The Real Me

I don't really want my blog to be all about weight loss, but anyone who knows me has seen me struggle with my weight for a very long time. So, to be authentic and honest, I'm including two truly awful photos of me that are from very recent vacations (bottom- September 2008 at Cape Lookout, top- November 2008 in Dominica). This is why I use my cat Spider's photo for all of my avatars. A few of my friends know I started going back to Weight Watchers back in February, a place where I've known great success in the past. I'm making steady headway this time. My closet is full of clothes from sizes 12 to 24. Let's just say right now I am somewhere in between. My heaviest weight was 240, back in 2001. I've not gotten back up to that number again, but these photos show me pretty darned close to it. In 2003, I was wearing skinny size 12 jeans when I started dating James. And let's just say again, I'm nowhere near that size now but certainly aiming for it. James loves to take my picture, and being the size I am, of course I hate it. But I tolerate it because my husband does it out of his love for me. James struggles with his weight too, and this week we both vowed that once we get back from our vacation this month, we are going to make it a priority to start eating better (and less!) and start exercising more. We live in a beautiful neighborhood with little traffic, and I have more cookbooks than the local Barnes & Noble. We both know how to lose weight, so there are no excuses. I've watched James drop 40 pounds in just a few months simply by cutting out alcohol and meat. And I lost 80 pounds in one year by following Weight Watchers and walking 4 miles a day on my treadmill. So intellectually we both know we can do it. Putting it into practice is the true test. I don't plan to ignore this subject, so I will update whenever I have some positive words to post. I have weigh-in tomorrow morning, so I suppose this is why I am thinking about my weight tonight.