Then and Now

I love "before and afters." It doesn't matter if it is a house remodel, a room cleaned up on an organizing show or a weight loss story. I am not calling this entry "before and after" because I am far from "after." But, today was a BIG milestone for me. I have always struggled with my weight and I am sure I always will. I've had my ups and downs (mostly ups). I have started Weight Watchers more times than I care to remember over the last 10 years. We won't count all the other programs I had tried previously. Weight Watchers has definitely been the best program yet. However, I have yet to be truly successful. This has always frustrated me! I can stick to a plan for a length of time, but then there is a bump in the road and I get "derailed" and cannot find my way back....so I just give up. Well, one of my best friends, Kami, was "motivated" (I have to laugh at that term because of my many previous failures in this department!) by me to join Weight Watchers last summer and lost 30-something pounds. Frankly I was jealous! In that time I had put on a few extra. So, about October, I was inspired by Kami to begin this journey for one last time! I was filled with great anxiety over my previous failures, but found a great leader that challenged me to just focus on losing 5 pounds to start with. At Weight Watchers, they break up your big goals into smaller chunks so they are more manageable. Everyone's first goal is to lose 10% of their body weight. Well, being a veteran of this program I knew that it would be quite a feat for me to lose my 10%! I have never once made it to 10%! But, with the constant enouragement of Kami, my sister in-law Amy and some other friends at WW, I plugged along. Some people get in there and get that 10% quite quickly. This has never been the case for me...thus the frustration. But, today after 26 weeks I finally got my 10% and then some! I was so excited to go to my meeting today because I knew I had it in the bag. The last six months have been quite a journey of self-discovery. I haven't been perfect on the program, mind you. It has been very difficult to say goodbye to my very close friends, "Ben and Jerry." I don't like them to come over to my house anymore. On occasion, I can go visit them, but just for a small bit (I mean bite! ) Ha Ha. I have found that carbs are not my friends either. That's ok. I tried to switch over to their healthier cousins, but they are still not as friendly as I would like. My journey is far from over, but I feel healthier and happier and motivated to keep plugging away towards my next 10%!

My "THEN" picture is from November when Chris and I went to New York City. I don't have too many before pictures....frankly because I don't like to have my picture taken. Hopefully someday I will.
My "NOW" picture from today with 24.4 lbs gone! Like I said....this is not an "AFTER," just an in between. Stay tuned for more updates!