Very personal question but I am curious why everyone is doing weight watchers? What was that one thing (or many things) that pushed you over the edge and made you think I have to do this?


My story:
I was always small until high school where I started to gain weight every year. My senior year I was wearing between a 9-13 pant size. I always was very touchy about my weight and never was in the spotlight because I thought people would say, "Who is this fat girl?"
After breaking up with my high school sweetheart and hearing things like "Your fat, people don't want you, exc." I just gave up. I started eating everything in site. Taco bell was a black away frommy house and I was there everyday! They all knew my order when I pulled up.

I would always act like I was buying food for two people, saying things like what does this person what, or I am trying to remember what they wanted... In reality it was all for me, I would go home and just binge!

If I were eating in front of someone I would eat a nromal portion and then go home and eat or have to eat before going to the event.
One day, after gaining about 80 pounds from my high school weight a friend pulled me aside and said, "You have gained some weight, You used to be really pretty but now you have let yourself go."
I was hurt and then realized that I am fat. I did need to do something about it. I joined weight watchers the day after that conversation and now am week 12 going strong.

I walked into WW over 30 yrs ago when I had my second child who left me haha with alot of baby fat.

I stayed I hit goal, I became a lifetime member. but didn't stick it out.
over the years I went up and down, and because of that yoyoing it knocked out my thryroid, so thats not the way to go..

Now I have 3 grandaughters and my oldest one 9 said Grandma your fat, omg a 9 yr old, but then again I was up again by 23 lbs, but I can't carry 23 extra, my clothes looked like crap and thats the way I felt.

Oct 3 2006 I went running back to WW with my two lil grandaughters in tow with me..

Its been a long 6 mo to get the weight back off again, this time I plan on keeping it off, I'm the type that needs to be accountable weekly, suiting up and showing up for a WW meeting and a weigh in...

Now my 9 yr old tells me Grandma your cool!! how about that, out of the mouth of a babe....

She has no clue what I was about in my teens and 20's running with Motorcyle people. thats another saga that I'll share some day...

Today no more motorcyles haha....

I just started gaining after high school when I blew out my knee playing basketball. I'd rehab and rehab, then injure it again. Finally, I had to have reconstructive knee surgery, and was on my butt for 8 weeks, followed by 7 weeks of rehab. The lack of playing basketball, w/out changing my eating habits started catching up to me. Next I went to Sinclair and ate between classes and sat and ate fast food and sat. I just continued to gain. After getting married I really became lazy and gained a lot. It wasn't until years later when I was 280 pounds and divorced (that's 100 pounds up from my days of playin ball) that I was lookin for old classmates and found Aimee's site. She helped me unofficially learn WW and I lost 50 pounds, but I fell off the wagon again and shot up to 358 pounds w/ a little yo yoing in between over the next few years.

The breaking point was when I got up early one morning in 2/07 and went upstairs and stepped on the scale. It read 358.8, and I was just amazed at how big I had gotten. I walked into my daughter's room to get her clothes for the day, and looked at her sleeping. I did the same w/ my son. I'm not ashamed to say that I got real emotional about the thought of not being the best parent I could be for them, or worse, not being here anymore for them.

That day I went to work and joined WW Online officially and bought the starter kit. Next I emailed Aimee, and we agreed at that time to help each other get through this thing and be an after story instead of, well, a story like this one. I'm down 13.3 pounds so far since mid February, and I'm addicted to being healthy for good this time.

Now, Tobe...you have to tell us if you were a "Motorcyle Mama"....don't leave us hanging>>>>>

Patty

Glad you are back on track, Ben. I know you and aimee can do it together....and make your goals...

