do not starve myself anymore (as I did for years - found out that is kicking me in pants now for metabolic rate ) I refuse to do unhealthy. I have always gotten an adrenaline rush off working out, so that's not hard for me... it's trying to increase calories. I am working with nutritionist, had a fitness coach help me get going, had my body typed (adrenal) to match me to the best vitamin supplements (ME? Vitamins? :O ) and the weight is finally coming off. It's slow, not gonna lie. Started end of March... but it IS coming off. My parents have BOTH complimented the progress, I have helped my mom along with me and she has lost too! My father is not the same man he was back then either though, matter of fact, their last visit in October, he gave mom and I some money to go get some clothes that fit I finally got correct answers on how to do this, I researched and educated myself where needed...and I enlisted the help of pros to fill in the blanks. Amazing it has been! Amazing it will continue to be!!!!

I just realized, in my previous post, I didn't answer the question: "When did you start dieting?"

I started actually dieting right at around 12 years old. I was always a chubby child, always had a horrible sweet tooth. Always ate too fast. I had an eating disorder - BINGE EATING - but I didn't know that then. But when I hit "puberty" I suddenly lost "the baby fat" and started slimming down. Then I realized I was A GIRL, and my hormones went wild for every cute boy in the class! (funny, but true!) So I did everything I could to not be fat.

I did keep my weight quite low (103-108) all thru jr-hi & hi-school. If my jeans were a bit too snug, I'd simply scale back the food for a few days, and they'd fit again. I now realize that I was probably suffering from water weight gain due to PMS, and that my weight did that up/down dance 3-5 lbs every month. However, I also did some crazy things like taking laxatives & diet pills all the time. Drinking that gross apple-cider-vinegar concoction. Ugh. Eating yogurt for breakfast & lunch & then "pushing my food" around my plate at dinner. Just dumbness, really. But hey, whatever kept my "belly flat" so I could be "dateable".

I had an abusive boyfriend and my mother sustained a horrible injury during my senior year. I didn't have her to "cook" for me so I started eating whatever, whenever. And I gained up to 121 lb by graduation. (What I wouldn't give to be "That fat" now!) I lost crazy weight after graduation - June, 1981... by August (3 months later) I was 92 lb. I just basically stopped eating. I would eat an orange or a banana in the morning, and drink some O.J. or a soda during the day, & that was it. I ate about one meal a week. You read that right - ONE MEAL PER WEEK. That's if my mom could get me to slow down enough to sit down & eat. Unsurprisingly, I passed out a lot.

After a car accident where I passed out & rear-ended someone, the doctor diagnosed me with hypoglycemia & anemia. He put me on a very strict diet, including no sugared foods & no fried foods. WHAT?!!?!?!? That's what I grew up eating! I'm southern, ya know. Fried chicken, fried squash & okra... mashed potatoes...southern fried steak, etc... puddings, cakes, etc for dessert. It took me a year to gain up to 115 lb. I maintained that thru-out college partially by diet & partially because I took weight-lifting as a class & got really into it. Plus, my boyfriend & I enjoyed hiking & other activities, so the weight pretty much leveled out at 115-118.

Then ... college ended. Life began. No more "free gym" (no more college) and well, that's when my "dieting" became "lifestyle" for me. Been doing it in one form or another ever since. Yo-yo'd my way up to 192 lb. Lowest "adult" weight was 126. Now, if I get down to my goal of 140, I feel "thin". But of course, never thin enough. I would really love to be about 125. But I don't feel like I can make it that low & then maintain it, so why even try? My lowest weight since I hit my 40's was 138. I was 3 lb from goal when I re-injured my shoulder & couldn't exercise, and gained & gained & gained til I hit 192. It's been 6 years since I was 138. So I figure... pushing 50 now, 140 is a decent goal. Plus, thru all my years of dieting & exercising, I've come to learn that as we age, our bodies distributes weight differently. I'm thinner-looking now at age 48 & 155 lb than I was at age 32 & weighed 152 lb. That's so weird to me. But hey, I'll take it.

