My New Year's resolution.....for the 15th year in a row!

As long as I can remember I have been overweight. I am not sure how it started or why (most likely because I LOVE to eat!). It wasn't necessarily that I was a sedentary kid. I can remember playing summer soccer when I was in elementary and middle school and I played JV and Varsity Soccer and Softball in High School. I even had a small stint on the JV Basketball team and one year on the Swim team. For anyone that knows me, you know that I love sports. And, I enjoy playing them sometimes as much as I enjoy watching them. Although I can tell you from many years of experience that it is hard to get moving when you have a lot of extra weight to carry around. It's funny when I think back to how much I weighed when I graduated from high school (15 years ago!). At the time I thought I was so big (compared to my tiny 100 lb girl friends!) but now, I would KILL to be back at that weight!!

Almost every year since I can remember, my New Year's resolution has been to lose weight. I have tried many, many diets over the years. They all seem to work, for a little while. But when I go back to my regular eating habits (I'm a lover of carbs, fried foods and anything salty!!), the weight always comes back and it tends to bring some extra a long with it. In 2003, I joined Weight Watchers and lost almost 40 lbs. I did the At-Work program with about 20 women that I worked with at the time. It was a really good experience and I was happy that I was able to lose so much weight. Unfortunately, when I went back to my old habits soon after I stopped the program, the weight came back. Then, in early 2005, I joined another At-Work program at the University of Richmond. I was able to lose about 20 lbs but I didn't really stick to it very well or very long. So, now, here it is 2008 and I weigh the most I have ever weighed in my life (and it ain't a pretty number!).

A co-worker of mine joined Weight Watchers back in the fall but she wasn't really being faithful. I told her that after the football seaon was over and after we got back from the Bowl game I would join her at Weight Watchers (I knew it was going to be too hard to eat well during the season and the holidays and I didn't want to fail right away). Last Monday after work, Roxann and I went to the Weight Watchers meeting. We vowed to ourselves and each other that we would change our eating habits and FINALLY lose the extra weight we are carrying. For those of you who are familiar with Weight Watchers, I am currenly on the Flex Plan program. I am able to use 29 points per day (for those unfamiliar, every food has a point value based on the number of calories, fat, and fiber grams it contains. You can eat anything you want, but you can't go over the total number of points you are assigned based on your current weight).

It hasn't been easy this past week, but I have really tried to make smart eating choices (and use my points wisely by eating lots of veggies and low-point foods). And I went to the gym every day at lunchtime (see my previous post about that). Unfortunately I won't be able to see how much my first week of hard work paid off because I am going on vacation tomorrow and won't be able to weigh in on Monday night. I went to a WW meeting this morning thinking that I could weigh in and see how much I have lost but apparently you can only weigh in once per week and their week runs Sunday to Saturday. That means that since I weighed in last on Monday, today would have been twice in one week. Bummer!!!! I guess I"ll have to wait until NEXT Monday to find out how I have done. (I did weigh myself on our scale at home and I think I lost about 4 lbs this week!)

I'll post again next week after I weigh next time and let you know how things are going. Say a little prayer for me - I would like to lose about 60 lbs and I know I can do it and finally keep it off this time. It's just going to take time and effort! Now I just need to have some willpower while we are on vacation this week!!