Patty

I just couldn't take being heavy and unhealthy anymore. I wanted better for myself and for my family. I did WW back in 2001 and lost a little over 40 lbs but then I stopped going to the meetings, moved to another state, became quite depressed, gained most of it back, and then on top of that I got pregnant! I didn't gain much weight during the pregnancy but it was after the pregnancy when I was nursing that I just ate and ate and ate and ate and well, you get the picture!
Now, I eat healthy, my family eats healthy, I workout abut 5 days a week and I feel so much better about myself. I think it has helped me to be a better mom and wife which I just love.
My kids have said several times to me recently, Mom, you are so skinny. They are 7 and 10, and then I also have the lil' guy who is 2. That makes me feel so good. I don't want them to be known as the kids that have the fat mom.
At the beginning of the school year, the kids had an assembly for something at school. My oldest son came home and said mom, my friend at school thought you were my sister! I started laughing 'cause this friend has known me as long as he's known my son, but I had lost so much weight that he didn't recognize me. He told my son that he didn't know he had a sister! Wow did that make me feel good! I know from the glowing expression on my son's face that it made him feel good too and proud of me. I just want to be the best that I can be for my family and being heavy was definitely holding me back.

The reason I tried WW was b/c my co-worker was doing it also. I watched her drop weight & eating regular good foods. Thats when she convinced me in March '04 to join. I had previously done other diets...cabbage soup (yuk), atkins, etc..and when she told me about WW ..I figured I'd give it a shot. Well it worked & I loved it! I was on WW for a yr and became a workout QUEEN! The gym became my 2nd home. During that time, I was just friends w/my hubby, and we started dating, moving in, etc...and when my 1 yr anniversary came up on WW (march '05)..I would gain & lose..gain & lose. Then in April of '05 I found out I was 6 weeks preg! So that explained it. Had my daughter Nov. 30, 2005. I gained 40 lbs w/my pregnancy. I couldn't wait to get back on WW's after having her. So in Jan. '06 I tried doing it on my own..well that didn't last too long. I even had my hubby weigh me in every week (yes that was hard, letting him see what I weighed)..but that still wasn't enough motivation for me. I managed to lose 20 lbs last yr.
So...it took until March 28,2007 for me to go ahead & rejoin WW meetings. They keep me accountable..we spend $40 on other things every month, and I knew we could make the sacrifice for that..my health.
Just like Ben, I see my daughter, and I want to live a healthy life and want to be around for her, to show her how great of a mommy I can be!!

I know that by dropping the weight that I have already I feel better. I am not sweating or out of breath by going up stairs. I don't dread doing the laundry (I do ..but not for the same reasons lol).

I want to be an after story as well and from what I have learned that means that WW is something that is here for life! ;)

I finally got fed up with my excuses and got serious back in 2003. Lost 47 pounds and then became a back slider as alot of us have. The pounds started coming on, guess I thought I could go back to my old ways and still be thin. Then after I managed to gain it all back, felt sorry for myself for another year and finally pulled it somewhat together last summer to lose 27 pounds. I struggled from fall to currently trying to get it all together again, mind and body. Hopefully I'm on the right track again!