This is my first "diet", so it's been interesting to read so many stories about when and how people first started.

I started in May taking a good luck at what I ate and the portion size - I realised I had to do that after starting a bit of light exercise (walking) and not really making any progress with it.

I haven't stopped yet, but I'm trying to find more of a balance between losing and maintaining so I know about what my maintenance calories are. And as it's the holiday season, it makes me more likely to stay on track if I have some low calorie days and some higher calorie days.

Wow, I'm seeing some patterns develop in our stories. I, too, come from a weight obsessed family. My mother only weighed around 106lbs when she was my age (mid-20s), and she's a full 2 inches taller than me. She was obsessed with or depressed over her weight/size for as long as I can remember. (Note to yo-yo dieters, she's pushing 200lbs now.) My father is weight obsessed in a different way. He still (in his mid-50s) lifts weight every day. Being overweight is not tolerated well in my family, even though all of us have been there.

So on to me and my first diet, I was actually lucky enough to be a skinny kid in elementary school. I remember being questioned once in the 3rd grade for being underweight. The summer between fourth and fifth grade my mom had a friend that was running a one week overnight fat camp. My mom signed me up supposedly for the overnight camp experience even though I wasn't overweight. I remember I weighed either 74 or 72lbs the first day. It's interesting that I can recall this because I remember looking at the number with benign disinterest. I only committed it to memory because I knew other people would want to know. At camp, we ate portion-controlled meals and participated in lots of typical camp-style physical activities. At the end of the week we were weighed again, and I believe I weighed 68lbs, which again didn't interest me much. The whole experience did help ingrain a fear of being "fat" and an understanding that "fatness" was a condition that must be remedied.

Fast forward to puberty, though a little chubby, I didn't really worry about my weight in 5th, 6th or 7th grade. Then in 8th grade my school received a grant for fitness equipment. One of the conditions of this grant was that the school was weigh and take electronic body fat readings of students in certain grades. The whole thought of being accessed at school really bothered me, but the reading upset me more. I weighed some to the affect of 135 lbs and had a shocking 40% body fat. A friend and I heard that one of her sisters lost 15 lbs by giving up pop, so we gave up regular pop. I also gave up higher fat foods, practiced portion control and trier to make better food choices. I wasn't regularly weighing in, but I was going down sizes. By sophomore year I weighed 99lbs, had 13.5% body fat and typically wore a size zero. My body looked like Kirsten Dunst's in Bring It On. (Yea, I was a cheerleader.) Unfortunately I began to notice that my tailbone would hit the ground when I lied down on my back or my hip bones if I laid on my stomach. There were also some viscous rumors that I was bulimic (totally untrue). I slowly gained back 10lbs+ mostly by choice. Then in my junior year I had a lot of family turmoil and had to go live with my dad. All of my fitness outlets were gone, and my weight rose to 127lbs. When I returned to cheering senior year, my weight returned to around 120lbs. Since this is supposed to be about my first diet, I'll leave it there, but I detail the rest of my body history in other posts.

Same here! Definitely a pattern...that's why I never want to diet ever again. I want to be healthy and eat right....When I have kids I don't want them to see me obsessing about weight! I want them to learn what a healthy lifestyle is through my actions.

Leading by example is the best way to teach and educate. Improving on what we were able to catch that our parents may have done wrong and changing it is also good... maybe one generation down the road, perfect parents will be bred

I'm in my 40s and over the course of my life have been on at least 4 significant diets (before this one) where I lost 20 pounds and gained it back again, plus some more. And I could probably tally 3 or so more dieting episodes where I lost about 10 pounds.

I think part of the reason this one worked, was I was sick and tired of failure. I was prepared to implement whatever number of changes were necessary, to finally make the progress stick.

WHile I have changed my diet plan three times now, I have technically only made one attempt at dieting and it began in October 2008. I'm still doing it. Sometimes better than others, but I haven't ever given up or quit.