Sandy's Story

I have been overweight for as long as I can remember. I know a lot of people who were of normal weight at one point in their life until one day they started gaining weight and ended up fat after several years. I think of those people as lucky.

Maybe not lucky they gained weight, but lucky because even though they are overweight now, at least they know what it's like to be thin. I have never been thin or even close to a normal weight. I remember I was 12 when my Grandfather died. The family was all together and of course people you haven't seen for ages. There were so many comments about my weight that I remember that more than I do the funeral. I weighed in at almost 200 pounds.

The funny (not ha ha funny) thing about the weight gain through the years is that MOST of the time I was trying to lose weight. I even had a surgery to make me lose weight many years ago. I lost 65 pounds, gobs of hair and my gall bladder. Then I gained it all back, PLUS. Why? Because the staple line broke lose. All that pain and agony for nothing. I still regret it to this day.

So here I sat at around 400 pounds. Miserable, sick, sad and wanting to try again. I went on a low fat diet because I heard it was the way to go. I ate low fat everything. Even low fat cakes and candy and ice cream. Did I lose weight? Yes. It took me 5 months and I lost 20 pounds. But as you may know, 20 pounds on a 400 pound woman isn't like 20 pounds on a 200 pound woman. A 200 pound woman loses 20 pounds and it makes a BIG difference. She weighs 180 pounds! A 400 pound person loses 20 pounds and she still weighs 380 pounds. (Although losing 20 pounds is wonderful!) It was just a drop in the bucket. I was discouraged and tired of the game. I was taking too long! To ease my boredom I bought my trusty little webtv. I loved it! I started looking up lots of things about losing weight on the web. I read a lot of different things. I wanted to do this right. I found my support news group (love ya'll!!!) and they encouraged me to go to the doctor and start all over again. I did just that. I took all the info in my pea-pickin' brain and put it to use.

1.) I ate low fat. 10g - 20g of fat a day or less.

2.) I cut out the sugar. No soda. No fat free cake or ice cream. NO SUGAR. It about killed me but I wanted to see what would happen.

3.) I walked. I about died at first trying to breathe. I didn't think I could do 15 minutes. But I did 30 minutes 3 times to 5 times a week. Torture, thy name is treadmill.

4.) I drank the (arrgh) water. I HATE TO DRINK WATER! Unless I'm way, way thirsty I would rather have ice tea. But no, I drank the dog-gone water.

5.) I ate three times a day. They say not to skip a meal. I ALWAYS skipped meals. So I did it their way. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. I figured the FEWER meals I ate the faster I would lose. (not true) But I ate the 3 squares anyway.

6.) I cut way down on the red meats and did lots of fish and chicken cooked different ways. Don't get me wrong. I still had hot dogs and bologna and cheese and chili and spaghetti and.... well you get the picture. I just made sure they were fat free or VERY low fat.

7.) Calories. I read in a bald chicks diet book that you could eat 4,000 calories a day as long as they are fat free calories and you exercised. Umm. Let me save you the trouble. She's freakn' crazy. Never trust a woman who shaves her head for the fun of it. Anyway, I tried not to go below 1,200 calories because if you do you body will say, "AHHHHH! This chick / dude is trying to kill me by starvation! Hang in there fat cells! Don't lose weight!" Your metabolism will drop to a low and stay there. Then when you eat normally you will gain weight. Fast! I also tried not to go over 1,400 calories. I wanted to lose fast but in a healthy way.

So. What were the results of this new, healthy way of eating? I lost 50 pounds in three months. 50 pounds!!! THREE MONTHS! All in all I went from a woman who weighed in at 400 pounds at her top weight to a woman who dropped down a lot closer to 300!

I was having a blast. I started to change in my looks a little and I was starting to get into clothes I hadn't worn for years. I wanted extra support so I joined my local TOPS chapter. ( That stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly ) But something was wrong. I was getting sick. I started getting exhausted and all I wanted to do was sleep. I was losing extreme amounts of blood and became anemic. I couldn't exercise anymore. I was so sick and tired I couldn't even fix dinner half the time so ordering out became a habit. The weight loss slowed and then stopped. I put my TOPS membership on hold and stopped talking to my Discssion Group friends. I could no longer go to the gym. The doctor said maybe cancer. Surgery was needed. Weight loss was the last thing on my mind at that point. To make a long story short, the mass they removed was NOT cancer. (thank God) But I still have some problems (please see my PCOS page. The link to it is on the main home page. Please!) So the story goes on. But now I'm feeling better and the scare made me want to take better care of myself. So here I am again! I joined my NG again and joined TOPS also. I will get another gym membership soon. I am on my way again with only a small gain for the 8 months I have been away from TOPS.

Keep up with my story as I journal every week or two or three, about the journey to lose weight I am still trying to travel.

Please visit Sandy's weight loss diary for more of her writings. {text}