Well I think everyone here knows my story as to why I started WW the first time, then how I gained all of my weight back after my divorce. I'll share a part that only a couple of people know up until now. After I quit WW back in 2004 and I started gaining my weight back, I did try to get back on program a few times. I thought I could do it on my own. I was too embarrassed to go back to my WW class and let everyone see that I had gained my weight back. It was just too much pressure because I felt people expected me to be perfect since I had lost all that weight. Well, I'm not perfect, I'm just a normal person, struggling everyday just like everyone else. I felt desperate. I didn't want to be back to my highest weight, but that's exactly where I was heading and I couldn't gain control over it. Last Spring ('06) I decided to give Optifast a try. Yes, I'm aware that it was quite stupid of me since I know the only way to really get the weight off is through diet and exercise, but like I said, I was desperate. It was the worst 2 weeks of my life! I did manage to lose 8 pounds the first week and felt good about that, but I felt sick some days from lack of food (they had me on a 800 calories/5 shakes a day plan). That's all you got, nothing else other than water or crystal light and such. The worst part was the caffeine withdraw I went through. I just couldn't do it anymore. I thought I was going to lose my mind. I like food, I like the smell of it, the look of it, the taste of it, I like to cook it and I certainly like to eat it. I withdrew from the program. It was a very expensive lesson (over $1000 for the 2 weeks I did it). It was $1000 I really didn't have to be spending, but again like I said, I was desperate. A week later I was back to Weight Watchers, but I decided to go to a meeting where nobody knew me. I just couldn't get serious about it. I felt disconnected, like a traitor sitting amongst the worthy people. I started skipping classes to play golf and eventually it just got to where I didn't go back. I had been just gaining and losing the same 5 pounds or so anyway.
Then I thought I was serious about losing the weight again, and decided this time I would re-join WW, but instead of hiding in a meeting where nobody knew me, I'd go back to my old meeting and face the music. I thought perhaps the embarrassment would be enough to keep me on track. Instead, the embarrassment just made me feel like I was under a spot light during the whole meeting (I know it was all in my head. Even if people were talking about me, they weren't doing it to my face or where I could hear them or anything. They were supportive to my face). I wasn't really going to let it bother me though because I loved the leader and the people in the class. The last 2 weeks of December 2006, I had been really sick and missed those 2 classes. My leader emailed me and told me that she wanted to let me know that she quit while I was gone so I wouldn't have to find out when I went back in January. I was really heart broken by it because I really owed a lot of my motivation and success to her when I lost the weight he first time around. Even though I know ultimately it's up to me if I lose weight or not, I just felt like I was losing that extra little push to keep me going. When I went back to class, a new leader was standing in front of the class. She ran the class totally different from how my old leader ran it. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to continue going to the meeting. It was nothing against the new leader, she seemed nice enough, it was just that I had a meeting 5 minutes from my house that I could attend, but I chose to drive to this one which is 30 minutes from my house, and if I wasn't going to feel a connection or enjoy it, I might as well save my gas and time. I decided I'd give her a chance though for 2 weeks. If after 2 weeks I just didn't feel anything, then I was going to move on. Well, in the meantime, I got really sick again (actually I never had gotten better from when I was sick before Christmas, but I just kept getting worse and worse). I don't have health insurance, so I'm one of those people who try to treat myself no matter how bad something is. LOL! Well, it got pretty bad. One morning I woke up and couldn't get a full breath or stop coughing (I was pretty sure the coughing was going to kill me alone, either that, or I might cough up a lung). LOL! I broke down and went to the Dr. who patched me up with some good drugs. :) Anyway, sorry I'm getting off topic here. LOL!
I'll shorten this up a bit since it's getting long...
I was finally getting over being sick and feeling better when Ben emailed me out of the blue and told me that he had joined WW online. We started chatting on a daily basis about how our day went, what we ate, talked about recipes, and just gave each other support. It was enough to motivate me again and get me excited about cooking and working the program. So here I am now. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. LOL!

Same thing as most people... ok women... had a baby that I had gained 65 pounds with!!! He was early so I didn't gett to much bigger, he was ok thankfully for both of us so I didn't get too much larger! I have always loved food, an when I got together with my husband, we were some party animals, so everyone knows all the empty calories that go along with alcohol! I had been in a bad relationship and was down really slim, but when I got happy, I got chubby...ok fat! I had tried dang near everything else and could not shake those extra 65 pounds I have put on. So basically this was a last resort...It works, I have basically done ww in college my friend cooked good low fat food for me just did not count points and I had lost alot then. we just didn't know the program...hopefully i will be down another five star this evening!!!

My weight history

My weight history is the same as most except I was not a jock and I have never had a child. But I am addicted to food for comfort. I can go days on end without eating, but when something is upsetting or bothering me I eat like a horse and binge eat. Also I am addicted to sweets and chocolate.

In high school I weighed 120 lbs with a large chest! 34D
I was on drill team and loved to dance. I then went to college. I kept my wt off with an Atkins diet the first one. No citrus has aided my gum problems and my varicose veins.
In my last year of college I found WW where I had to eat bean sprouts with tomato sauce for spaghetti, liver once a week, sweet and root veggies no more than 3 times a week, three fats a day if I recall. We had an exchange list of foods. It taught me about proportions.
After loosing some wt I gained it back and then some with each diet. I then tried the grapefruit diet, the rice diets, the banana diets, the cabbage soup diets. None of course were healthy but all were depriving.

At about 24 yrs old and one year before I got married I joined OA a 12 step program. The diet was much like Atkins, but the spiritual aspect of the program was what I needed then and now. I left OA after the meeting place disbanded and I thought I could do it on my own. I was a size 10 when I got married with a 34 C.

