As a kid, I was very active. My mom was carting me all around town to tap classes, ballet classes, cheerleading practice (peewee football), and baton lessons. I rode my bike anywhere I needed to go up until age 19. We have a small town and I didn’t have my own car, so getting a DL wasn’t necessary really. Even while working for Taco Bell and Burger King, I maintained my weight because of my exercise and the food my mom cooked.

Our house rarely had an excess of junk food in it. What little junk food we did have in the house, was closely monitored. My dad and I do have the propensity to gain weight much easier than my mom and my sister. Isn’t heredity wonderful??? LOL *grin*

I met my husband when I was just about to turn 21. I was looking pretty damn good back then. I sported a bikini and was wearing my size 9 pants and sometimes a size 7. I stayed like that for a few years, but time wore on and I began to gain. I noticed I was moving into 11/12’s and by the time I graduated college in 1996, I was close to 13/14. I suppose the relationship comfort level was the first contribution and the fact that I drove all over instead of using the bike.

Add the extra junk food I ate on my own – out of my mom’s site and now having to commute 60 minutes to work and back 5 days a week, sitting at a desk for 8 hours, and getting very little exercise if any at all.

By the time I left my first job in the summer of ’97, I was in the 13/14s and beginning the 16’s. I could have really done something by that time, but I had moved out of the house and was feeling rebellious….Ya know, going to the store and getting whatever I wanted and not worrying about anyone saying a thing about it. This behavior just led to more problems.

I moved out of the apartment I shared with a girlfriend of mine and into one with my boyfriend (now husband). For the most part, I cook(ed) healthy, however, it was the eating out and the junk food around the house that kept me in trouble. It is very easy to fall in a fast food/ junk food rut when you get home late and sometimes are just too tired to deal with cooking anything.

September 2, 2001, we finally got married. To my horror although I wasn’t shocked, I had to get a size 22 wedding gown. I had imagined my dress in my head many times as a young girl and never was it a size 22! People will say I looked great and I did look good, but it wasn’t how I wanted to look for my wedding. I wanted to lose weight for it, but didn’t know how to successfully lose without putting it back on later. I ended up thinking that I was just going to be like this for the rest of my life and I should just deal with it…..but I couldn’t stop looking at thin people and just wishing I was back there again.

Sometime around May of 2002, we got a new addition to our small department at work. She told us about Weight Watchers and how it worked for her and her ex-coworkers. I was skeptical about it because it seemed like all those other diets where you spend all your money on their food etc and nothing happens. After trying to round up enough people at work in order for the leader to come to office and not getting enough response, my coworkers decided to go to a meeting during lunchtime. At this point I was less skeptical, but I couldn’t start with the group as I had some plans on those days.

Finally on Wednesday, September 25th, 2002, I went to my first Weight Watchers Meeting. I was nervous at first and I cringed when I saw my weight on the scale. I thought, “My god, how did I let this happen? I have never weighed this much in my life!”

I am now finding myself looking forward to meetings and I love the message boards at www.weightwatchers.com - they are great! Meeting lots of neat people all over the country!