Getting Healthier

I was asked to blog about my weight loss. I must admit I've been hesitating for months to post about it. Let me give you a little background information. I've been on the chunkier side ever since puberty. That's a LONG time. I've done the diet yo yo stuff more times then I want to count. I've given birth to 7 children and I guess I use that as an excuse. I gained too much weight when I had my first and I had 6 children in 8 years. Whenever I tried to get back on track and go to Weight Watchers or some other place I would get pregnant again. Funny enough when I went to Jenny Craig here in Canada the same thing happened to me 10 years after I had what I thought was my last. Joseph was born 12 years ago.

7 years ago I decided to give it another try. I lost 150 pounds in about a year. The program was basically you ate a meal replacement bar for breakfast and lunch and had a regular dinner. I stayed away from carbohydrates. In December 2000 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had a mastectomy and reconstruction (abdominal tram flap) at the same time I had the mastectomy. I was very very lucky. All I did was lose a boob. I didn't have to go through chemo or radiation because the cancer was found in a mammogram and it was early, stage 0. When I was in the hospital all they fed you are carbs. I'm not going to use that as an excuse anymore. I just know that for 5 years after my mastectomy I just couldn't control the carbs anymore. I don't know what the heck it was. I put back a large amount of weight. I didn't gain it all back but I will say I gained most of it back. I was so disgusted with myself for the weight gain I didn't want to meet people that knew me when I had lost the weight. I was so ashamed that I had put it back. I'm still ashamed of that and I guess that's why I didn't post about the weight loss before. Not to mention the rude people that would actually say something. I remember one woman that actually told my husband he should keep me from eating and how could I possibly have gained so much weight. I was mortified.

Lately I've been at a plateau, I guess, for the last 6 weeks only losing about 7 pounds in that time. I have been bouncing up and down between 85 and 90 pounds total weight loss for this entire time. It's been a bit frustrating but I am still sticking to program so I know it will start to come off again sooner or later. If I've learned anything with all this I have learned that I can't go near carbs. For me carbs are a drug. I am a carbohydrate addict and if I eat the stuff it will send me on a binge I won't be able to recover from. I also know I must lose the weight or it will cost me my life. That's why I went to Dr. Poon. I must admit his program has been easier for me to follow than I thought and it's something I know I can stick to for the rest of my life. I don't want bread, cookies, cake, pasta, etc. even though you are supposed to slowly add them back into your life. I don't miss it. I didn't have any over Christmas except I did allow myself the smallest taste of my MIL's fruit cake. Paul brought some home with him and I wasn't tempted by that either. It sat in the house for 2 days before he ate it and I just let it sit there.

As I said, I am very proud of the accomplishments I have made so far. I haven't been able to exercise due to pains in my feet and an inner ear issue I have that decides to pop it's ugly head every now and then. I need to get the exercise in if I want to reach goal. I will reach goal and even though I didn't hit the 100 pound mark, and I didn't hit the weight I wanted to get to before the end of the year. I WILL DO THIS!!!!

We're having our SnB tonight and if I remember the camera I might ask someone to take a picture. I hate taking pics of myself but I'll do it so you can see the difference so far. I'll try and post more about it but if I don't and you want to correspond you can always email me. The link to email me is on my sidebar towards the bottom of the page. Posting this isn't easy so all I ask is, be kind please.