Our Back Story

Yep, this was me back in 2008 and Dwayne dancing with our niece at her wedding in 2010. I was the biggest I have EVER been and I felt horrible. Dwayne was pushing close to 300 pounds. Back in 2000 or so, I was diagnosed with Fatty Liver disease and was told that I had to lose weight. Losing the weight would cause the fat deposits that were forming in my liver to reverse and go away. So, at that time, we started on what seemed like our never-ending weight loss journey. Growing up, I never had to deal with my weight. All through high school I was extremely skinny and was perceived as being under weight. I was always skinny. Not an ounce of fat was on me. Ever. Dwayne on the other had was somewhat the opposite. He has struggled with his weight since early in life, but was never to the point of obesity until after we graduated college. I have always loved food, as you can probably tell, but it wasn't until after my first year of college that it all started to catch up with me. I just tagged it as the "Freshman Fifteen", but then noticed that after each year, I was just tacking on more and more weight and not losing it. I always kid Dwayne and tell him that I didn't start gaining until I met him because he taught me how to eat. So, after we graduated and moved into "the real world" of work, it all spiraled out of control. It was by chance that my Fatty Liver was discovered. I had gone to the doctor for a yearly check up and found that my liver enzymes were slightly elevated. After blood work and ultrasounds, I was finally diagnosed. At that time, I was 180 pounds. We knew we had to do something and hence, Weight Watchers came into the picture. We both worked together to lose weight. He lost over 50 pounds and I lost 30. During that time, we were trying to get pregnant (That is a testimony all in itself.). As we were working to lose weight, we discovered that our first baby was on the way so we stopped dieting. During my pregnancy, I gained all 30 pounds back and Dwayne, having sympathy cravings, gained his back as well. Ten months after Kiersten was born, we ended up getting pregnant with baby #2. I did pretty well with keeping the weight off after this pregnancy until I quit nursing my son at four months old. At that point, it all ballooned into a big FAT mess. Hence, the picture at the top. I blamed the birth control and the hormones that it was putting into my body. It made me feel exhausted, drained, fat, unattractive....and the list goes on. But, when I look back, I realize NOW that, yes, some of it may have been the medicine, but a majority of it was the poor eating habits that had spiraled out of control, Dr. Pepper, cake, chocolate, pasta, bread... every day, several times a day. This picture at the top of this post was four years after Hayden was born. I was 196 pounds. I cringed at the thought of reaching 200 and that alone is what started me back on the path of undoing the mess that I had gotten myself into. Up until about three years ago, we went to gyms, worked out, lost here and there, but never seemed to gain total control over our weight. I had lost down to 160 pounds and Dwayne had lost over 20 pounds, but then our focus shifted from us to our kids' sports and we stopped dead in our tracks on our weight loss journey. I ended up gaining back up to around 170 pounds and then a year a half ago, I lost my job. I was miserable, depressed, worried, sick, and wanted to eat ALL OF THE TIME. It was my safehaven. Before I knew it, I was back up to 180 and climbing. I loved my temporary position that I had last year, but the suspense of not knowing was killing me. I continued to gain. Then, in June of this year, the nightmare was officially over. I was offered a permanent position and I saw my real self begin to emerge again. In July, we both had had enough. On a whim (after trip to the beach and feeling REALLY fat), we decided to get rid of the old baggage, and do a total and complete LIFE CHANGE. And it has been just that. We have learned that through the years we have done it all wrong. Yes, exercise is important, but we never changed our eating habits. We hadn't bought into the entire package. Even on Weight Watchers, we were always hungry and understand now that we were eating the wrong foods. Until you are willing to change everything about what you put into your body, you will not be 100% successful in your weight loss journey. You may lose weight, but as you can see in our story, it won't stay off. The key is LIFE CHANGE!