How Did I Get to 240???

I've started this blog as a way to keep track of my weight loss progress and my feelings along the way. I hope that you will join me along the weigh (haha....my poor attempt at humor!)

How did I get to 240 pounds? Well, it was a combination of things. I come from a family of large women. On my dad's side of the family, my grandmother and 3 of my 4 aunts have always been heavy. On my mom's side of the family, her grandmother was heavy and she was very heavy (until her stay in the hospital for 8 months in 2008). I had managed to stay on the lighter side by taking a magic pill call "Ripped Fuel". It contained ephedra, which the FDA has banned because it causes heart attacks and stroke. It was the best thing ever for me! It helped me to keep my weight at a nice 140 and gave me lots of energy to do all the things that a single mom has to do. And finally, the last thing that helped contribute to my all time high weight gain was working in retail management. I worked crazy hours, would eat at all different times of the day and usually it was fast food. I did very little exercise because there just wasn't any time. When you work 10-14 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, the last thing you want to do is to go to the gym or work out. There is still a house to clean, groceries to buy, laundry to do, yard to mow, etc. Anyway, you get the picture.

Here are a couple of pictures of me at my all time heaviest:





In the course of my weight gain, I also gave up something that I loved. Running. I enjoyed running so much! It was a great stress reliever and it helped to keep the weight down. I've actually started running again, and I hope that I can continue to keep it up.

I guess the biggest motivating factor for me to loose this weight was the fact that I lost my little sister this year at the age of 44. She died in March 2010 of arterial sclerosis. Which is just a fancy way of say heart attack brought on by high cholesterol. I do not want this to happen to me. I'm already on blood pressure and high cholesterol medications (but that happened prior to my life without Helen.)





So, I will be blogging about my time at the gym, what I've eaten and how my weight is coming off. So join me on my journey to slim and healthy.

Pati