Getting Fit Again in my 50s: My story...Pre-Husband Years

While I am starting all over again, I feel like I need to write my story so I can be reminded of where I have been but also be reminded that things could be so much worse!

This is the pre-husband portion.

As a reminder, I am 5'6" (for so long I was 5'6.5" but when I gain weight I presume either my joints compress and/or my back arches more making me shrink) and I have what I call a medium build - some parts are large framed (like a 36" bra even in high school) and some small framed (tiny wrists).

I have always liked junk food - we had very little in the house (cake and ice cream at birthdays and homemade chocolate chip cookies a few times a year). Starting at age 6 I'd buy candy with my allowance (candy bars were 25 cents - I got a dollar, I'd buy 4. My Halloween candy was gone within days. Starting in the 7th grade I took the city bus home every day - I had to switch buses in front of a convenience store so I'd go in and buy chips and a candy bar. But surprisingly enough, the majority of my weight gains have been due to overeating (too much pasta mainly), not eating a ton of junk food. But looking back at it, I definitely felt deprived, especially of salty foods. My mother was thin but had gotten high blood pressure when pregnant with me that never came down. So we had no salty foods in the house -pretzels had no salt, ketchup had no salt, no potato chips, nothing.

10 years old

I stopped growing in the 8th grade - I was probably 120 lbs, but I never really paid attention to the scale. I do remember a time in 9th grade telling a friend I was 125. And I was 142 when I graduated from high school. Looking back, I wished I had stepped on a scale in high school. Not compulsively so, but my eating was so bad. I went away to boarding school in 10th grade and ate lots of junk food, post-dinner Mac and Cheese, and ate very little fruits and vegetables. I had never had to take care of my own nutrition before I went and had no clue how.

Around high school graduation

In college I was afraid of the Freshman 15. I took a fitness class my 1st semester which is the first time I ever lifted weights. I do remember I was 148 half-way through my sophomore year when I met the person who'd be my boyfriend for the next 7 years. At one point my weight got up to 157 at which point I went on my first ever diet. I was 20 years old. And I graduated from college weighing the same as I did when I graduated from high school: 142.

Age 20 - Around time I started my first "diet"

March 1992 - Soon before graduating high school

The summer after college, me and the boyfriend drove across country for 8 weeks. I was so worried about gaining weight from so much time in the car that I instituted a "no eating in the car" rule, and because we were on a budget, our lunches mainly consisted of splitting the 2 cheeseburger meal at McDonalds. Thus I didn't gain any weight on that trip. Score!

On cross country trip July 1992

That first year home was hard. Said boyfriend was still in college and I had a job I hated. I dropped to 132 without even trying. Instead of moving in together we broke up temporarily. At one point I dropped to 119 at age 22/23. But I settled to 125-127.

May 1993 - Low 130s

April 1995 - High 120s

My first stint at Weight Watchers was in Fall of 1994 when i had gotten up to 137 and my father commented on how I had gained weight. Fathers should never, ever comment on weight. WW was At Work. I reached Lifetime by getting to 130 - It took me about 6 months to do that though. But as soon as I reached Lifetime I started gaining. And gaining. The boyfriend and I got back together, but that didn't last too long. At age 26 we broke up finally and I got my own apartment.

July 1996

I think my weight had gone back up to 157, but the only reason I think that is I got back down to 132 and my recollection is telling someone I had lost 25 pounds. But honestly, I don't remember being 157 again.

November 1997 - Single me in Mexico! High 130s?

I did join WW again in the Spring of 1998 and got back down to 132 (again, didn't lose very much, so if I had lost more, I did it on my own).

In June 1998 I quit my job and funded by my parents took 11 months off to figure out my next career move. I went back to school for graphic design and trained to do a Outward Bound trip in Montana and then in January 1999 went back to school for 4 months to train for my current job. I do know that when I started my current job in May 1999 I was 136 pounds.

August 1998 - Montana Outward Bound - 135

November 1998 - Start of rock climbing and spinning craze

4 days after I started my job, I started dating someone new. I was so eager to live in a real house that I moved in with him in October, even though that meant a 50 mile commute each way. Lack of sleep + stress = weight gain (and relationship killer). I shot back up to 157 pretty quickly but through WW At Work got back down to 150 when we broke up in Spring 2001.

Me on my 30th birthday - Probably around 150

I stayed at 150 until I started training to hike Mount Rainier in Spring 2002. 2002 was a long, strenuous year. A great year, but an awful year. It was the year I left "normal weight" behind.

I had signed up for the hike and committed to re-doing the flooring in my townhouse, which meant having to paint the entire place, by myself. And then I got a new assignment at work which had me working 60 hour weeks for 11 months. I'd work 7 am - 7 pm Monday - Friday. Hike 10 miles on Saturday. And spend all day on Sunday lounging on the coach...and eating. My weight took a huge toll. I was 172 by the time I started dating my husband in December 2002.