And So the blog begins

And as most blogs begin I will start off with talking alittle bit about myself. My name is Denise and I have been fat all my life. I can not remember a time that I have not been overweight and my photo albums pretty much confirm that I have always been pudgy. I remember going with my mom to a weight loss place and I had to be under 10 years old since it was before we moved to Kentucky. I can not remember the name of the place but it had equipment to work out on and we had to keep a food diary. I think they had me on 1000 calories. This would have been in the late 70's. I sometimes wish I could remember the name of the place. I think my mom might even have some of the paperwork packed away in the attic. I believe this was my first commercial diet. I found looking in my baby book that the doctor at one time gave my mom a low-carb diet food list for me. It also has in the notes about that I should not be more than 63lbs before I was 6. On 10/20/77 (7 days before my 6th b-day) I was at 64.5lbs. Whoops. So the records in my baby book support that I have been overweight all my life. The picture below is when I was 7 1/2 years old. The summer of  '79.

Fast forward to high school/college and the teasing. I was the big girl and turned to food. I have blocked out much of my school years. With facebook I have been reminded about things and people even have some pictures of me from that time. I was in band and was active because of marching band. I do not know how much I weighed but I know I was shopping in the plus sized section.

I still have a dress from my senior year and if I wanted I could go upstairs and check out the size but not really interested. In college I swam each year since we had to take PE at least 1 semester. I loved the fact that it was something I could do by myself and not have to be in a group sport. I so did not want to have to do a group activity like in high school. That fear of being the slowest or last to be picked. With swimming I would go to the pool 2-3 times a week and get my laps in and be done. Well that was for 3 of the semesters. 1 semester there was a new teacher and he wanted to make it more group. We had relays and other things. I hated that semester.

Now I am almost 40 and over 300. I remember years ago saying to myself that I never wanted to see 300. I have been over 300 for over a year now. The biggest tipping point happened alittle over 2 years ago when my boyfriend moved out. I know I went into a depression and just did not care. Fast food became my friend and eating became almost everything in my life.

In Sept 2010 the scale at the doctor was 339lbs. Also at this appointment I was officially diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Something clicked in my brain and I started to make small changes. Instead of having fast food for lunch I was bringing my lunch. I figured out that the back stairs at work were easier to go up and down than the front so I started using the stairs instead of the elevator. My work has a health program that does challenges and in Nov/Dec they had a maintain dont gain challenge. I did the challenge and started to think about joining a gym and other things I wanted to do. The end of 2010 brought me to the mindset that I can be healthier and that I deserve to be healthy.

I think the end of 2010 is a good end to this post. Next will be about the first quarter of 2011 and the changes that I have had.