Diet Pills & How NOT to Lose Weight

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I think if I went through my ENTIRE weight-loss journey of ups and downs in life, you'd be reading for hours; but I wanted to do a brief summary just as a warning, to tell you how NOT to lose weight.

I've been 5'11" since 7th grade. At that time, I was a lanky middle-schooler and was 135 pounds. Over the next few years, I grew up, went through puberty, etc. and not surprisingly gained weight. I was at about 165 pounds my junior year of high school. My mom noticed and decided we ought to go on a weight-loss plan together that summer. Except, I took it way too far - it went from "oh, I should eat a little healthier" (not hard to do, given that in my meat-eating days of high school, I went to McDonald's or Chick-Fil-A basically every day!) to "how few calories can I eat in a day" to "perhaps some diet pills would help me lose more" - this turned into a bad eating-disorder situation, where I became convinced that 600 calories a day and 6 Metabolite pills was great for me. Well, I did lose weight - I got down to about 140 pounds, which is pretty low for someone 5'11" - and also started to develop a heart condition from all the caffeine/ephedra in the diet pills. That's when I knew it had to stop.

Me in 2002, Senior Yr. of High School, about 140 lbs - look how bony my shoulders are - eww!

In college, I didn't use any diet pills anymore (thank goodness), but I did still struggle with eating habits. I was working out 5 days a week with the women's boxing team, and yet eating 1,000 or less calories a day. I was still only about 145 pounds.

Me freshman year of college.

Luckily, after freshman year, I wised up and realized I could maintain a healthy weight of between 155-165 just with my boxing workouts and eating, well, almost whatever I wanted, given the calories I was burning. I'd usually gain some weight in the spring in the off-season, but then lose it again in the summer/fall. I, of course, again thought I was fat all the time at 160 pounds or so, which is laughable now - I'd die to be 160 again!

Hey, look, I finally look healthy in this pic - this is junior yr. of college

So, the real trouble began 2nd semester senior year - no more boxing...like ever...and I was continuing to eat whatever I wanted. In the last three years of law school, I have gone between 169 at the low end and 192 pounds at the high end. When I finally realized I was 192, and just couldn't get married in that kind of state.

The dreaded "before" pic

I started to get my butt into gear - over the next couple years of the engagement, I went up and down a lot, but did get to at least my 20 lb goal and got married at 172.

Me at the rehearsal dinner

So, now I am trying to see if I can work hard to lose that last 10 pounds, but more importantly, I want to do so in a healthy way, no matter how long that may take :) Oh, and the best news of all is, I have FINALLY gotten my resting heart rate down to a healthy level, meaning I can finally run!!