Finding the Skinny inside of me.

Me at my heaviest: 197.8

Have you ever seen that cartoon of a really large person with a really skinny person trying to bust out? That's how I have felt throughout my weight loss journey! Let me start with my story. I was never really overweight growing up, but as a teen I was always as the top of my weight limit for my height.I always stayed around 150-155 from the time I was in middle school.  I always would make the excuse that as long as I could still fit into a single digit size pair of pants that I would never worry about it. Shortly after graduating I went to England for four months. Everyone has heard rumors of food there being pretty awful, right? Well they weren't lying! I spent most of my four months eating bread and cheese and would throw in an English Pasty every now and then. Well everyone knows that carb overload leads to weight gain. After my four months in England, I came home at a whopping 165. You may be thinking that it doesn't sound bad, but if you look at weight and height, I was five pounds overweight. No big deal right? I mean, I wasn't obese so nothing to worry about! Six months after coming home from London, I married my amazing husband Philip! I don't know if anyone tells you this, but getting married adds about 10-15 pounds! I was now up to 175 but it still wasn't anything to worry about! I was still able to wear a size 10 in clothes which in juniors was a 9 so I was STILL, or so I thought, in the safe zone! Nine months after getting married, SURPRISE! We were pregnant! During my first 5 months of pregnancy I actually lost 10 pounds without the morning sickness! Of course I wasn't complaining but my doctor was. Shortly after that fifth month I had no problem gaining weight.....When I had Anna-Claire I was at 208. My wonderful husband had the audacity to make a comment about how I weighed more then he did while I was getting ready to deliver our first child! Anna-Claire was born weighing in at 8 lbs .5 oz and I left the hospital having lost only 13 pounds. That's not how it's supposed to go right? I mean you go in, have the baby and POOF you are skinny again! WRONG! I was able to get down to 178 without really trying somehow and then SURPRISE! We found out we were pregnant again 9 months later! Within the first week I gained 10 lbs. That's right, TEN POUNDS! Thankfully it slowed down and I went in weighing at 206 when I gave birth to Aubrey. Once again I left the hospital having dropped down to 190 and thrilled to have two sweet little girls. At my six week check up I weighed in around 184 which was below what I weighed in at my first appointment.I was thrilled! I thought the weight would just fall right off! Little did I know that I was a stress eater. As many know, Aubrey was a hard baby to handle. I fell into postpartum depression and gained back almost all of my weight. I didn't give myself anytime because I was constantly running from one doctors appointment to the next with Aubrey and making sure Anna-Claire received the attention she needed. When Aubrey was nearly a year everything with her health finally started calming down. One night in June I had my breaking point and poured my heart out to my  best friend about how horrible I felt in my own skin and how disgusted I was with myself. I had let myself go. I weighed in at 197;9 and was almost in a size 18. That same night I signed myself up for weight watchers and a week later walked into my first meeting with Aubrey in her carrier and Anna-Claire in tow! My starting weight with weight watchers was 192,8. I stuck with it until December 2010 when I had finally reached my goal size. Remember I said size not weight. I switched to weight watchers online and failed miserably. So I took a break from Weight Watchers and steadily started gaining the weight that I had worked hard at losing, back. Jump forwards to April 2012 and I rejoined weight watchers for the third time. In June I hit my goal weigh and then some! My original goal was 160 and then to 155. When I went to weigh in for the 155 weigh in I weighed 150.8! Then started my maintenance for 6 weeks. That was harder then losing weight! Skip forward to today and I just did my six week weigh-in and I am at 149.0 and wearing anywhere from a 4-8! It's amazing how far I have come! I have so much more confidence and I really feel good about myself! I am now a mom that I feel my girls will be proud to be seen with as they get older.  I bought a bikini this year for the first time in 7 years! And I just bought a whole new wardrobe and just feel amazing!  I am getting ready to start working for weight watchers and can not wait to see how God uses me to help other women., and men, achieve their goals! Whew, that was long! Sorry it is all together and if you made it through give yourself a pat on the back! English is not my strong area! Please pray for me as I start this new journey as a Lifetime Member with weight watchers and start working for them. I will update this blog as much as I can! I am planning on adding an updated picture of myself as soon as I can! I love getting my picture taken now! ;)