For those who have lost, gained and restarted. . .

[EmilyBee]

I was wondering what made you fall off.

I know when I was young and fit I would notice even a pound gain and straight away sort it out. I went overboard when I was 18 and went to uni, drinking every night became out of control and I left my first year about 14 pounds overweight. I joined a Weight Watchers type class but couldn't get out of the drinking habit and so returned to uni even heavier. This is where I started to get down about my weight and drink even more. In the last few years I have also added pointless eating to the drink and made matters worse.

After nearly ten years of being overweight (and missing out on my twenties - I pretty much don't leave the house unless I have to), I had to do something. I can't say for sure but once I hit goal I strongly believe that I will not go over a five pound threshold I'll set for myself. I would have worked too hard to let it all go again. Having said that, I have not really yo-yo dieted. I tried it once, tried a couple of other diets for about a day and that was that. Maybe I will do the same thing *winces at the thought*

What made you ignore the extra 6 pounds, then the extra 10 pounds before finally reaching your all time high again, if not more?

I appreciate your answers

[Elizellen]

Originally Posted by EmilyBee

What made you ignore the extra 6 pounds, then the extra 10 pounds before finally reaching your all time high again, if not more?

Getting married and settling down :yikes
When you know you are loved it is easy to let the pounds pile on :sadblinky
Of course buying and running a sweets shop for 10 years didnt help any either :yikes

[EmilyBee]

Hehe, I read in another thread that you ran a sweet shop. I assume it was the old fashioned kind. It immediately made me think of the wholesale jar of Sherbet Lemons we have in the kitchen. I USED to be quite partial to a Sherbert Lemon

[ravenfan]

For me it was the stress of life in general. First college, then job, then getting engaged and married. I would yo-yo, but always be able to stay at a decent weight. Then I had a baby, and I went to an all-time high for me. I'm only 5'2, so it's easy for extra pounds to show. When I met my now hubby, I was almost 40 lbs. lighter. He is very skinny and eats whatever he wants when he wants and never gains anything. I think I just got into the bad habit of eating his way. I decided this year was going to be different and that I was sick of being miserable. In my younger years I drank quite a bit too, which I'm sure didn't help.

[KatHavlu]

i was a cheerleader in high school and very fit. had a great boyfriend, and its like i graduated, we broke up, and it all went downhill from there. Got up to 160 and than worked overnights at wal-mart for a year and a hlaf, unloading trucks, great excercise, went down to 120. Than got married, went up to 125, than got pregnant. Went up to 180. After I had my son I went to the accounting office, and put on 10 more pds. Been trying to lose it ever since. Had the flu with my second son, lost 10 pds in the beginning, and gained it back and an additional 9 pds. Did good on that pregnancy wasn't the bottomless pit like my first pregnancy. So after I graduated was when I got the weight problem.

[Shelly Lynn]

it feels kinda weird to vent what i have been threw. i think to myself that i should never tell anyone how i felt about the events that i think made me the way i am today. its feels good to know that i can tell people and they will be there to help with out getting hurt by what im saying. ok here goes.
i was going to college(weight 146) (age 20) dating my high school sweetheart (age 1 and got pregnant. after every family memeber found out my parents who had already been threw an even like this with my younger sister who soon divorced sat down with me and said that it was my decicion if i wanted to get married or if i wanted to continue college they would help me. His parents were more traditional spanish family. His parents said you got her pregnant you better get married and bring her into this house before she starts to show. I didnt want to loose him and i wanted to marry later in life anyway so we got married at the end of aug. my parent paid for all the dinner and reception event, decoration at a nice reception place. then the day after we got married and went on a short 1 night honeymoon to the beach which was 100 miles away we went back to his house and lived in a 3 bed house with his parents and his younger sisiter age 13 (only girl mind you) and an even younger brother age 9. dont know y we went there when my parent had a 3 bed bath all to themselves and offered to house us. anyway threw this whole time that i was tying to help would clean,wash, learn cooking his, parents still said that they would have thrown me out on the street had it not been that i was pregnant. And i was not even bad or mean or mischevious. i was always obedient (you know you want to have your in law like you right) guess mine didnt like me from the day they found out that i was preg. should have known when they didnt believe me that i was pregnant and forced me to go to mexico and get a blood test done just to make sure i was not lying. and living with my so called sister in law made life even more miserable because she would say i did or didnt do things that i was expected to do. she would be on the phone all day and i would have to clean and wash and start cooking dinner. and when the inlaws got home it was ,, ohhh she did everything and i have been just sitting there. even worse things happened with her, that i dont want to talk about. of course i stopped going to school. and made my part time job into a full time job with out benefits just to beable to help pay for gas and clothes and baby things.guess food was my way to let out my feelings. His parents were telling him that he needed to quit going to college (which he had just started) and get a job. i told him i would divorce him if he did quit school. so he didnt. and when the baby came the inlaws were traditional to the point were i had to breast feed and no daycare for infants (who was going to make the money). so finally we moved into a trailer with the help of my parents and they bought a refreg and stove and we put all our money into his classes and books. and i guess threw all the stress and the baby that added like another 40 (total of 184) and then i was working in a place that i didnt like because there was not room for improvement and they were cutting my hours little by little. so i started looking for a new position in the work place. i was able to and by then i was at 190. worried about paying bills feeding baby, gas, school. but even though we always had his parents telling us what to do and since he was the oldest boy in the family who his parent depended on so much they were always calling him for stuff and having his to this and this to their house. i really didnt care about him working on our house. i just wanted out and the only way was for him to get his education. he knew it hurt me to give up that i gave up and to put up what i had to put up with.... but after another baby he finally graduated college with and engineering degree and we moved about 4 state away (job related but i think that was the best thing that could happen to us because we are actually a family now). feels weird not to be the main income worker in the family. but with him making 70 thousand plus a year he says that to him i have given our family the best thing by making him finish school and now it was my time to relaxe and take care of our kids (day care is expensive without state help) so i just stay home with the girls and am now working on my next job..getting me health and sexy again...hey im only going to be 27 in few weeks. Feels good to vent. just makes me think to myself alot..cant believe i let myself get like this.
so there it is .... what it was that i think and know that made me the way i am today.

