The Many Faces of a Fat Oldie

Taken in 2008 right after we got married and before I started making an effort. Although this was a very cheesy picture, it kinda explained a lot about my love for food. Tipping the scale at well over 270 pounds didn't seem to bother me, either.

A month later in November, 2008 I had dropped 17 pounds and felt really good about the progress that I had made, but I knew it was far from over.

December 31, 2008. After 2 months I was already down 33 pounds. It was surreal how the weight was dropping off...all with the help of the wonderful doctor.

February, 2009... I was down 42 pounds

Summer 2009 I was down 55 pounds

And on my 40th birthday (11/19/09), I had a lost a total of 59 pounds. (This was taken on November 21, 2009, so actually I was probably only down 57 pounds by then, but hey...) I felt good about myself. I was happier than I had every been, and I was looking forward to my new lease on life. I was bound and determined to keep it off. Well, that was my plan....

For the next 9 months I slowly put on 13 more pounds. But it was OK, I was still close to 10 pounds from the least I had weighed. I really wanted to lose 5 of those pounds, but I kept telling myself it was water weight.

Then in 2011 and into the rest of 2012, I slowly put on 12 more pounds. In September of 2012 I had put back on 25 pounds without even thinking about it. I was so frustrated. How in the hell did I let this happen again? When I stepped back on the scale and the first digit was a 2 and the second digit was a 4, I was like enough is enough!!! (If you look at the picture above and the picture to the right, you can tell the 25 pounds was in my face...a lot).

So on October 1, 2012, I went back to the bariatric doctor. Since the 27th of September I had lost 4 pounds and the scale no longer had a 2 and a 4, but a 2 and a 3...better, but not great. We talked about food again, she adjusted my diet, gave me tips to get me back on track, and actually praised me. She said something really profound that I was actually amazed about. She said "you had 39 years to learn bad eating habits...don't be so hard on yourself if you can't change it in 4 years time!" WOW...this woman was pure genius!!

But nevertheless I left her office with supplements, plenty of protein shakes, WHICH I will address in a later entry, and a diet plan for me to stick to. Oh yea, and a goal for the next month of losing 10-12 pounds. Now I had lost 17 pounds in the first month back when I first tried to lose weight, so I thought this was totally do-able. But this time around, it was not so easy! This is me on my current journey.

Now you have 4 entries with the background story. The rest of my entries from here on out will be my successes, struggles, frustrations, and celebrations as I try to reach my goal. Now although I would LOOOOOOVE to lose 27 more pounds after today, I will be fine if I can lose as much weight as possible by February 7, 2013 (look back to past posts and see if you can figure out why...oh yea, and we are going on a cruise on February 9, 2013, and I wanna feel good). So here we go folks...