Charity is going to give back to herself...(with pictures)

[CharityLynn]

I've never kept a journal on here before but with the Biggest Loser contest starting up again I decided to give it a go. So let me tell you a bit about myself first.

Well my name is Charity (pretty obvious, no?) I'm 28 years old. I grew up one of those skinny kids and didn't gain weight until I got pregnant with my son at age 19. But what I gained was crazy..I gained 76lbs! Going from 135lbs to 206lbs. He wasn't a big baby either just 5lbs 9oz, he was 5 weeks premature. Here is me before I gained weight.

When my son was a year old I met a wonderful man, who is now my husband. When we met in 2000 I weighed around 160lbs. So in that one year I had went down 40ish pounds. In 2002 I got pregnant with our daughter and you guessed it gained A LOT! Yeah that crazy number from before...76lbs! (should it be lucky or rather unlucky number?) Another funny thing about number is the fact that my son was born at 8:01pm and my daughter (a scheduled c-section) at 8:01am. Here is me around the time Bryan and I met.

and here one of us together at our first Christmas.

Anyways it hasn't been as easy losing the weight after Rayne's birth. With in 2 months after birth I went from 236 down to about 220, where I stayed for the next 2 years.

In 2004 my husband and I decided to get married. I honestly don't think I realized how bad my weight was at the time. Here's me at our wedding.

I did try Curves for a little while but I just didn't have the time with two small kids.

I forgot to mention after I had my son I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism, which tends to make it difficult to lose weight. I was really bad at taking pills so it really didn't help. Just after our wedding in 2004 I had my thyroid levels check and they said they were normal. Which was strange to me since i hadn't been taking any meds.

Between 2004 and 2005 I lost around 35lbs, pretty much without doing a thing. I have since gained most of it back. We were in Disney for our honeymoon and I had my husband take a picture of me in front of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. After we developed the picture I was horrified by how I looked. I literaly had a roll of fat hanging over my pants exposed. (I have the picture and willpost it when I get it scanned.)

We went back to Disney in 2005 for our anniversary and since I had lost all the weight I had my husband take another picture of me near the same area. For a sort of before and after, I even wore the same shirt! Its pretty crazy to see how big a difference those 35lbs made. (I have a picture of that too, I'll have to scan them.)

This is me right now. This was taken at the very end of AUgust at my little sister's wedding. I'm the brunette.

Well that about it for my weight. The next post will be about my hobbies etc..I guess and my reasons for wanting to lose the weight.

 

[CharityLynn]

Alright, my hobbies. I really only have one. Its reading. I absolutely love to read and will read around 4-6 novels a week. I love romance, thriller, mystery, horror, fantasy, and even comic books.

Currently I'm reading Linda Howard's new book Death Angel. I really like it so far. I finished the book Tribute by Nora Roberts yesterday and it is probably one of my favorite books of all time. Other authors I like are Debbie Macomber, Laurell K. Hamilton (one of my favorites), MaryJanice Davidson, Mariah Stewart, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Fern Micheals, Lisa Jackson, Sandra Brown, Danielle Steel, Stephanie Meyer (I don't care for the Twilight series, don't hurt me. But loved The Host), Marvel Comics, and many many more.

I actually don't mind exercise either. I have the Wii Fit game. I love Tae Bo. I have an eliptical that I don't mind. A bunch of hand weights. I also have a fairly nice neighborhood to walk around..its two culdesacs together. We are the last house and nearest to the road. Its about a mile if I walk both loops. But just because I don't mind exercise doesn't mean I do it. At least not regularly enough right now.

Let's see other hobbies... Disney vacation planning counts right? Our honeymoon started this obsession. My father in law and his wife gave us a DIsney honeymoon as our wedding gift. All expenses paid! We stayed at the Boardwalk villas (Did I mention they are DVC owners?) The following year we paid our own way (just the two of us..no kids at either of these trips) we stayed at the Yacht Club.

The following year, 2006 we took our kids for the first time. We also drove this time instead of flying. They loved it! We stayed at the Boardwalk (which is probably my favorite) In 2007 we stayed at Beach Club Villas. This year we are skipping it But next year we'll be bringing my Dad, his wife, and her daughter. My Dad and Step-Mom haven't been since the 70's and my step-sister has never been at al and she's in her mid 20s. So its fun planning this trip since its pretty much like they've never been there.

We always go in October and always go to the MNSSHP. I love that party and it wouldn't be a vacation without going to it. We also plan on trying Fantasia Gardens mini golf. My dad and his wife go mini golfing whenever they go on vacation so i thought this would be really fun for them.

Up next..the reaons I want to lose weight...you know that thing I promised would be in this post..

 

[CharityLynn]

Ok, so earlier today I asked myself, Why do I want to lose weight? Here's is how I responded.

--I want to live a long healthy life so that I am able to see my children grow into adults and so I can meet my grandchildren

-- I want to grow old with my skinny husband

-- I want to inspire my mom so I don't have to bury her too soon. (She is 5ft tall and 195lbs, she als smokes and has asthma)

-- I want to feel attractive again and get my confidence back

-- I don't want to take a lot of prescription drugs because of diseases I get due to my weight. (which is really scary since my doctor want me to lose some weight or she'll be putting me on cholestrol medicine)

-- I want to be able to by clothes that are cute


Here are some promises I made to myself.

-- No more pop/soda
-- No more fast food
-- Exercise 3 days a week minimum for 30 minutes minimum
-- No eating after 9pm
-- Take a walk as often as I can weather permitting
-- Track my food on Sparkpeople.com

 

[CharityLynn]

I'm going to be very brave right now and post my measurements as of today September 11th, 2008

Weight: 197.4

Bust: 40in
Arms: 13in
Waist: 38in
Hips: 46in
Thighs: 26in

Now its time to get to work making those number smaller! I am a co-captain for the Biggest Loser Challenge for The RED TEAM! I will not let them down let alone myself.

Let's go red team!