When I was a little girl I was always wandering around outside chasing one of my many cats (Growing up on a farm we always had lots of cats and kittens around). I was a skinny little thing who never even had a thought about what she ate or how much exercise she got, I never had to. That is, until those notorious tween and teen years came along. All the sudden I had curves and lumps, and I have been fighting those curves and lumps ever since. Through high school I always carried an extra 20-30 lbs above what would have been considered the "normal" weight range. It was also during that time that my activity at home started to decrease. The manual labor part of being a farmer and rancher's daughter started to decrease because my 2 younger brothers were at an age where they were able to help a whole lot more than I was able to. That was a bad combination. By the time I was a senior about to go to college I had had enough of being overweight.
My mom and I joined weight watchers and I started working out. During the 2 1/2 months of summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year of college I was able to lose about 26 pounds. I was still about 10 lbs from my final goal weight but I was finally at a weight I was comfortable with. I managed to keep that weight off during college. However, once I graduated and got my first real job, it was much more difficult to keep off. I found myself traveling a ton and eating on the fly. Convenience stores and fast food restaurants became my friend simply because of time constraints and being on the road. The weight crept back on much faster than it came off and soon I was at a higher weight than I started. This continued after I got married, until I finally decided that I would try weight watchers again. I managed to lose some, but not everything I needed to. I was still about 40 lbs overweight when I got pregnant with my little girl, MacKenzi.
Throughout my pregnancy I didn't do too bad as far as weight gain goes, although I was definitely one of those people who's pregnancy shows all over not just in the belly : (. I gained about 36 lbs with my pregnancy, and all but about 12 lbs were gone once I had her. However, I didn't just have to lose those 12 lbs, remember I was about 40 lbs overweight to begin with. Once MacKenzi was about 2 or 3 months old I jumped back on the weight loss band wagon. I started doing weight watchers online and had some success with it. Then I found the myfitnesspal app on my phone and started using it to track my calories and have been having success with that as well. Between the two of those things and about 13 or 14 months I have been able to lose 40 lbs.
I have felt so much better having lost that weight but I am still needing to lose about 15-20 lbs to be down the the weight I really need to be at. I am still working at my weight loss and have been stuck at the same weight for about 2 months so hoping to shake loose of this plateau. I have decided to start blogging about it because I know there are many people in my same shoes. I hope to inspire others, as well as my self and use this as a way to stay accountable. Remember you must make a lifestyle change, not just a temporary change. Temporary changes will fade over time and the weight will find its way back on. I leave you with a quote I heard all the time in my weight watchers meetings; "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."
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