Getting started

I know what you’re thinking. Oh great. Another weight loss blog. Another fattie trying to get thin by blogging. She’s probably sitting at her desk eating potato chips and jelly beans, but drinking a Diet Coke because she thinks that makes it healthy.

Wrong on all counts. Though jelly beans and potato chips do sound kind of good right now.

The raw facts. I’m a 27-year-old single woman living in the Washington, D.C. area. I’m either 5’2” or 5’3”. As of yesterday morning, I weighed 152.6 pounds. That gives me a BMI of 27. A healthy range is 20-25. To get into the healthy range, I would need to weigh 141 pounds. My goal weight is 135 pounds.

I have fought my weight all my life. As a child, I remember my mother telling me to not put something in my mouth because I didn’t need to be eating it. That continued through my teenage years. I don’t blame her for anything – she’s built like me and continues to fight her weight every day. She was just trying to help, and for that I am thankful.

The earliest weight I have recorded (aside from my birth weight, of course), is my weight when I was fifteen and a half. At that time, I weighed 140. (I know this because I put 135 on my learner’s permit application, and I know I cut 5 pounds off of my weight). So in twelve years, I’ve gained about 13 pounds. Honestly, that’s not bad.

The problem is that right now, my weight is on an upswing again. My highest weight was 163. It was the week after I graduated college, and I spent that entire last month of school eating out and drinking a lot. Much of that weight melted off pretty quickly. At one point last year, I was down to 143 pounds. How did I do that? Exercise and dedication to eating well. Six months ago, I was hovering around 146 or so, and I was content there.

What happened? I moved halfway across the country and started a new job. I had to leave for work earlier and couldn’t bring myself to continue my morning workouts, plus it isn’t exactly safe to run in my new neighborhood in the dark. I skipped evening workouts because I was tired. I would hit the treadmill but give up after 20 minutes because I hated it. I ate out significantly more.

I joined Weight Watchers Online right before Christmas, thinking that was what I needed. And it helped a bit. And then I stopped tracking. When I started, I was at 153. So technically, I have lost since joining, but not by much.

This week has been a bit of a kick in the pants, however. I started working at a new office and had to wear a suit the first few days. I haven’t put my suits on in a while, and I didn’t realize just how tight they had gotten. All my pants are starting to feel tight, but having to wear those uncomfortable suit skirts was really eye opening.

I need to be accountable. I thought about joining Weight Watchers meetings, but I’m not a meeting person. I don’t want something else on my schedule. And from what I have heard, the meetings often become frustrating for those of us who do only get 22 points a day. A four point snack is unheard of when you’re working from a bank of 22 points!

I don’t expect to ever be thin. But I would like to be fit and healthy and most importantly, comfortable in my own skin. And that starts today.