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I was never overweight as a child or teenager. I was always the tall, almost too thin one. When I graduated from high school, I was 5'8" tall and weighed 119 pounds. Then I left home and went to college.
I worked full time while I was in college. My scholarship covered my tuition and room/board, but spending money and food money came from my job. Like many college students, I worked in fast food restaurants mostly; Hardees, McDonalds, Pizza Hut. As an employee, I got my meals for free. Since I was on a limited income, I took full advantage of those free meals. By the time I went home for Christmas vacation I had gained about 25 pounds and by the time the school year was over in May, I had packed on 40 pounds. Needless to say, I couldn't wear any of my summer clothes!!! During that summer I worked at my hometown Hardees, but I refused to eat there. I took my lunches and by the end of the summer, I had dropped about 20 pounds.
Going back to school, however, was incredibly stressful and I had soon gained back those 20 pounds plus more. I began what was going to be an on-going battle with my weight. In 1992, I was living in Fort Lauderdale, FL and was at my heaviest ever (at least at that point). I weighed around 200 pounds. The day that I realized that I had eaten an entire box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls was the day that I made up my mind to do something about my weight and eating habits. I joined Weight Watchers that week and began to see results immediately. I lost 45 pounds over a period of about 6 months and was feeling pretty good about myself, even though I was going through some very difficult marital issues at home.
I moved back to North Carolina and wasn't able to continue going to Weight Watchers. Over the next 15 years, my weight flucuated up and down. I joined Weight Watchers on two separate occasions, but just couldn't seem to stay motivated and would stop the program after a few weeks.
In September of last year, I had a wake up call when I realized that I was at my heaviest ever (222 pounds), nothing in my closet fit comfortably any longer, and my health was beginning to suffer. I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without wheezing and my joints were constantly hurting from all the extra weight I am carrying. So, on September 18, 2006 I began my final weight loss attempt. I didn't expect miracles and I knew that I would have bumps in the road. I was doing really well until Thanksgiving of this year and for reasons unknown, I just stopped counting points and pretty soon I stopped eating healthy. I gained back almost all of the weight that I had lost. So now it's time for a new committment. I know that I'm not going to lose the remaining 55 pounds overnight. I know that it is going to take time and work, lots of work on my part to get to my goal weight of 160. But I'm determined to do this. For my sake and for the sake of the people who love me.