Today is my first day back on the wagon!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself. I joined Blog To Lose more than a week ago and am finally ready to start on my new regimen today. Can you tell that I’m an inveterate procrastinator? I am 5’-10” tall and my start weight as of this morning is 213.5 lbs. My goal weight is 140 lbs. and I would like to keep my weight within the range of 140-150 lbs. for good.

I wasn’t always heavy. I was chubby in middle school, but grew into my weight in high school and entered college in the 150’s, size 8-10. I kept this weight for freshman and sophomore year, then did my junior year in France at the University of Paris. The European way of life really slimmed me down—food portions there are a lot smaller, plus I didn’t have a car so I did lots and lots of walking. Paris is a very beautiful city for walking in, so after a while I didn’t even take buses or trains much except when traveling—just walked to get where I needed to go. I came home in the 130’s, size 4-6. Keeping up my walking habit and taking dance class 3-4 times a week back in the US enabled me to stay at that weight for 7-8 years.

Then I decided to go back to school for my graduate degree, while working at the same time. Suddenly I had no time to exercise (barely had time to even shower, in fact) and was regularly staying up until 3-4 in the morning to study and prepare for classes which I had no time to do during the day. I ate lots of fast food, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to buy lunch from vending machines. I knew I was gaining weight but avoided the scale for years because I didn’t really want to know how bad my problem was. Finally one day after nothing fit I got on a scale and was shocked that I weighed 227 lbs! I have my graduate degree now, and it’s worth having, but I really trashed my health in going after it.

Last year I was so unhappy with how I looked that I decided to join a low carb diet group online. I succeeded in losing 45 lbs. down to 182. I thought I was well on my way to losing all the weight for good (I was more than halfway there!) but then went off the diet for a week or two. When I came back I found most of the original posters gone and the whole thing turned out to be an elaborate scam. Since then I’ve been directionless and have gained most of the weight back. I’m determined to go all the way to goal this time and stay there.