Four years ago, I weighed 135 pounds. I was on top of the world! I wore cute little sun dresses, two piece bathing suits, and just about anything off the rack! Life was good.
18 months before that was a different story. 18 months before the summer of 2007, I weighed 196 pounds. I ate poorly and didn't even know the meaning of "working out". This was all that I knew. I was always overweight. I could remember being in middle school and all my little girlfriends would giggle about their cute little sun dresses and the latest fashions and I always just smiled and laughed along with them, but I never wore the newest fashions and I certainly didn't own any sun dresses! But I found other things to love, like food.
My lowest point was when a good friend of mine was getting married and I was asked to be a bridesmaid. I was so happy for my friend and estatic to be able to share in their day. Then I tried on the dresses... uugghh!! I was 215 pounds and a size 22. It was awful.
I want to say that's when it all changed, but it took another wedding and another bridesmaid dress for it to really sink home. I remember sitting with my girlfriend when her wedding albums were delivered and flipping through the pages thinking, ugggh - I am FAT!! And then I saw the picture of me delivering my maid of honor speech. My heart broke. I woman I saw in that picture was not the woman I looked at everyday in the mirror. She didn't look anything like me. I was 196 pounds and a size 18.
A few months later, my friends all got together and decided this was the year we would all lose weight. And we were going to throw some major cash into it. We decided to put together a little weight loss challenge of our own. We threw down $50 a piece and marked out 12 weeks on the calendar. We had a weigh in every week and if you didn't at least maintain weight, you had to throw in another $25. So as long as you lost weight, you were good until the next week. The winner at the end of 12 weeks would earn the contents of the pot.
Guess who won??? That's right, yours truly. Because there's no bigger motivator than money!! I weighed in after 12 weeks at 172 pounds. I was 24 pounds lighter with $700 in my pocket!
This was just the beginning. I learned during those twelve weeks that eating healthy wasn't all that hard and the gym is not some dank, disgusting, gross basement that has to be avoided. It was actually fun working out! My friends and I would laugh and play like little children. Who knew activities could actually be fun. I continued to count my calories and was deciplined with working out. I kept at it and the pounds kept falling away. I was delighted to shop for smaller and smaller sizes still.
The summer following that weight loss challenge, my girlfriend and I went to Vegas for a week. I weighed 135 pounds and all of litte sun dresses were a size 8. Life was good.
That summer I also met my now fiance (coincidence?? smaller sizes mean bigger confidence!) So fast forward 4 years, moving in together, getting engaged, having a baby.... I find myself back in the same place I was - 190 pounds and a size 16.
I'm ready to reclaim my body and my confindence!! I want that summer back again and I know I can! The path may be the same, but this journey will be completely different!!
