Please note, this is old…and needs to be seriously updated.
I began this journey in Sep/02 weighing 209lbs. It took me 3 years but I got down to 141.3lbs. I had a tummy tuck Aug/05 and never felt better and my weight hovered around 150lbs.
For some reason in Mar/08 I just stopped caring and today I now weigh 209.8lbs and wear a tight size 16. So here we go again, hopefully it won’t take me 3 years though…
Trish, Jul 2009
This is me, taken November 24, 2002. One of the first pictures in a long time where I’m looking straight in the mirror, not trying to disguise a double chin and puffy face.
This is me 28lbs lighter and a little over two months into my weight loss journey. The double chin almost gone, it’s there if you really look for it and the puffy face, slowly de-puffing.
I cannot start this page off as “I was always a chubby kid”, because I really wasn’t. I was the skinny one who’s weight problem started at puberty. The lowest weight I can remember being is 125lbs and I was fit and active although my maternal grandmother always used to tell me I could lose weight!! (Can we say self esteem issues began then?). I was involved in volleyball, soccer, cross country running and anything else I could do to stay away from home. However when I hit highschool, I was no longer allowed to be involved in afterschool activities because my mother needed me home to watch my siblings. I lost any and all control I had over my life.
This is when the weight started piling on. Between my mother piling food on my plate and not allowing me to leave the table until it was done and me secretly eating behind her back, the pounds started piling on and so too began the endless dieting which seems to have become my life.
So the years go on and I would fight and sometimes win the battle of the buldge. In 1989, I was accepted to work at a resort for the summer and that set off me losing 40lbs in a very short period of time by over exercising and barely eating. But it worked for me and I got the majority of the weight off. I worked at resorts for 4 summers of my life from 1989-1992, slowly putting extra pounds back on.
In 1991 I started college, 152lbs – on a 5’0″ frame that’s quite a bit of weight though I seemed to carry it pretty well as I have a tendency to gain muscle easily. I joined the gym that year with newfound friends however the weight still steadily piled itself on. By 1992 I weighed 176lbs, or so my scale said and most people didn’t believe because I didn’t have a stomach and nor could you find any cellulite on me. So of course I just continued on.
I met a guy in 1992 and we all know what happens when we meet a guy. We get comfortable and stop taking care of ourselves. This included stopping the gym and included me gaining weight each year I was with him. By 1997, I was over 200lbs, barely any muscle left on my frame and quite obese. We split up that same year, the weight being a large factor.
So here I was, this petite 5’0″, 209lb woman who for some reason still thought she looked like she weighed 150lbs, still thought she looked good. I managed to lose and regain 20-30lbs plus more a few times over the last few years since then but I’ve always given up. Besides being impatient, I would lose motivation. Once I would lose 20lbs, which seemed to take forever I would stop, feeling that was good enough and then of course put the weight back on plus some!
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