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Throughout my childhood I was a very small girl. I was always both very short and very slender. Even at age 14 I was only 4'11" and 90 lbs. This all changed when I hit a growth spurt in high school. I maintained my slim body build but actually grew to be relatively tall. At age 16 I was 5'7 and between 105-110 pounds. I actually didn't like my slender build. I felt like I was "too" skinny. Now I wish I had just enjoyed it while it lasted! At any rate at age 16 I was involved in a major car accident, as a result of which I was hospitalized for months and in a coma for almost a month of that. This was obviously a pivotal turning point in my life, thus far, but since that is not the focus of this blog it is only being mentioned as a foot note, in relation to my weight. Upon my release from the hospital I weighed 92 pounds. Within a couple of months after my release I gained to a "whopping" 125. Medical experts say that physically traumatic occurences change your life, in a medical sense, and while it changed my life in other ways than this, it certainly slowed my metabolism down. As I ventured into my 20's and entered motherhood my eating habits changed. Meals often became mostly about convenience. Foods like pizza, french fries, and chicken nuggets became household staples. At any rate at age 24, in fall of 2008, I weighed 145 lbs. I was very happy with this weight, and I still feel that somewhere close to that is probably ideal.

One day in November of 2008 I stepped on the scale to see 145. Four days later I stepped on the scale to a shock of 154 pounds. My jaw dropped, but of course the following day I took a pregnancy test and understood my reason for sudden weight gain. My weight gain was constant and consistent (though it was more than books said I should have been gaining) throughout my pregnancy, until it took a sudden 13 pound leap during my last week. My son was born on 7-11-09 and on that day I weighed 213 lbs. I quickly lost the bulk of my weight with little effort, on my part. It was water weight, so within a couple of months I was down to 165. Now, at 26 years old, I have not lost any more weight than that.

I get discouraged about my weight. Sometimes I don't think 165 is really that bad, and then I get reminded of how heavy that is when someone points at my belly and asks how far along I am. I'm not used to being heavy and I think that's why it's taken me this long to realize that I am. I am bound and determined to change this!