life is a changing,
shelly

[cagirl1]

I think about that alot and I can only pin point it to the fact I stopped exercising after h.s..then once I got a car, job, going to college...fast food was my diet. I never ate alot but what I did eat was not good. Plus within the last 5 years I met my now fiance and with his love and wining and dining me here I am struggling to lose weight for my Oct. 2nd wedding...

[EmilyBee]

Thanks for all your stories

Shelly Lynn, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. I hope that you and your husband will be very happy together :hug

[JESTER]

. . . it was the damdest thing . . .

I left high school at 115 pounds . . . looked in the mirror 14 years later, and poof...... I was fat ! ensive

Seriously though, I can only blame one thing on my weight gain . . . ...MYSELF . I looked at myself in the mirror every day, I felt my clothes getting tighter, I ate cheetos hand over fist for years...and I did nothing.

Then, my mother died suddenly this past July, and life seemed to come to a screeching halt. I realized how precious life is, and had a great big dose of reality - I didn't want to die at age 54 like my mom ( she was a very fit, and healthy woman). I had to make a change . . .
and here I am. Struggling along with the rest of you . . .

[bree630]

I had always been an overweight kid. Chubby, maybe not FAT, but chubby. I'm also pretty tall (5'10), and was always able to hide my extra fatty parts. My senior year of high school I was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism, which made me lose a LOT of weight, down to a size 10/12 from probably a 14/16. I don't remember how much I weighed, but on this 5'10 frame, I looked pretty good Wow I remember those days. Well I went to college, taking 9 pills a day, hating life. Hyperthyroidism definitely took its toll on me. My doctor suggested I have an iodine treatment, which I did, which was supposed to kill the bad cells in my thyroid. LUCKY ME, it called ALL of them. So ever since 18, I've been taking synthroid. Of course, it takes a while for the doctor's to get your dosage right, so while I was their guinea pig, I managed to bust out of ALL of my cute clothes from high school.

Over the next few years, I just got bigger and bigger. I stayed in a 14/16 (Lane Bryant that is) for a LONG time and during my senior year managed to gain OH SO MUCH weight. I'll chalk that up to being SUPER busy, trying to graduate, working w/ my sorority, and having the WORST eating habits (late night eating, McDonald's dollar menu, bread, bread, and more bread), and working out? excuse me. what's that?! I graduated from college May 2003 (see the horrendous pic below) weighing 270 pounds. It was horrible. I didn't really realize how horrible it was until now, when I look back on how big i REALLY was. Most people say now that they didn't realize I was that big either. Most people just knew me to be that heavy.

I remember starting my first real job in June 2003 and going out to party in my new home (DC Metro Area) and hating my choices in what I could wear so I decided to do something about it. I lost my first 10 lbs on SlimFast. The only problem was that I stuck to it during the day (2 shakes and healthy snacks - yogurt, fruit) but at night, my "sensible" meal was no where near sensible. This is when I allowed myself to eat my favorites - FRENCH FRIES, FRIED CHICKEN, CHINESE FOOD. So one day my co-worker says "let's do atkins". I say to her "girl please. I love bread". But anyway, October 2003 I began. And i'm the ONLY one who has stuck with it. Shoot, truthfully, I'm the only one who made it past day 1.

When I begin to see the results I thought WOW, this is crazy! I remember huffing and puffing my way through the Taebo Beginner's tape and looking at myself in the mirror saying "Girl, you have GOT to get it together!" Please believe, I have had my share of cheat days - special occasions, visiting my undergrad (Va Tech), holidays, special weekends, when I'm dating someone new :hug . It all depends. The last time I went to Va Tech (Oct 04) this random girl saw me in the bathroom and said "Wow. I remember you. You used to be fat." I was like "wow, do you know what TACT is?" But anyway, it was ok... b/c she said USED TO BE :icondance

I'm still here. WORKING MY BEHIND off to lose these last 36 or so pounds... now in a REGULAR 14 from a Women's 18/20. I can now go in the store and pick up a 14 and walk out... i don't even have to try it on. THAT is a wonderful feeling. i say my goal weight is 170, but I'm not sure. I don't want to be SKINNY. God gave me some GREAT curves *devilish look* that I definitely want to keep. I just want to be a size 10, healthy, happy, fit, and able to endure my workouts. I thank God for Atkins. I thank God for this board b/c it has given me an entire community of people who can relate to my story and my struggle. I thank God for my supportive friends who won't even LET me look at the dessert menu. HA! I love this WOE and have now become the biggest defender of Atkins. Their criticism doesn't stand a chance. Shoot, just look at the pics :joy