My Goals & Weight History...

Diet Start Date: June 10th, 2011

Starting weight: Perhaps I will admit it at some point in this blog, but for now... NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS :-P

Goal: drop at least 30 pounds by November for a trip to Cincinnati

Weight Loss History:

At my heaviest, I weighed 515lbs. Yes, I know... shocking. In 2002 I had a full gastric bypass. None of that wimpy lap band, tiny incision operation. I was cut from bra line to bellybutton. 56 staples later, I had a teeny tiny stomach and the horrible urge to eat. Thinking back, I would say I was not entirely mentally ready for the surgery. I should have been more prepared to not be able to eat what I wanted. 

After about 3 years, I was down to about 265, had a tummy tuck, and had excess skin removed from my arms. Man oh man, I was SO EXCITED. I kept it all off through extremely rough times in my life... the death of my sons father, the ensuing punishment for whatever reasons I could come up with, drugs, alcohol.. I kept it all off. Till the day came when I realized I had found a man who would love me and my son no matter what. Yep, I wanted to spend ALL my time with them so I stopped going to the gym 3-4 times a week, started eating out at nice restaurants (Italian ones, at that.. delicious but not that healthy), began eating fast food (something I gave up for over a year), and eased back into my sedentary life. 

I have been with my husband for 4 years now and I have put on about 50-60lbs. It wasn't all love I guess. I went through surgery that kept me from being even a little active, depression, stress of planning a wedding, etc. etc. etc. Despite it all, my husband is still constantly trying to get me into the sack, kissing on me and well... loving me as much (if not more) now as he did back then.

We were married March 12 of this year and every day that passed before that I feared I wouldn't fit into my wedding dress. After seeing my wedding pictures (i did look fabulous, weight or not), I wasn't the sized I wanted to be on that special day. After spending time in a wheelchair after an accident and knee surgery, I had put on about 15lbs in 3 months. I think that was the final straw...

And so begins my attempt at getting back to my happy weight of 265lbs. That doesn't sound like a weight many people would be happy at but I am 5'10 and large framed... no way am I going to get down to 175 like the doctors say I should. I don't think people would like to see a skeleton walking around.

I don't even remember how I heard about the Dukan Diet. I must have been browsing the internet of something. I downloaded the Dukan Diet book, was skeptical the first 20-30 pages but as it got into the real "how-to's" of the diet I thought "this is doable". So, after a few days of reading the book, wrestling with my compulsion to eat sweets on a regular basis, I decided I would bite the bullet and get myself moving...

So here we go... day 1 has already been written...