Well, here I am. 44, 220 pounds, and tired. I am Jennifer, I am a mom, I am an educator, I am a wife and I love to eat. I did not start to struggle with my weight until my early 20's when I got married. It started slowly out of stress of a wedding and a miserable job. It turned into a 20+ year battle of the bulge. I have tried just about every diet you can think of and many have had limited success.
Three years ago something pushed me to join a gym. Now, mind you I have joined many gyms over the years, but for some reason it was different that time. I was just turning 41, in a 18 year marriage and I was not feeling so good about myself. So, I just started. Just like that, I started going to the gym in the morning before work. I went about 4-5 times per week, nothing too hard mostly the elliptical for 30 minutes. But what I found is I felt better. Not just physically, but mentally. I started feeling happy and relaxed. I slept better and just started to eat less. No special diet, just less. And just like magic the weight started to come off. A total of 53 pounds and for the first time in almost 20 years I was able to buy normal size clothes in almost any store I wanted. (Not sure what the deal is with Hollister not carrying XL?)
Well, fast forward 3 years. Over the past three years I have been divorced, remarried, promoted and sick. I stopped exercising when I met my husband. Just like it started, it stopped. And the weight came back, all 53 pounds of it. Only now I am older, more tired and less motivated. I have a wedding to attend in June and I am dreading looking for a dress because of my size, 18/20. However, today I opened and email from our Risk Management person to find and ad for weight loss teams and the top team gets $10,000. So, I decided, why not? I am desperately trying to find the motivation to get started and I really need to make a change for my health, my daughter who is only 9 and learning from me and for my state of mind.
So, Friday I weigh in. I am hoping to find 4 others to be on my team and I am hoping to win some cash but what I am really hoping for is to find a group to help keep me motivated. There is my story, not a super interesting one, but probably not very uncommon.
I am left wondering, how many times do I need to make the same mistake before changing the course of action?