After leaving OA and being married for about 2 yrs I found myself at 135 lbs and a 34DD
I stayed there a while then up to 145. Did I tell you that I am only 5 foot 1/2 inch tall? Still 34DD. I hid my wt well under my clothes and most people looked at my top rather than my tummy.

In my mi 30’s I gained about 5 more pounds and wt began to shift. I weighed the same but more fat or flab in the tummy and less work out or exercise because I did not dance much anymore.

Then I joined Jenny Craig and proceeded to loose lots of wt very fast and I had my gall bladder taken out. You may recall the Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig gall bladder problems and mass law suits. I was not part of the law suit because I never told my doctor that I was on Jenny Craig.

When I healed about 6 months later, I picked up three nights a week at a local club dancing to oldies. Loved it. Kept my wt from creeping up on me, but I was still overwt.

At 40 I went back to WW and found myself very angry and did not enjoy the meetings. I thought the weekly recipe cards were stupid. I felt that the best thing I ever did was OA. I left, but did not find OA.

At 42 and 155 lbs, I found hypnosis and self-hypnosis. It worked for a while as long as I could do the hypnosis. Hypnosis helped me to find breathing and relief of stress. In many ways it has helped, but not with wt and eating. OA teaches much about “easier softer ways not working”, but I had not hit bottom yet.

At 45 I found myself in a car accident, had to stop dancing, lost much of my hair salon clientele, because I could not stand much. I also found myself up at 165 pounds. Sleeping for long periods of time hurt my back too. I found myself up all night on the computer to avoid back pain of laying flat. The combination of lack of exercise, binge eating, depression, lack of sleep contributed to a wt gain that would soon take its toll on my health, but all I saw was an aging diva who got fat with old age! While my friends saw their friend letting her self go.

From 2003 until 2004 I put myself in charge of low fat cooking for my dad. He had a heart attack and I made all of his meals with slow cooker. He loved my yogurt cream pies. He died April 20, 2004. Then taking care of mom was not as easy since she is diabetic and I still cooked with and ate sugar. My wt creped up again. About 170.


At 50 April 1, 2005, April Fools Day I found out what a FOOL I had been for the last 40 year! I also found the scale to read 186 lbs! I had eating fat on the steaks, loads of chocolate candy and lots of butter on fresh Italian bread and lots of full fat dairy ice cream,cheese, eggs and bacon. I binged and turned to food for more comfort that I can measure. On this day my left leg became painfully enlarged; three times as big as my right leg. I could not move and I was out of breath! I, being in the health field, knew that it could be a clot. But I refused to go to ER. I treated it myself with Aspirin, Orange Juice a natural diuretic. Both I took to prevent the clot from getting bigger the whole time knowing that if it lodged in my head = stroke, in my heart= MI/heart attack, and in my lungs = pulmonary embolism. But it did not scare me enough to go to the hospital. OR shall I say I was so scared I was in denial that I refused to go to the hospital.

A week later I went to the doctor and tests showed my triglycerides were too high to read or off the charts. He put me on two drugs to lower my blood pressure. And told me to join a diet group like ‘ Jenny Craig’. I looked at him like he was nuts. He told me I was pre-diabetic or metabolic syndrome. I knew exactly what he was saying. I knew I was a walking ticking time bomb (and still am) for a stroke or heart attack.
I met with my sister who is three years older, and I reviewed her diabetic exchange list with her. I found it much like the original WW exchange list and so I tried it. But I found is very, very restrictive and I also only lost 2 pounds in 8 weeks of sticking to the diet.
I then knew that I had to surrender to the fact that the only health food plan is WW. A friend of mine had lost about 70 lbs a few years earlier when I got angry with a return. She suggested that we both return and for my health she would go with me. That was June 1, 2005. When I joined I could barely get out of the car due t exhaustion and huffing and puffing. I proceeded to loose 14 pounds right away. In Augusts, my TRGs were at 695, still very high, but readable. September to November I played with food and pounds. Then I returned to the doctor in November 2005 and he found a lower triglyceride at 495. My doctor told me not to come back until the first of the year late Jan or Feb. to call to make an appointment then. Boy did I give my self permission to clown around in 2006. I found myself not returning to the doctor’s and coming and going to WW meetings not taking it seriously. In October of 2006 I had another health scare with a lump under my right armpit. Not until December 2006 was I told that I was out of the woods and it was probably an infected lymph node. This time it was different. I felt different making the decisions and going back. No anger no fighting what I have to do. I finally hit bottom! I surrendered that I can not do this alone, I would need the help of a higher power and a support system. This time I knew I had to do something permanently! I had to make WW my life or I would not have a life to share with WW!

