- start weight:
- 235 lbs
- current weight:
- 221 lbs
I grew up thin. When I graduated High School I was 118lbs. I left for school and gained the “freshman fifteen” times 4! I tried while I was in school to lose the weight, but with no success. Life goes on, and I wasn’t unhappy, so it didn’t seem like it was all that important. By the time I graduated from college, I weighed 218lbs!
When I was engaged to my school sweet-heart, I tried several different fad diets to lose the weight. I didn’t want to be fat in my wedding photos. Almost all of them made me ill, at one point my now husband threatened to take me to the hospital for a feeding tube because it was making me so ill. The good news was that I was down two sizes for my wedding, but the bad news was that my wedding dress became so tight that I couldn’t breathe. Once I started eating well again, all the weight came back - plus a lot more!
In 2006 I started to change my lifestyle. I had heard that it’s the best way to lose weight and keep it off! I was maintaining, and I even lost 5 lbs! I was so excited. Then I got pregnant with my daughter. I did really well throughout my pregnancy! I only gained 5 lbs and I had an eight pound baby. I walked out of the hospital weighing less than I did before I was pregnant! It wasn’t that I was dieting while I was pregnant, I was just always on the move and I didn’t eat any junk food.
I brought home my beautiful baby girl believing that I could do anything. I did okay when I was on leave from work, but when I went back I gained it all back and a lot more! I think that my busy schedule didn’t help. I would go to work and then come home and take care of my baby, put her to bed and then just grab something to eat for dinner (at 7.30 or 8 o’clock at night).
My daughter turned one in January of this year, and I had not lost any of the weight since she was born. February first, I made the commitment! It was time to just do it! I changed my lifestyle, registered on myalliplan, and started a thread in the forum to get a buddy. On Valentine’s Day I took my first day of alli® pills, and I lost 4lbs in my first week! I did really well for the first few weeks (I lost 13 lbs), and then my diet-buddy disappeared. I have learned something important about me. I do better when I have a person to talk to. They don’t need to do anything in particular; I just need to know that they’re there. I gained 5 of those 13 lbs back before I was able to find another diet-buddy. I’m fortunate. In our thread there are 4 of us, and we all support each other! It is great. I have now lost 14 lbs… and I’m still going! There are days that I feel frustrated, I think that everyone feels that way sometimes, but I know that this is a process that is going to take a while. I’m working hard, and I know that I have support. I love the alli program!
Submitted 5/23/08