Well its a bit of a long story...a series of unfortunate choices perhaps? Settle in ladies and gentlemen, it is gonna be a long one. ;)
A long, long time ago...I was a hottie...19 and at my lowest adult weight (130-135 lbs). Cute, in college, blah blah. Then along came babies...the first at age 21. Got up to around 190 lbs with her, but was well on my way to losing it between breastfeeding (that alone knocked off like 40 lbs in just a few weeks...by my 6 week follow up) and moderate exercise. Then along comes baby #2, he was born 17 months after baby #1. Got up to my highest (at that point) weight of 230 lbs. After baby #1 breastfeeding experience, I figured, no biggie...get back on the bf-ing schedule and exercise again and I'll be back on track. Except baby #2 did not take to breastfeeding very well at all. After 4 weeks of trying to get him to do it straight from the spout, but no luck, I would pump, but that just wasn't creating the same calories burn that on demand feeding does. So I hit up on the diet and exercise part while lugging babies in a double jogger around the neighborhood. Got back down to around 180. Then my hubby and I split up, and I worked 70 hours a week, and I was just stressed out. And I did that for like 4 or 5 months. I still hovered in that 180-190 range.
Then I met my now hubby. We were active, but not overly so. But I still maintained. And then...my brother-in-law needed a place to crash (he had burnt bridges with other friends, unemployed, etc)...we thought, mkay this will be temporary...at the time I was adhering to a budget and taking healthy lunches to work instead of eating out. And then the BIL would eat up my groceries...and I really couldn't afford to feed him and myself (neither could my hubs). So we made the choice to just eat out, we could spend the same amount as we were on groceries, and didn't have to worry about someone taking it away.
And I went back to school to finish first a Bachelors degree and then a Masters...and the weight kept going up because of our eating habits and the sedentary student habits. And then I get into a stressful job where I am working 10 hour shifts, and still continuing with the overeating (because let's face it, restaurant portions are huge...and in San Antonio many Mexican restaurants use SERVING PLATTERS as their plates). But at this point I had stabilised at around 265 or so.
Then...I lost my job in March 2014. And I got really down about it. Crappy eating habits continue, lots of time spent on the computer putting in job applications, and honestly just not feeling like doing anything. Like breathing was too much effort some time. Found a bs interim job to at least help pay bills and hated it.
Then at the beginning of November 2014 I received some terrible, terrible news. One of my best friends since grade school died. My world was rocked to put it mildly. And I had a job that started...on the same day as her funeral, so my hubby and I were obviously in disagreement on what I should do...I wanted to go home, and in the end he 'won' so to speak because I really needed the job (and had been waiting for almost 2 months for the formal offer/start date). And I just kept on with the sendentary lifestyle, and the super crappy eating habits, and being depressed and stressed. And it was crazy because, she was only 35 and I couldn't even fathom what happened. We're not supposed to not just wake up one morning, but we were leading similar lifestyles...why not me? And months go by.
And in early January I hopped on a scale and I was at my highest ever weight right at 299.XX...I could have fallen off of the scale. Shortly after that I started walking. And by mid-February I was down almost 10 lbs. And my friend Kim invited me to a kickstarter DietBet and I thought, why not? Since then I have done 6 kickstarters and now this transformer. I am down now nearly 40 lbs since that day in January. I want to keep getting healthier, I want to be an even more fun mom for my kids, and of course get my hotness back...lol ;)
So anyway, that's just a quick synopsis of the last...15 years? ;) It took me a while to get in this shape and it will take me a while to get out of it. :)