Riding the Weight Loss Roller Coaster

Can you see the difference? It's not extremely noticeable, but I know the latter picture is after some weight loss because collar bones are visible, lol. Weight, it's always a struggle it seems, and I need to get back on the ball again, so I figured I could use my blog to keep myself accountable on my weight loss journey. Here's a bit of background:

In high school, I joined Weight Watchers (WW) with my Mom and sister, and lost about 25 lbs. I was a skinny Minny! Went off to college...and gained about 50 lbs, lol. I tried WW on my own again, and tried to eat lots of low fat and low calorie foods, I tried to stretch those points and get as much quantity of food for the least amount of points. Later, I read a book about the French diet called The Fat Fallacy. It talked about how French people eat real food, complete with rich full-fat foods, and yet they're extremely healthy. It talked about how Americans think fat is something to be avoided at all costs in foods, how they have the largest market anywhere of low-calorie, low-fat foods, fake "low calorie" sweeteners, and yet they're still the fattest nation out there. It really opened my eyes as to how I looked at food, and how Americans in general look at food as opposed to the French. I decided to try to implement this way of life, and having a French husband, I figured he could help me out too!

I combined the idea of avoiding chemically altered low fat, low calorie foods filled with high fructose corn syrup and other additives intended to add flavor to cardboard tasting faux food, with the WW program, as counting points really helped me learn portion control. I ate fresh, natural foods, delicious meals, enjoyed them more than ever before, learned to savor food, and lost weight in the process. Though I hate hate hate exercise of all kinds, I started using Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds series of exercise videos, they're not too bad, easy to follow, and even I don't mind using them even though I normally hate exercise of all kinds. I lost about 40 lbs total.

When we moved to Austin, things got a little hectic and we ate out and ate fast food more often while we were fixing up the house. I put on a few pounds...for the past year, I haven't had the best eating habits, especially in the portion control department. Also, since we've been trying to conceive, I've kind of been neglecting portion control in hopes that I'd become pregnant anyway, lol, so I wouldn't have to worry about it for a while. But, since it hasn't happened yet, I've recently recommitted myself to exercising and counting points again so that I'll be healthier when it does. I've gained about 15 lbs since moving here, and I need to get rid of it!

So, my goal is to exercise every week day (until school starts up again, when I'll have to homeschool my brother twice a week, in which case the goal will be exercise 3 times a week), and to watch portion control. (Hubby is also wanting to lose a few pounds, so I need to watch this for both of us when planning and cooking meals!) I'm hoping writing this here will help me stay accountable. So, there it is, onto the weight loss roller coaster!