How did I get here?

Hey everyone, well anyone that reads this. I have wanted to start a blog for a long time. However, it makes me nervous to share my life experiences with others out there. I want to just share with the world my weight loss journey. Weight has always been an issue since I was 8. My weight got out of control when I went to college. At some point at the beginning of my freshman year in college I made the choice to lose weight. Sadly my choice was to stop eating compleatly and work out a ton! Yea, not smart! I started at my highest weight 303 pounds. I lost 70ish pound the wrong way. I ended up gaining 30-40 back.

After college trying to work at my weight was affecting my job. I am a teacher. I was unable to get to my students level to talk to them. In the fall of 2011 I started the process to get approval for a Gastric Bypass. I wanted to have the surgery not only to lose the weight, but to have a happy life/experiences with my now husband Jeff. I started classes through The Ohio State University to teach me good eating and exercise habits. I was approved in may 2012 and had my surgery in July 2012 at The OSU Medical Center. I made it through with no problems and began the process of losing the weight.

I left OSU at 278 pounds. The first six weeks were umm well HELL. That is a totally different post! I started seeing results after the first two weeks. Before I knew it in just over a year I had lost almost all of the weight I wanted to. I went from 278 points to 115 pounds (yes 115 it was to small now that I look back) I gained back some weight due to medication changes and some not so great choices. I now weigh in the 150s. I still struggle with the way I look. When I was at 115 pounds I thought I looked amazing! Now that I am in the 150s I'm unhappy with the way I look. People say you still look great! Yes, I understand that when people see me they think wow you look great. For me it's a mental battle between a scale number and what I see when I look in the mirror. I want to share my struggles and successes with those people who have had some sort of weight loss and struggle to see the great things they have done. I will post more things later. I just wanted to put a summary out there!

I am very proud of what I have accomplished! I am working hard to keep it that way. I am working out daily and doing my best to eat what I'm supposed to! I am looking forward to sharing my crazy experiences, excess skin, and food with the world! Here is just one of many pictures before and after. This is me the morning of my surgery and then me at my lowest weight!