How I got here

I was 17 years old when I first started an exercise routine geared to help me lose weight. I was a senior in high school, and I wanted to look good in my bikini on the beach in the Bahamas for Spring Break. I didn't have a lot of weight to lose, I just wanted to slim down a little. I always had "thick thighs," and I was hoping that I could make them thinner.




During college, I worked out at UMich's CCRB using mainly the stair master and attending a variety of aerobics classes. In four years of college, I'd say I gained somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds.



When I went on to do my post-graduate work, I started running 3 miles a day, and occasionally I'd mix in some aerobics videos. I was able to maintain my weight during those three years. My first business suits were all size 4.



The day I got married, one year after graduating from law school, I weighed about seven pounds more than I did when I graduated from high school nine years earlier.



Somehow, in the last 9 years since I got married, I have gained and lost weight such that currently I am 17 pounds heavier than I was on my wedding day. Four years into my marriage, before getting pregnant with my first child, I had gained 13 pounds. I have weighed as much as 178 lbs, which was on the day I gave birth to my first child. Before getting pregnant with my second child, I was within 10 or 11 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight.



Since July, I have been able to lose most of my remaining "pregnancy" weight; Today, I am a mere four pounds away from what I weighed when I got pregnant with my first child. That may look good on paper, but the unfortunate thing is that my body parts simply are not as firm and taught as they once may have been. Whereas before I always thought my "problem areas" were my inner thighs and saddle bags, today the most pronounced problem areas are my stomach pouch and "thick waist." This is not to say that I still don't find my inner thighs to be a problem, that area has simply fallen in my list of priorities.



My goal is to lose 17 pounds by next June. In honor of our 10 year anniversary, I'm hoping to weigh what I weighed the day I got married. Depending on how that goes, maybe I'll push myself to lose an additional 7 pounds so I can say that I weigh what I weighed in high school.