One day at a time, one pound at a time!

Hello. My name is Angela and I’m fat. (”Hi Angela”)

Sorry. That was a lame attempt at some humor. Although in a way I guess this is sort of like the new version of AA (or OEA in this case… over eaters anonymous.

So a little about me… I’ve been overweight most of my life. I can look back at grade school pictures and see that I was always one of the “fat” kids. I got teased some but for the most part I was pretty popular. I think I learned to start using some self depreciating humor to help myself compensate for the fact that I was fat. I was funny so I had friends. I even dated a little.

College was much of the same. Made a lot of friends (most of whom I don’t keep up with anymore) and I still dated a bit. I can remember weighing at one point in college and I think I was about 215 or so.

I saw the 260’s after college.

The first time I realized I was over 300 it was bit of a shock (and about 4 years ago). I never really saw myself as “that” fat. Unless there was a photo. But then I tried to blame that on bad angles, lighting, etc. I crept over 350 about 2 years ago and decided to join WW. I got down about 20 lbs and have done fairly good keeping it off.

Recently I started going through some difficult personal issues and surprisingly, I was able to keep from eating myself into the 360’s. I decided that I needed to do somethings for myself. I got a new tattoo (one that I had been wanting for over 7 years) and then I decided that 1/01/08 was going to be the start of not only a new year, but a new me. I started eating better and I lost about 7 lbs. But like always, I had a couple of bad days and started to see the scale go back up.

That’s when I met someone from the Metabolic Research Center. I know I have a metabolic issue. My doctor told me so quite a while ago but I’ve just used it as a crutch for not losing weight and considered myself “proud” that I hadn’t gained anything in a year or so. MRC is dedicated to helping you lose the weight and keep it off and focuses on the chemical balance of the nutrients you eat. They teach you to eat to burn stored fat. When I told my mentor what I had been eating and how much I had lost, she said at my size, I should have been losing a lot more. She was going to help me do just that.

After only one week with MRC, I have lost 6.5 lbs. I’m held accountable for what I put in my mouth (actually have to turn in your food journal weekly unlike with WW) and I have a great personalized support system. I truly feel like this is something that I can do for the long haul.

The center gave me a goal of 78 lbs in 26 weeks. This blog is going to track that process and will hopefully be an inspiration to others looking for the motivation to take that step in the right direction.