Trying something new

I've been blogging over at Blog to Lose for a while now, and I love that community ... but lately I've been wondering if it's time to branch out a little.

There's no time like the present, right?

A rundown of my weight-loss history:

I was a fairly normal-weight child until I hit about fourth grade. Then I got chunky and stayed that way until my freshman year of high school when, skipping lots of meals, I lost weight (and passed out in English class, prompting the principal to ask my mother if I was on drugs). No drugs, but Mom took me to the doctor ... who informed me I wasn't eating enough.

I put some weight back on, and, in my junior year of high school, my mom started doing Nutrisystem. (This was back when you had to go to a center to weigh in, and mixed powdered packets of stuff, and had to have puffed rice cereal, skim milk and 4 ounces of grapefruit juice every morning for breakfast. To this day, I still can't stand grapefruit juice.)

I did, however, lose weight. When I went off to college, I weighed 198 pounds and was wearing size 13-14. College, with its steady diet of fatty, carb-filled food, was my downfall. I have no idea how many pounds I gained — but it was a lot more than the dreaded Freshman 15. With breakfasts of Pop-Tarts and Dr Pepper, bacon cheeseburger lunches and lots of fast food runs, it's no wonder I was wearing a size 20-22 when I graduated!

Living on my own was no better. I used to eat an entire box of mac & cheese in one sitting. And I never stepped on the scale. I dreaded trips to the doctor because I didn't want to pay him to have him tell me I needed to lose weight. I knew that ... I just wasn't ready to do anything about it.

It took me a long time to get ready. It wasn't until 2003, after losing both my parents within a month, that I was finally willing to make a change. I started doing Atkins — and had great success. I lost 100 pounds in a year and 10 more in the second year. But then I met my boyfriend, fell off the low-carb wagon and spent the next two years regaining 70 pounds.

When I joined Weight Watchers, I weighed 246. Now I'm at 185.4, with a little more than 15 pounds to go to get to my WW goal (and 10 more after that to my personal goal).

I'm not exactly sure how much I weighed at my highest. The doctor had me at 306 at one point, so I use that as my highest known weight. I was 276 when I started Atkins and 169 when I fell off the low-carb wagon.