I just want to look good naked.

[Briarmom]

Whew. I said it. I got it off my chest. My reason for wanting to lose weight is entirely one of vanity. I'm sure there are health reasons and all that stuff, but I just want to look good. And get cute clothes.

I am that kind of vain.

Before I tell you my goals and pour my heart out about this hell that is weight, I guess I should tell you about my history.

I didn't have 'extra baggage' until I gave birth to my son. I had just turned 22. After he was born, I lost most of my pregnancy weight. Most.

Then I quit nursing.

The weight piled on.

I felt betrayed by my body. Here I was, 22, pretty newly married, and my body was large.

We moved from Mississippi to Arizona to Alaska by the time my son turned 18 months. I was stressed.

The 3 years we lived in Alaska, I was fat. I went from fat to fatter. Then I got pregnant again.

We left Alaska and moved to Arizona again while I was pregnant. After the birth of my DD, I weighed about the same as I did at 'fat'. Hooray! At least I wasn't 'fatter.' Time went on and after about 6 months, I got serious.

You know, when you are 'in the zone.'

I walked 2X per day and ate well. For a couple of months.

I lost about 15 pounds. And I felt pretty good.

Time went on. I didn't work out very consistantly, but I didn't gain. I lost some more weight. Not sure how. Perhaps stress? But I was still not where I wanted to be, weight-wise by about 10-15 pounds.

We moved to Egypt. Yes, you read that correctly.

Life sucked there. I was trapped on a base with no way to do anything. I should have spent hours at our little gym. But I didn't. I gained about 15 pounds. Do you see a pattern here?

We moved to Belgium. Land of beer and chocolates. We lived in a hotel for 45 days. A stink-hole hotel.

We moved into our house and I wanted to get the weight off. I counted my POINTS on Weight Watchers, and bought ALIAS on DVD to watch on the treadmill. I lost about 8 pounds.

Then Christmas came. I didn't gain, but slacked off on working out and watching my weight (it was Christmas!<----excuses!)

This past two months, my parents visited us for 2 weeks. We went to Paris and Spain and ATE. They left and we went to WDW for 9 days for our 10th Anniversary. And we ATE and drank. Seriously.

So, here we are. I haven't gained back all of the 8 pounds I lost in Nov/Dec, but I've gained about 3-4. My plan is walking and watching what I eat. AND keeping this journal.

I want to lose about 22 pounds. I'm going home to the States in about 7 weeks. I want to shop! (vain)

I just got off the treadmill. Her name is Cadence. She'll be in this journal a lot.

If you made it this far, I hope you'll stay and cheer me on. Link me to your journals as well. I know there's a lot of inspiration to be had here.

 

[Briarmom]

This morning I went for an hour-long power walk with the walking group here. There were only 4 of us, and the weather was WARM!

After that, I was so sweaty and gross, that I blew off French class and came home where I ate a snack of mozzarella with tomato, basil and Balsalmic. Food heaven. I shouldn't have eaten the mozzarella, I know.

Oh, and since I'm trying to be real here, I also blew off French class because my eyebrows should not have been in public.

 

[kimwim8]

Hi. Just came across your journal. You still out there??

I hope so. Sounds like you had a stressful few years there, and are now serious about doing something. It certainly doesn't matter WHY. We all want to look good. Yes for some, it's for health reasons too....but deep down, we all want to happy with how we look.

I'm here to support and follow along. Hopefully you come back.