148 Pounds: An Introduction to My Weight Loss Journey

I've been substantially overweight my entire life, but I wasn't considered morbidly obese until after my pregnancy ten years ago. While I was pregnant, I gained close to 80 pounds, but it didn't come off after I delivered my daughter Katherine back in 1998. Even prior to that I had attempted to lose weight through various diets, but the results didn't last long.

Let's skip all the boring details and fast forward to the end of January of 2007. It wasn't until the day that the scale read 298 pounds that I realized I desperately needed to lose weight. Not only that, but everything I ate made me sick. It had been going on for the past couple of months, but I didn't really take notice until I saw that number on the scale.

It was that day when my attitude towards food switched. I went from binging on sweets and foods that were high in fat to desperately searching for another more healthy way to start shedding the extra 148 pounds of fat that had been living in my body for a good part of the past decade.

I started with ediets.com. Browsing through their various eating plans helped educate me on what I should be eating. While I didn't commit myself to their strict diet, I did use it as a basis for creating my own unique eating plan that I could both afford and stick to over an extended period of time.

The first week I lost around 10 pounds, which is typical for any diet due to a loss of water weight.

Also, in addition to the change in my eating habits, I started following a pilates workout routine at least three times a week. However, for some reason, I couldn't stick to that exercise routine for long. I got bored and spent a couple of weeks searching for another way that I knew I could commit myself to.

I had contemplated joining the local gym, but I was cautious. When I finally talked myself into going, it took 10 minutes of arguing with myself before I had the courage to actually go in. I did and ended up joining. This was in my second month, after I had lost a little less than 25 pounds.

I am now in my third month and after starting on a liberal workout schedule and adjusting my food plan, I have lost 31 pounds. Right now I'm at the point where it's getting harder to lose as much weight. I've been lazy with some things, such as drinking a lot of water, so I'm realizing how important those things are in order to promote fat loss.

I'm going to keep at it. I refuse to go back to what I was. My goal is to be at my ideal weight by this time next year by focusing on the smaller goals along the way in order to keep myself motivated.