More than you wanted to know

Happy 2008! Things have been non-stop since Christmas and this weekend was a catch-up on housework, getting down the decorations, and just being a family. The kids were banned from TV yesterday until they cleaned their rooms. Rooms were clean by suppertime tonight. Most of the time, they just looked at their rooms. The rooms were not that bad, but the kids were that lazy!

Well, I am going to address my weight goals for the year. My weight has always been an issue for me, on both ends of the spectrum. I was born a stick with pipe cleaners for arms and legs and stayed that way most of my life. As a very young child, my doctor told my mom to let me eat whenever and whatever I wanted, but to cut food off before mealtimes so I would eat meals. I had to have my jeans (Super Denims, from Penney's...way cool) ordered unhemmed so they would be long enough. I wore 6X jeans until I was way to old to be wearing 6X. My ballet clothes had to be special ordered. Kids called me bird legs. You get the idea. I am sure bad habits were formed during my childhood. My mom would buy whatever I asked for for breakfast just to get the calories in me. I would have a HUGE bowl of ice cream everyday after school. Then right before bed, I would have one of 3 things...another bowl of ice cream, a coke float, or a bowl of popcorn.

My teen years were OK. It was OK to be skinny and girls would envy you if you were skinny, but there were always rumors of eating disorders. I started doing exercises to "bulk up" in the 10th grade and I did get up to 100 pounds. Then I got sick in
11th grade, terrible mono, and lost 15 pounds. I was out of school a long time and I remember my homeroom just gasping when I walked in the room for the first time in weeks. Then, my senior year, I got a job at what is now TCBY. I put on 8 pounds in year and it was great! I felt great and it was so easy to buy clothes.

College was fine...if I did gain weight, I could exercise for a week and it would be gone. Spring Sing was my plan for getting into shape for summer.

After marriage, I gained little weight. I thought it was tons, but it really wasn't. I got pregnant in 2000 and apparently had a little hungry man inside me that wanted to eat 24/7. I would get up in the night to go to the bathroom and I couldn't go back to sleep until I ate. I ate ALL THE TIME. And I gained 45 pounds. Most of it, all but 8 pounds, came off pretty easily with a little exercise. (By the way, I HATE exercise)

In November of 2001, I had surgery to burn off some endometreosis. There was just too much and I had to do 6 months of injections to get rid of the rest. I was in menopause and I gained so much weight. It was horrible. Right after the shots were over, I got pregnant with Reese. Something was just wrong with the whole thing and I put on 10 pounds in a month and was very bloated and just odd-looking. After the miscarriage, I tried very hard, the hardest I had ever tried to lose weight. I lost a couple of pounds, but then got pregnant with Emily. I was so, so sick and couldn't gain an ounce. I had to eat as many calories as possible a day, Doctor's orders! It was quite nice, but I was already 20 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant with Tyler. I just threw the whole thing to the wind and let very few picures be taken of me during the 9 months. After EK was born, I was so ready to lose the weight. I did the Dr. Phil diet and exercised as much as I could. I lost 20+ pounds. It was wonderful. I let up on the diet and exercising, since I am not a fan anyway, and of all things, the weight just kept falling off. I was back where I started this whole journey...not able to find clothes to fit and being made fun of. Not what I had planned. I had a good year of being lazy and enjoying the weight loss before gaining again. And I am back at the point that I was after I had Emily. Not fat, just uncomfortable in my skin. I know I am going to change as I age. It is heredity. My great-grandmother was named Big Mama, for heaven's sake. I need to do this, though. I need to exercise regularly and I need to eat better. My goal is to lose 8 pounds by March 1. I want people to ask me about it, to keep me on my toes. I want to keep it off this time. I KNOW it is going to be so hard, especially with my total love of food. But, I have to do this.

Next post: My high cholesterol...what is the deal??? Promising to be just a thrilling a post as this one!