[spaypets]

Greetings!
While I haven't always been medically overweight, I had been unfashionably overweight all my life. I gained weight in college, lost it after (unemployment will do that to you), gained it back after getting a job with irregular hours and getting married. Oh, and I have always been a total couch potato, so I wasn't getting any exercise.

In 2000 I was 35, 20 lbs above the _high_ end of my healthy weight range, in such bad shape that running from one airport gate to another would leave me winded. We bought a treadmill, set it up in the basement and I spent a year walking on it--I stopped gaining weight but didn't lose any. In March of 2001, we stayed in Bermuda at a hotel with a meal plan (you prepaid for the meals, so you felt obligated to order an appetizer and dessert because you already bought them). I came home feeling like the Michelein man. I went on Slim Fast and was STARVING when my SIL said that she had joined Weight Watchers, had already lost 8 lbs in a month and wasn't hungry at all.

I joined, even though I had an "eating event" coming up, lost about 1.5-2 lbs a week and by July had reached my initial goal to lose 20 lbs and had made lifetime. I continued losing until I lost 35 lbs. I went from a size 14 to a 4 (I'm 5'2"). Even though I've put on a few pounds lately, I'm still fitting in most of my size 4's and I know how to get back on track. I'm still below my goal but higher than I like or should be. I need to get back on the program.

And that's what I'm doing. I'm tracking my points (basically keeping track of what I'm eating every day). I am planning my meals because when you fail to plan you plan to fail. It's day 2, tomorrow I weigh in for the month. I hope to lose 5 lbs by Valentines Day, though since I'm still at a healthy weight, it might be slow going to take off the pounds.

I'll know for sure how much I really need to lose when I weight in -- somewhere between 5-10 lbs. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but if I don't fix it now, I'm going to be a size 14+ again.