I had regained my wt except for 5 pounds so my start wt in January 2007 was 181.
I lost 11 pounds right away by end of February. I got a 10 lbs wt loss pin. I was on track, but the first week of March I got a respiratory flu that set me back for 30 days. I did not have much of an appetite and I did not over eat, just did not eat much at all. No wt loss for that month. The last week of March, I joined this site while being snickered at for asking about PB2 on the WW board. Just getting back to things my mother had a heart attack on April 27, 2007. While I did not binge, I did not track my foods. I also ate less fruits and veggies and overate on protein, and got less sleep. My portions were not measured. I yo-yoed these last 2 pounds over and over again the whole time eating my on program foods. My portions are nuts. The ONE thing that made a big difference was being on THIS site and posting WHEN EVER I COULD! In addition feeling responsible for a weekly thread. Aimee again thank you for that.


This is not a diet for me as I said two weeks ago, it is a LIFE-IT!

So that is how I got here.

I am sooooooooooooooo happy for the younger members 26 –39 yrs old who have a much better fighting chance with internet, networking, better food plan to stay on the food plan for life. I do hope that they too will learn from WW. Of course I would l
Love for each of them to make it for life. But the sad truth is some will have to go back out there to hit bottom.

I feel blessed to have found this site. I am blessed to have had Aimee suggest my weekly thread JeanCats Finds, which will now be called JeanCats Favorites. It gives me reason and purpose in addition to myself, to be here.

I am blessed that while most of you gave up on reading this, I was able to relive it all and recommit.

Thank you for starting this thread
Love you all,
JeanCat

I dont get a chance to get on a whole lot, but every time i do i check out this board, I love the support and encouragement. how do i get my picture posted and become one of the people who has their weight loss in the total? My story sounds like a mix of everyones, i have always been overweight and was never encouraged as a child, just harrassed. I have a dtr who is 8, and she is beautiful,but i see so much of me in her.I am a caterer and it is so hard with great food around all the time, but i decided that if i was not going to be concerned about myself , that i had to be a better example for her.I started WW in feb of last year at 318, with her in towe at 97, and i have lost 87 lbs. she has went up 1 pound in all that time, which i think is a miracle for an 8 year old girl. She can turn cartwheels and twirl baton and do things i never could do.that is my greatest accomplishment!i feel so much better and every one is amazed at the difference in me.i, like Brandi, would get out by myself and binge. i would go to 2 or 3 different drive throughs at a time, eating as hard as i could. and if i cheated on a diet for a minute, then i went crazy. WW helps me be accountable for my actions, i know every monday i have to own up to what ive eaten.

Welcome Cheryl

STick around with us theres a lot of great support and encouragement here..

Most of us are WW'ers, and yes we all have to be accountable weekly in a meeting.

If you noticed this site now has a chat room, and we're trying to get together to set a day and time for everyone to meet there, and talk about different hurdles we've encountered or will encounter.

A few are nearly goal and I myself am at goal and I'm also a life time member.. so I've been in and around WW for a very long long time, this time I'm in for keeps. no more yo yoing for me..

nice to see you here.

wow Cheryl 87 pounds is amazing! great job and your daughter maintaining is great too. Keep up the good work!

Wow to everyone! Thanks so much to everyone that has shared their story with their weight battle/s. It is encouraging to me to see how so many have fought the battle, like myself, more than once but you're not giving up!

I feel so blessed right now to have found this sight. This is a great group of people. How many places can you find people pouring out their hearts on weight battles?

Thanks again Aimee!