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The Reduction Diaries
The diaries of a woman shedding 57% of her body weight by December 24, 2006. She'll also be shedding clutter, bad habits, toxic people, and probably a few tears along the way.Age: 30 Height: 5'9 Starting Weight: 381 LBS Goal Weight: 165 LBS Total Planned Loss: 216 LBS
360 LBS
Exercise Goal: To be walking 65 Minutes a day by December 1, 2005 Current Exercise: Trying To Walk 15 Minutes A Day E-mail: thereductiondiaries at gmail dot com |
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Sunday, May 01, 2005
My Story Allow me to introduce myself, where I'm coming from and where I intend to go. I've been over 300 pounds for more than five years. I've been clinically overweight for more than 15 years. Meaning, when I was 16, my doctor said she would be happy to see me lose about 20 pounds. And she was, I'm sorry to say, taking my height and athletic build into account. Before I was overweight, though, I spent two years being underweight. Feeling horribly fat at just 13, I started reducing the amount I ate drastically. I even started lying to my family about how much I was eating. At dinner, I would say I had eaten with my friends, or at my boyfriend's house... when I was with them, I said I had eaten at home. By 14, my weight had gone down to about 119, and hovered between 115 and 119 until I was 15 and a half. That doesn't sound too bad until one considers that I was growing (three inches in three years), and my periods stopped. Major teen angst and a dramatically changing home situation, as well as fears and insecurity regarding my sexuality with a new boyfriend seemed to trigger emotional eating and by 16, I was 20 pounds overweight and just kept gaining. In college, I was able to lose almost all my over-weight thanks to my student budget, which kept me on a pretty light meal plan. But I became seriously ill in my third year and was forced to drop out. In the space of three years, I was on six different mood disorder medications, dropped out of college, left home, moved in with my fiance, got married and was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder after a nasty, violent breakdown which resulted in the neighbours calling the cops and me being taken to the hospital in an ambulance. At that point, I was over 380 pounds. The right medications and a sense of rock bottom helped me start losing the weight. It took me about two years to get to where I am now, 345 pounds. It would have been a great deal more except, as you may have been able to figure out by now... I had no clue what I was doing. None. Nor did I have the motivation to really start learning. Over a year ago, sudden health fears prompted me to get to a doctor to finally face the music. Cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, glucose tolerance... all the tests. Turns out that aside from my heart sounding "too loud" (what does that mean?), my cholesterol being through the roof, and my blood pressure also being too high, I had no real problems. That was the relief/release I needed to get serious. Now that I knew I would not keel over if I quit my Big Mac routine or took a few extra steps now and then, I was free to get going on a plan. But dang if I still didn't really do anything about it! Halfheartedly choosing diet soda over regular once in a while, having two candy bars instead of three for dessert, being proud if I went out more than once in three weeks... what was that? Who the hell did I think I was kidding? Well, aside from myself, that is! |