Our friend Laurie had weight loss surgery yesterday. We wish her a speedy recovery! Before we get to that part of her story, though, she wants to fill us in on her attempts at dieting and weight loss. Here is the second part of Laurie’s journey. To read Part 1, click here.
Part 2: Ups and Downs
As far as my attempts at dieting go… Well, for a while I did Weight Watchers with my mom – she went to the meetings, we both “followed” the plan – but that didn’t last very long for either of us. This was probably…1989 or so? I was in high school, anyway. I think that was the first “organized” diet I ever tried. I may have lost a few pounds, but I don’t think I ever really committed myself to it. Truth be told, I look at pictures of myself in high school, and I probably didn’t need to diet at all. I think, at my heaviest, I was around 150, maybe 160. Tops. Not exactly a heifer. I don’t even think a doctor would consider that obese, now that I think about it. Jesus, what the hell? I went around thinking I was some kind of disgusting blob every day, and no one told me otherwise.
In fact, my senior year of high school, my mom paid for me to start Jenny Craig. I weighed 150 pounds, I was 17, and Jenny Craig was an option? Really? Anyway, I did Jenny Craig for about six months, and it actually worked really well. The food was pretty good, I was managing to get in exercise at least five days a week (I had a mini-trampoline that I would jump on while watching Depeche Mode videos) – it was easy! I didn’t have to worry about measuring, cooking, planning… They took all the guess-work out of dieting. Of course, they took all the responsibility out of it as well, and prepared me NOT AT ALL for ever going off the diet… but that’s ok. It was also prohibitively expensive (almost $100 a week). But I ended up losing about 30 pounds, and I was thrilled.
I spent the summer between high school and college livin’ la vida loca, and that’s all that mattered to me. No plans to continue dieting, no ambition to keep up with exercising… just, “Hey! I lost a ton of weight! I can live like everyone else now!!” Yeah, not so much. I gained everything back – and then some – by the time I graduated from college. My “freshman 15” was more like “freshman 25,” and I had gained almost 50 pounds by my senior year. Jeez, it could even have been more than that. All I know is, I thought I looked like a whale in my graduation gown, and I was horribly self-conscious about it the whole day. Now remember, I was still under 200 pounds at this point. Distorted body image, anyone?
Next time, Laurie talks about her continued attempts at weight loss, up to her decision to undergo weight loss surgery.
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