AHH I'm a blogger?!

It's official: I am a blogger. Deep down, I think I've always been meant to be a writer of some sort. Since an actual career in writing never really materialized, I think this blog should work out just perfect for me.

Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a 25 year old girl from Boston. My whole life, I have struggled with weight. And, when I say my whole life, I mean my whole life. It all started way back when I was a baby and I was unable to keep down any formula. To make sure I ate and kept all of the food in, my mother added rice to my bottle. Thus began my lifelong love (and by love I mean absolute addiction) to carbs. Thanks a lot Mom.

Middle school and high school were full of ups and downs. I was never "fat" but never felt skinny enough or comfortable with my weight. I did a lot of comparing to my skinnier friends and quickly became self conscious. I dealt with a few "mean girls" and can still recall being called fat a fair share of times.

In college, I perfected the art of obsessing over diet and exercise. I could have been the poster girl for the freshman 15...okok, maybe it was more like the freshman 30. After my first semester at school, I joined a gym and started thinking non-stop about what I ate. Of course this did not mean that I only ate healthy foods. Oh no, I ate my share of typical college crap like late night pizza, the occasional batch of cookies made by me and my roommates, and I definitely enjoyed many maaaany alcoholic beverages. Ups and downs again. It also did not help that all of my college friends were skinny girls.

After college, I gained weight and was up to 180 lbs (my heaviest weight ever). I remember reading that the average person gains 7lbs between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The week before Thanksgiving, I decided I would not, could not be in that statistic. So, I challenged my Mom and sister to our very own Biggest Loser type challenge. We would weigh in every week and whoever lost the most weight by Christmas would win some money. 6 weeks seemed doable and I was determined to win.

Let me give you a bit of info about my competition:

Competitor 1: My Mom
Advantage: She had the potential to win, because she had the most to lose.
Disadvantage: Busy lady. Not very active so tough to get started.

Competitor 2: My Sister
Advantage: Pre-challenge, she ate anything and everything she wanted. Did no physical activity but is only a year younger than me so is young and could start to be active relatively easily.
Disadvantage: Weighed the least. Had the least to lose.

Competitor 3: ME!
Advantage: Worked as a bartender so had days to go to the gym. Had a decent amount of weight to lose.
Disadvantage: For the most part, ate healthy and was active pre-challenge. Not as many bad habits to change.

This challenge changed my life. Because of my intense competitive nature and my serious desire to lose weight, I won! (Go me!) I lost 18 lbs in 6 weeks and never looked back. Even after the official challenge ended, I plunged forward into my new healthy lifestyle until I had lost a grand total of 40lbs. This was 3 years ago.

Fast foward to today. I have kept the 40lbs off and vow to never go back. Sure, I've worked hard over the last 3 years and I've had little slips here and there. There are still days when I feel heavier and days when I want to throw my scale out the window. I still struggle every single day with the choices I make when it comes to food and exercise and probably think about food and diet waaay too much.

I am proud of myself that I have kept the weight off, but now it is time for a new challenge. I would still like to lose 10-15lbs. This blog will recount my experiences along the way. I am sure there will be good days and know there will be bad days, but hope that my journey can help others out there succeed in their own personal struggles.

So, I hope you all will like/love my blog!