So I wanted to start a blog with recipes I like to make.  You start to think about having those things for the future after you have suffered a loss.  There are plenty of things my Mom used to make that are gone forever now that she has passed.

Most of the recipes will be healthy and Weight Watcher friendly since that has been a common theme in my life.  The picture at the top, well as you can tell by the Brenda 90210 hair it’s from about 1992 I’d say and I thought I was positively obese.

To be that “fat” now, eh?

I was definitely a normal weight but sure as hell didn’t think I was.  Throughout my 20’s I would fluctuate between this and a bit smaller – I had a job that had me on my feet all day and working hard so I basically just didn’t eat a ding dong with my lunch and I’d lose weight.

Then I hit 30, graduated from college, and also got a desk job.  This is not a good combination when you are used to basically working out all day.  It was like pulling the rip cord out of a raft.  In two years time I probably gained 80 pounds if I were to guess.

The problem was I had never learned about nutrition.  Oh yes, back in my “obese” 20’s I tried all kinds of things – slim fast, that crazy Susan “Stop the Insanity” person, some freakin’ pills that made my heart race from Herbalife…They never lasted long and truth be told I didn’t need to do any of them.

I was healthy until I started messing around with all of that.  Vegetables are my favorite food.  I love healthy food.  Even though I had tried all kinds of diets I had no idea how to have a safe, sustainable, healthy weight loss.  When the weight packed on doing those crazy things like the hot dog diet (it should be made illegal) just messed me up more.

I joined Weight Watchers for the first time when I was 32 years old.  I did really well, until I didn’t.  It was far healthier than anything I had ever tried before, but you could still eat a bunch of junk and lose weight without making good choices.

That will only get you so far and I hit a wall.  I was hungry because of my choices and fell off the wagon.  I ended up quitting and gaining the weight back.  At 34 I realized that I was about to gain ALL of it back so I rejoined.

This time was much different.  The program had changed, as it does every once in awhile, and they had a new program called “CORE”.  It focused on healthy non-processed food and you didn’t have to count points.

I lost almost 70 pounds that time, 35 with the points system and 35 with Core.  It really changed the way I ate.  When I fell off the wagon again, this time I didn’t immediately start gaining.  My relationship with food had changed, and changed for the better.

So I finally rejoined again after seeing this picture:

We all have that one picture, right? The one that when we left the house we thought we looked super cute and then you see a picture?  Wake up call!

So I’m back and I’m on Smart Points.  I hadn’t gained all my weight back from before, and I’ve lost 34 pounds and counting this time around.  What I had to finally admit to myself is that I need help with my relationship with food.  I have to go stand on a scale in front of a stranger.  Period.

*UPDATE*

So I’ve reached my goal and have been maintaining a healthy weight for 5 months!  I lost 65 pounds (give or take a few) total and am five pounds under my goal weight 🙂