Then & Now

Last night, after a long discussion with one of my best friends, Jamie, I calmed down a bit about the mysterious, and completely unwelcome, 5 pounds. See, Jamie is my personal fitness and nutrition guru. She's the one I go to when I have questions about working out and losing weight- she knows everything! She promised (right, Jamie?) that next week I'll start to see the scale move...in the downward direction. I certainly hope so or I am going to have a come apart. A big one.

As I was getting ready for bed, my gaze fell to a picture frame with a picture of the two of us (Jamie and I) taken as we were setting up the reception site the morning of her wedding. That picture represents the heaviest I have ever been. I look back at the pictures of the wedding now and can't believe I let myself get that heavy.

In fall of 2003, a year after Jamie's wedding, I started on a true weight-loss journey. Almost a year later, in August of 2004, I had lost 70 pounds. Then a bunch of stuff happened, including getting laid-off from my job of nine years and starting a new career, that led me astray. I gained back 25 pounds from 2005-2007.

Then, in October of 2007, I started the cookie diet. All was right in the world as I lost 15 pounds in three weeks. But it made me sick and I wanted desperately to eat real food. So I did. And gained back 10 of the 15 lost.

That brings me to today. I'm far from being the heaviest I've ever been but I want to lose all this extra weight. Again. For good this time. I've done it before. I gave up fast food and ate at home. I worked out. I had a healthy body and a healthy attitude. I need to realize that the weight didn't go on overnight and it's not going to come off that way, either. I need to harness the strength and pride I feel when I'm at the gym, sweating my butt off on an elliptical or pushing through one more set of weights.

To motivate myself, and alleviate the sting of that stubborn 5 pounds, I'm posting before and after pictures. They may not be significant to anyone but me, but I notice the difference and that's all that matters.

October 2002

April 2008