What is your secret?...I have heard this question several times since I started on my weight loss journey.  It's kind of a tricky question, considering the fact that I don't really have a big secret.  My diet secret is the same thing that has been taught for years - hard work, discipline, keeping track of everything you eat, and good old fashioned exercise.  I hope this does not cause you to stop reading.   I understand where they are coming from when they ask the question, because I know that in the past I was always looking for the big secret, the one that would cause me to lose large amounts of weight in a very short period of time.  I have discovered that for the majority of us that this is just not reality, as much as I wish it was.

I started losing weight on May 10th of 2013.  I say started, but if you know me at all you know that I have been on many diets in my lifetime.  I was a very skinny child growing up, but when I hit the age of 15 everything changed.  I started putting on weight, and thus began the eternal yo-yo dieting.  I think I have read about every diet that has come into existence, and have tried quite a few of them, but I never stuck to any diet for more than a few months.  I am not sure what made this time different.  I think I just got scared enough that it was do or die...literally.  I went to the doctor early in 2013, and had my blood work done.  When the doctor called to give me my results, he proceeded to go down a very long list of all the many, many things that were wrong with me.  I was shocked and overwhelmed.  I knew that the majority, if not all of my problems, came from my weight.  I didn't know how much I weighed, because the doctor didn't have a scale that would weigh me...scary.  One Saturday morning I woke up, and impulsively decided to go to a Weight Watchers meeting.  When I walked into the meeting and stepped on the scale I received my biggest wake up call.  The scale read 379.4...What????...I couldn't believe that I was almost 400 pounds.  I sat down in the chairs for the meeting, and tried my very best not to burst into tears.  The leader was speaking and the room would occasionally fill with laughter because of something our leader had said, and I kept repeating to myself, "don't cry, don't cry."  It would look really crazy if I burst into hysterical sobs when everyone else is laughing and having a good time.  I successfully made it through the meeting, but there was no turning back from that point.  I attended the meetings for six months, and then switched to weight watchers online for the next six months.  The meetings really helped me to become established, but after a while the lessons were being repeated, and I felt like I could do it on my own.  After the first year I dropped my Weight Watchers membership, and started using the Fitness Pal app on my phone, and that is what I am still using today
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My weight loss has been very slow, but I am still plugging away.  I have lost 94 pounds so far, I currently weigh 285 lbs.  It will be two years on May 10th.  I honestly have started this blog to help myself.  I have become bored the past few months, and it has been difficult to keep up the fight, but I am determined to keep going.  I figure that by writing this blog I will be kept accountable.  I pray that along the way I am able to help others, and give encouragement where needed.  My goal weight is 175 lbs, so I still have a long way to go.  I have discovered that my weight will eventually come off, and I will eventually reach my goal weight.  The amount of time that it takes is not important, because the good eating habits that I have learned, and continue to learn, will be with me the rest of my life.  I have lots that I can share, but I will save it for later posts.


This is me before I started losing weight in December 2012

                                 

This is me now