pictures don't lie... but skinny mirrors do

That's me, the chubby one on the far left.

ugh.

I think all the mirrors in my house are "skinny mirrors". Every morning after I get dressed, I look at myself in the mirror and think,"not too shabby, Ro", give myself an imaginary pat on the back and head on my merry way.

Then I see pictures of myself and am aghast. The mirror lied! Is there such a thing as "fat cameras" that make you look fatter than you really are?? Sadly, I don't think so.

So how did I get here? My whole life I was a "normal" weight. Not too thin, not too fat... just normal. Sure, I had big hips, but I knew big hips would come in handy for child-bearing (ha! funny in hindsight...) so I was cool with it. I was also lucky that I never really had to watch what I ate. My weight always fluctuated between 110-115 pounds, but it was easy to maintain. In fact, in college, I could eat 60 buffalo wings with my two roomates in one sitting and not gain a single pound.

As I've gotten older, I've maintained my impressive eating abilities. Unfortunately, my metabolism decided to take an early retirement.

Here I am at my wedding in 2003. I weighed about 120 pounds then, but had probably lost a few pounds in the weeks leading up to my wedding. At the time, I was at my all time biggest.

sure, the arm is a little flabby, but for a girl who didn't workout, not too shabby! And I actually had collar bones!

Here I am in Hawaii on our 1st Anniversary trip. The scale was starting to creep up... or at least it would have been if I had a scale. These were the years I refused to weigh myself, so I actually have no idea how much I weighed, but I was definitely starting to get fleshier. I should have nipped it in the bud then.



By the following year, we had plans to start trying to conceive. I wanted to be in the best shape possible before I got pregnant, so I joined a gym and hired a trainer. I was addicted to working out. I didn't really lose that much weight since I still ate what I wanted, but I toned up, lost inches and felt great!

Here I am in Greece for our 3rd anniversary trip. I had been working with the trainer for about 2 months at this point.


well, lookie here! I had collar bones and a waist! And my arms didn't have cellulite!

Unfortunately, the baby-making business wasn't going as planned. We ended up having to do fertility treatments, and with the start of IVF, I was told I had to quit my intensive workouts. After two years of working out 5-6x a week, I had to quit cold turkey.

I suppose I could have found other things to do during my exercise hiatus... like reading books or knitting or doing crafty stuff... but it was easier to watch HGTV and eat potato chips. I can't entirely blame IVF for my weight gain, but it's easier to blame my infertility than have to admit I totally let myself go.

So now here we are... 4 years and 5 IVF cycles later and we have decided to build our family through adoption!

I can't blame my infertility for my weight gain anymore. And that picture of me at the beginning of this post was the nail in the coffin. I could barely recognize myself.

So I joined Weight Watchers!

I officially weighed in at 138.2 pounds on November 29, 2009. (yeah, I know. What dummy starts WW the week before Thanksgiving? me!) I'm only 5'2" and I can't blame "big bones". My ideal weight would be 115-120 pounds, but I'd be happy with 125.

I'm allowed to eat 18 points a day and I get 35 freebie points a week to use as I wish! So far, it hasn't been too bad! I'm never too hungry and the WW recipes are pretty tasty! I think I can actually see myself making a lifestyle change and staying on this program.

But then again, it's only week 2. I probably shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch.

I'm hoping that blogging about my weight loss will keep me inspired. Let's go, Ro!!