An award & a contest

Kelly over at Pounds for Prom just honored me with a Beautiful Blogger Award.

Now I'm supposed to write seven random things about myself (and nominate seven people of my own).

Here are seven things that some of you might already know, but many of you won't:

1. I was a band geek in high school. At various times, I played flute and piccolo, and was in the color guard. All that marching helped keep my weight in check.

2. I spent a semester in England (eating Yorkshire pudding, giant jacket potatoes and pizza topped with CORN ... yes, you read right: CORN) in college. I went to Harlaxton College, the University of Evansville's British campus, which was featured in exterior shots for the Liam Neeson/Catherine Zeta Jones movie "The Haunting." I did a lot of walking while I was over there, so the bad eating habits didn't affect my weight too much (I'd already gained the freshman 30 by then!)

3. I watch repeats of "NCIS" and "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" and "SVU" on USA.

4. Thanks to the Boyfriend, I'm now a member of the WWE Universe. Yes, I tune in to "Monday Night Raw," "ECW" and "Smackdown" whenever I get a chance. Since I work nights (3-7 p.m.), I'm not always able to watch.

5. I'm not a huge fan of exercise. Big surprise, right? If I loved to work out and ate properly, I wouldn't be the proud owner of a weight loss blog, now would I?

6. My mom used to say I have champagne tastes and a beer budget.

7. Both my parents died in 2003, within a month of one another. That fall, after their deaths, my roommate and I started doing Atkins. I weighed 276 when I started. I low-carbbed my way to 169 (with a goal of 160) and then met my Boyfriend, started eating carbs again and regained about 70 pounds. Weighed 246 when I joined WW and am back down to the 180s.

I'll have to think about who I want to nominate and get back to you on that one.

Now, on to the contest. I love soup ... especially Progresso's light soups. They're fantastically filling and so low in Points. I can eat the whole can without blowing it.

Roni's giving us a chance to win soup:

I entered Roni's Souper Duper Contest!

Check out Roni’s Weight Loss Blog for more information.

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.