So....a little about me....well.....I'm 36 yrs old, live in the Dallas Texas area. Married to Brian and between us we have a daughter (21) and two sons (19 and 17).
ALL MY LIFE, my weight has fluctuated. I an remember a picture of me from when I was four years old, I'm standing next to my dad in my aunt's front yard. He is kneeling down to get to my level (he is 6'0") and I'm standing there with a very tight halter top with matching shorts that are OBVIOUSLY too small. My belly is protruding out between the shirt and shorts and I have a half eaten back of M&M's in my hand. In grade school, I was over weight. Given the nick-name of "NO KNEES" by my parents because there was no defining line to where my calf, knee and top part of leg were...they just kind of all ran together. Overweight to the point that the doctor made my mother put me on a diet the summer between my 4th and 5th grade school years. His goal was for me to lose at least 20lbs in the three summer months. My mother made me exercise in the living room in front of her and my dad six days a week. Jumping jacks, running in place, sit ups, etc. The end result...I lost 30lbs in three months. The loss made such a dramatic difference in my appearance, I was thought initially to be a newly transferred student to a school that I had been going to for years.
In junior high school and senior high school my weight went up and down....low enough to wear a bikini, high enough to want to hide every bit of skin. Did it affect my 'boyfriend' situation, no....I had the same boyfriend from 8th grade all the way through my senior year. When I was "skinny" I was very active in working out at the gym where my parents bought a family pass for all of us...but I'm pretty much the one that stuck with it. My main focus though was my legs....NO KNEES haunted me so much...the leg press, calf raises, the stairmaster and the bike became my best friends. The ones I could depend on...always pushing me....always there for me...and drying my tears when I was mad at the ones who labeled me. The pavement became my escape...running sometimes 5 or 7 miles a day...I was able to release all my frustration and not worry about what someone else thought. Finally DEFINITION! I began to receive many compliments on my legs....VERY TONED, VERY DEFINED AND VERY, VERY STRONG. My boyfriend hated it because I was beginning to be more toned and defined that he was...and he was a football player. Was I "skinny"? Yes....not model size two thin...but I was a size 5/7/9......but because of all the heavier than most weight lifting I was doing...I was carrying my 5'4" frame around in a 160lb package.
Fast forward a little.....young marriage (18), young pregnancy (19), young divorce (24), single mom (little income) life....all over an 7 yr period...I ended up gaining 129 lbs over those years....topping out at 289.9 lbs. While being a single mom I had jumped on the Sugar Buster band wagon and cut out all the 'bad carbs'. It worked too. I added Debbie Siebers Slim In 6 program and in a two month period, I had lost down to 249 with diet/exercise. In 2004 I met a wonderful man who loved me no matter what size I was. We married in 2006. And he has been my ROCK ever since. I decided to join Weight Watchers (WW) in September 2009. For Mother's Day in 2010, Brian bought me a treadmill and I slowly begin walking, then running again. I had built myself up to running 20-30 minutes at a time without stopping. I was on cloud nine. That same awesome feeling came flooding back into me from when i was lifting in high school. ACCOMPLISHMENT. By August 2010 I lost down to 207. Then, in November 2010 the program changed and I hit the dreaded plateau. I stayed the same weight for MONTHS. The scale didn't move even 1/2 a lb at my weekly weigh in's. My leader was at a loss. She was reviewing my trackers, having me change up my exercise....NOTHING. I changed everything I and my leader could think of. I poured over the WW blogs for any information. Nothing worked. Around March of 2011, I started having problems with my treadmill. Over a two month period, it was broken 5 weeks. Then the gaining started. Gain two lbs, lose one. Gain 3 lbs, lose 1/2 a lb. Gain 1 lb, lose .2 lb. Not long afterwards, I was promoted at work which called for a transfer to Texas (from IL). With all the commotion that comes with moving and phasing out of my region, learning information for my new role and training the new manager taking over my region, taking care of "me" was not #1 on my list. By the time we arrived in Texas (Aug 2011) I was back up to 217 lbs. Trying to find my place in Texas, going through two different leaders at WW, learning 30 new employees, getting my then 16 yr old son grounded in a school that had more students in it than our whole entire town did in IL took even more of a toll on me. My weight crept back up to 235 lbs. And NO KNEES had reared it's ugly head.
Since January, I've found out that I have an underactive Thyroid. For the past six months I have been working with my Endo on getting my medications correct. Also I have discovered I am lactose intollerant. I have pretty much dropped all dairy (except for lactose free fat free milk in my coffee or oatmeal). Which perturbs me to no end as I LOVE LOVE LOVE Fage! When I do indulge in dairy...OUCH!!!
In June 2012, for Father's Day, Brian decided to give himself a the gift of a gym membership. Little did he know...he was gifting me too! I joined him at the gym one week after he joined and today, I am down to 222. Is NO KNEES still hanging around? As I am writing this, I have looked down several times to curse their existence. Is there muscle there? Most definitely! I have done Vicki's Incline Treadmill challange several times since joining the TF page and WOW does it make a difference. I have also become ADDICTED to spin class. Most morning's I'm up between 4-5:00 a.m. working out at home (Treadmill, P90X or TurboFire) and in the evenings, I'm at the gym...6-7 days a week. My body has changed more and more in the past few months. Oddly enough, I've shopped at the "other end" of my closet recently. Clothes that I as wearing at 207. Surely at 222 they shouldn't fit...but they do. Its yummy muscle!!! Occassionally that most sought after compliment about my legs will come..........AND IT MAKES MY DAY!
I have FIVE 5K's coming up between September and Thanksgiving Day, including the Dirty Girl Mud Run. I'm still a member of WW. Nope...I do not count points anymore. Let's face it, where else can you get weekly face to face 'therapy sessions' for $40 a month. And if you need it, you can go 7 days a week. :-) Seriously though I do love the friendships I have formed as well. It is with one of my WW friends that I am doing all these 5K's with.
Going forward I need to mentally let go of NO KNEES for good. I plan on continuing to eat as clean as possible. I want to focus more on lifting again. Who knows...maybe one day far off...even compete...in something....
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