How It All Began...

This is my origin story.

I was a chunky teenager (not uncommon these days) and struggled with my appearance. Greasy skin and hair, zits, and all of the normal signs of female puberty.

At 6’0” tall, I couldn’t hide in a crowd even if I tried. In all of those awkward middle school class pictures, I towered over most of my classmates. The boys had not had their growth spurts, yet. Sure, there were a couple of other girls in my class who were tall, but they were thin and popular.

I felt like a moose.

And, to make matters even more difficult, the popular girls picked on me all through middle and high school. The boys just ignored me.

As I matured and became an independent adult, I got more involved with outdoor activities like walking, cycling, and kayaking, and my fitness improved… but I just couldn’t shake the extra pounds.

I tried Weight Watchers (that lasted for about two weeks).

I weighed myself every morning and wrote that number down on a sheet of paper on the refrigerator.

I skipped breakfast and ate small portions for lunch (just to get home fro work starving and over eat to make up for lost time).

I tried several different diets, mostly aimed at calorie reduction and excessive aerobic exercise to “burn calories”.

My weight yo-yo’ed between 180 and 196 pounds. I was never morbidly obese, but I sure felt enormous and self-conscious. I was afraid of crossing over into the 200-range and then losing control or giving up on the fight.

And don’t get me started on clothes shopping. fuh-get-a-bot-it. At 6’0”, with a smaller bust, boy hips, and - what my in-laws call extra weight - “upholstery”, finding clothing was nearly impossible. So, I wore a lot of men’s clothing and long skirts to cover it all up.

I thought that feeling sluggish at various times during the day was normal, and rarely had energy in the evenings. I got a few gym memberships over the years, attempting to convince myself that spending the money would get me out the door and off the couch. If only I could get back those wasted dollars, I could probably retire early.

I met my husband, Robert, in my mid-30’s. A charming and geeky 6’4” soft-spoken man (like my Dad), with a large build, love handles, and a bit of a belly. We were a perfect match! Two moose, walking hand-in-hand through life, doing our best to stay active and enjoy each other’s company.

Robert had similar food and fitness issues. When we met, he was teetering on 269 pounds, terrified of crossing over that 270 and losing control as he aged, as well.

He had tried his own variety of weight-loss techniques as well, including buying smaller dishes to reduce the amount of food that would fit on a plate, and eating with chopsticks to slow down. None of these methods worked for him, either.

Shocking! (ha)

Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash

We dated for a year before he proposed (on the same date as the day we met). And then we got married (on the same date again) another year later. So, we only have one anniversary date to remember. Did I mention that Robert is an engineer? He is very systematic. He even numbers his socks in pairs to make laundry easier (such a great idea!).

Shortly after we got married, we decided to get fit and trim for each other. Our goals were to increase our life spans, have more energy, and fend off illness. As newlyweds, we wanted to make the most of this new life together. We were both sick and tired of being fat and lethargic all the time.

And, as a team, we knew that we could conquer anything!

No… we didn’t become that annoying couple at the gym with the matching spandex, coaching each other while doing dead-lifts in shifts (“2 more, you got this! push push push!”).

We decided not to talk about what we were doing with family, friends, or on social media. Sharing our progress with the world was not how we wanted to do this. We just decided to make it happen through consistency and working together to help each other get through any tough spots along the way.

Fast forward to today…

Over the 15 years that we have been together, we have both lost a significant amount of weight, improved our fitness and health, and have far more energy than we did in our younger years. We are no longer lethargic in the middle of the day, our grocery bills have dropped significantly, and we can go on longer adventures together (walking, hiking, bike riding, etc.).

My weight dropped from a high of 196 pounds to 148 pounds.

My husband (Robert) dropped from 269 pounds to 182 pounds.

The crazy thing about it is that - if we were to plot our weight loss on a graph - it would be a straight line downward with a few small plateaus and blips. When we were on vacation or went to special events with lots of rich foods, we added a few pounds here and there… but eventually got back to our new normal.

Even crazier is that, now that our new normal is a habit, we no longer keep track of anything - no weight tracking, no calorie counting, no nothing. All of the work that we did to get the weight off is done, and now we are just coasting at our consistent weights and enjoying life. It’s almost like we never had weight issues before… it’s all become easy.

We only wish that we had known earlier the things that we have discovered about food, nutrition, health, and fitness.

And now I want to share what we have discovered with you.

---

What have you discovered along the way to keep weight off?

Have you struggled with weight and yo-yo’ing between diets, fads, and trends?

Which methods have you tried that work for you?

I’d love to read more about your story!