I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I have to say my weight gain started when I was in second grade. With a teacher that criticized me because I wasn't as "smart" as my brother was and lowering my self esteem. I dreaded going to school. By third grade the weight really progressed, and by luck, bad luck that is, I had the same teacher in third grade as I did in second grade. Now, not only was I being compared to my brother and being criticized about my intelligence, she started saying things like, "you don't need any chocolate milk, your fat enough". What kind of teacher would say such harsh things. I swear that's the start of my extremely low self esteem.
Weight gained from year to year, and I never really cared about myself. High school, wasn't really much better, though I have to say, I made a lot friends who liked me for ME! After graduation, I weighed in at my highest weight of my life at the time, of 215 pounds. A year later I started smoking, and yes I will admit, I started smoking to fit in with my other friends. I was 19 years old, old enough to know better but still craving to fit in with people. 7 years I smoked cigarettes, and when I decided to quit smoking, I weighed in at my lowest weight of 140 pounds. Yes, I fed my hunger with cigarettes and I believe that is why I lost so much weight. But, I was worried about my health due to cigarettes, and didn't even think about controlling myself after quiting smoking with food.
In 3 months after I quit smoking I gained 40 pounds. Yikes! Now, 8 years and 3 babies later I'm at the highest weight of my life, 217 pounds! I hate it! I cry when I see myself in a mirror. My face has bloomed and of course so hasn't the rest of my body.
Starting today, I've had enough! This is why I started the 20 pounds in 10 weeks blog. I really believe I can lose 20 pounds in 10 weeks. Today is April 9, 2011 and I weigh 217.2 pounds and by June 18, 2011, I will weight at least 197 pounds (if not less).
