I'm a fat chick.

Yeah, so I've got some poundage to loose and have for a long time. I used to be a skinny size 7 with a weight of 120 pounds. Honestly, I was probably too skinny at that weight, but I was healthy overall.

I started gaining weight my freshman year in college with the "freshman 15". I managed to loose a chunk of that and was again doing well with my weight. Then one night in December 1997 I suffered a grand mal seizure in the middle of the night and was rushed to the hospital via an ambulance. After a series of tests it was determined that I had a cyst growing behind my right eye and the neurologist thought that there was a chance that the cyst could cause more seizures. Because of this I was put on an anti-seizure medication that has a major side effect of weight gain. Two months later I had a second seizure and I ended up staying on the anti-seizure medication for another two years. In that time I gained a total of 45 pounds and I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Thankfully I have not had a seizure since February 1998, but the weight has stayed with me. One good thing, though, is that once I went off of the anti-seizure medication I stopped gaining weight. (I have no idea what ever happened to that cyst, I haven't had a head scan since the first seizure.)

In the last few years I have been able to loose 10-15 pounds here and there, but my weight loss progress has always been halted by pregnancy and subsequent breastfeeding. Then last year, as I have posted about previously, my health took a nose dive. Between last December and mid-February I put on 20+ pounds, and I am now the heaviest I have ever been. No doubt my weight is not helping the health issues I have been dealing with, but I am also realizing how much it is affecting things like my libido, which is virtually non-existent at this point.

I posted a few months ago on this blog about my weight issue and the fact that I was hoping to get onto some sort of regimen that would allow me to start loosing weight. It didn't happen though, as frankly I've been feeling like shit and have not had it in me to focus on loosing weight. Although I still have a long way to go to feeling myself again, I am feeling somewhat better and I am finally feeling like I can truly focus on this. I logged into Sparkpeople.com today for the first time since March and re-set my weight loss goals, which include regular exercise, food tracking, and water intake. And to keep myself really accountable I also set the goal of writing in a "diary" about my weight loss journey daily, and I will be using this blog as that diary. I need to be successful with this for my health and I am praying that I have the strength to keep at this. I have 50-60 pounds to loose, so I have a big job ahead of me. Hopefully within the next 9-12 months I will be able to post that I have reached my goal weight!