Try going on your 8th year!
I thought of this thread when I started browsing through an old, abandoned online journal of mine in an effort to try to piece together my weight loss history.
My father passed away in early 2004, and at the time I was at my highest weight of 360 pounds. I didn't actively try to do anything about it until about six months later.
Now mind you, I haven't been actively trying to lose weight the entire time since 2004, but when put on autopilot I've managed to at least maintain whatever weight I'd already lost, if not gradually lose over long stretches of time, which is pretty huge for me. The only major regain I had took place late last year when I was confronted with all sorts of family stress and kinda said, "screw it, I'm stuffing my face." Now obviously that's not the best decision I've ever made, but I picked myself back up this March after facing a 20 pound regain. I've lost over half of that regain and plan to keep on pushing myself.
Although I didn't start recording my weight weekly until I joined TOPS in 2009 (notice the cluster of points), you can get a general idea of my progress with this chart:
You can also see when the family drama hit and when my car broke down, as I was no longer going to my TOPS meetings for the weekly weigh-ins and my weight shot up (my "screw it" period). I'm back on track again as we speak. And while yes, it can get frustrating that I didn't lose it all in a year, it feels good in knowing that I'm going the right direction and that I've slowly but surely established healthy habits that should last me a lifetime.
I'm really anxious to get below 250 and beyond, so no more autopilot for me!
I need to kick this into gear and get out of plus sizes once and for all!
Regardless, I know I feel so much healthier and happier than I did 100 pounds ago. I'm so glad I decided to start when I did! If I hadn't, who knows? I might weigh 400-500 pounds or more now, which isn't far-fetched given that I went from 260 to 360 between 2002 and 2004.
