My Weight Loss Journey

Edited January 2021: 2020 was a doozy of a year for everyone, but it also marked an important change in my weight loss mindset. This change is that I'm actually no longer focusing on weight loss anymore. Instead, I am focusing on living and loving my life. I'm going to focus on doing things that make me feel my best. The tone of the blog will only change slightly. A lot of the things will stay the same. The biggest difference is that the focus will no longer be on intentionally trying to shrink my body. If I lose weight that's fine, but if I don't, that's OK too. Weight does not equal health. It is possible to be fat AND fit, and that has always been something I have believed in. 

Edited May 2016: Clearly I did not change my life in 2011/12 since I have reached many new "highest" weights in the last 4 years. 2013 was a terrible year for my health and I gained back basically all my weight + more. This is a forever struggle for me. I do hope to make the changes necessary to lose the weight and keep it off. Only time will tell......

Hey there blog world! My name is Kim and I am a 40-something year old wife and mother of two who has been struggling with my weight for a pretty long time...but most significantly over the last 9+ years. Below is my (VERY LONG) story.


I believe this was the summer of 97 when my sister
and I were doing WW. I mean, really?? I needed WW?

My story is so long that I don't even know where to start it. I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. The kicker is...I didn't really need to worry about my weight until my young adult life (or until I really started to try to do something about it). Clearly, I have a messed up mind when it comes to my weight. I first joined Weight Watchers when I was in college. I can't remember exactly what year it was. But, I remember that my sister had joined and told me she would pay my registration fee for my birthday (which is in March); and then I can remember still going to meetings when the fall semester started up and dropping out because I got fed up with the scale going up each week because I wasn't really doing the program anymore. I am going to guess this was around 1997. At this point, I probably started around 160lbs or so. I can't remember for sure, but what I do know is I would LOVE to weigh that right now.



9/22/01 Wedding Day. Somewhere around 160lbs

I recall continuing to struggle with my weight through college, but I don't necessarily remember joining WW again. I do remember doing Atkins the same summer that I met my husband (1998). My parents were doing it and were quite successful. I remember losing 10lbs in 2 weeks and then stopping because it was too hard. Again, I think I weighed around 155-160 at this time. And again, thought that I was SO fat....and again..would LOVE to weigh that now! I went to graduate school in 1999 and always would go back and forth about my weight. I joined WW again during this time period with my friend and roommate. I find it funny how I can't seem to remember what my weight was during these times. I DO remember, however, when I joined WW for the 3rd (?) time in 2002 after getting married and weighed in at 179lbs. I remember this, because I remember being disgusted with the fact that I was the heaviest I'd EVER been! And I believe all those previous times on WW I was not even in the 170's. Actually, as I look back on this, I'm noticing that I probably maintained my weight between 155 and 165lbs through all of those years. Yet, it was never "good enough". I also find it funny that I can't clearly remember my starting weight and how far down I got all of those other times before; but what I DO remember is that I have NEVER been a "lifetime member" of WW. That means, I have never gotten down to 150lbs and maintained it. And therefore, I continued to believe that I was fat and needed to change. Perhaps 160lbs is just fine for my body, but it puts my BMI in the "overweight" category (don't even get me started on BMI).

But I digress. So, in 2002 I was probably the most successful on WW. I believe my weight got as low as 152lbs. And then we bought a house....and spent several evenings/nights in the house prior to moving in. So we ate fast food; I stopped tracking and starting gaining weight...yadda yadda. Again, I went back up to about 165ish before I quit WW because I was just wasting my money. I believe I was back up to 179lbs when I got pregnant with my daughter in 2003. I gained "only" about 25lbs during my pregnancy with Mary. I lost a fair amount after having her right away and then joined WW again because I was around 165lbs (I think). I don't remember how long it lasted that time, but my weight slowly continued to creep up again. By the time I got pregnant with Robbie in 2005, I weighed 189lbs. This time I gained only about 15lbs so my ending weight was about the same. Within 2 weeks of having Robbie, my weight was back down to 185lbs....less than when I got pregnant with him. And that's the last time I've seen 185 on the scale. This is when I am fairly certain I experienced postpartum depression, but didn't know it. From about September 2006 to January 2007 I gained around 20lbs. This is more weight gained, in less time than my entire pregnancy! This is NOT normal. And the horrible cycling started then. It happened year after year. I would lose weight; then gain some back; then lose weight; then totally give up and gain it ALL back +more. Each January I weighed more than I did the last. 2007 I "started" at 209lbs; 2008 was 219lbs; 2009 = 225; 2010 = 230.


I can't believe I'm posting this picture.

This is August 2010...at my heaviest.

I hate this picture.

I stop in 2010 because it was in August 2010 that I, yet again, made the decision to lose weight. I believe it was then that I looked back at my January weights for each year and noticed the alarming trend. What made it even more alarming is this...my lowest weight each of those years was: 2007- 190lbs; 2008 - 207lbs; 2009- 205lbs; 2010 - 220lbs. As you can see, each year I lost weight. Never more than 20lbs, and I ALWAYS gained it back plus some. Since deciding on August 23, 2010 to actually change my life; I feel like I have actually continued in a positive direction for most of the past 2 years. On August 23, 2010 I weighed in at my all-time heaviest weight of 237.6lbs. It still pains me to type that (even though I'm not nearly as far away from that as I should be after 2 years). On August 20, 2011 I weighed in at 203.4lbs - down 34.2lbs in 1 year. And again, it would have been more, but I fell off the wagon from about November 2010 to April 2011. On August 19, 2012 - the day that I decided to re-start WW for the LAST time...I weighed in at 221.2lbs! Eeeeek!!! Still an overall loss of 16.4lbs from my highest weight, but also a GAIN of about 24lbs from my lowest in 2011 (which was about 197lbs in November 2011). So this is it. I'm doing this this time. And this is my blog to talk all about my journey and hopefully in the process help someone gain the courage to change their life. And if you're still reading....thank you.

Greater Cleveland Triathlon. 8/5/2012. Somewhere around 214lbs.