The background details you may not know

Most of you know that I have struggled with my weight for a long time.  The reality is that now it is seriously affecting my health.  In the spring of 2007 I started having troubles breathing, sleeping and swelling.  My doctor told me that all of my symptoms at the time were symptoms of congestive heart failure, which my grandmother died from in 1998.  The doctor told me that I "HAD" to lose weight and my options were to either go on Medifast or have weight loss surgery to get some of it off quickly.  I opted with the Medifast which is an all liquid diet that is doctor supervised.  I tipped the scales at 324lbs. in May of 2007 and over the course of about 6 months lost 68lbs. I felt great!  But, I was done, time passed and I slipped back into my old habits and most of the weight found its way back to my hips.  An all liquid diet for me just wasn't going to work any longer and rather than find an alternative I ended up following my old habits.

On my birthday this year I decided that I had to make some changes.  You see not only have I gained most of the weight back, I have continued to have issues with my health.  In October of 2009 I found out I had  Posterior Subcapsular Cataracts http://dro.hs.columbia.edu/psc.htm, in both eyes but more significantly in my left eye and had to have surgery on both for lens replacement before the end of the year.  The Ophthalmologist then sent me to my doctor for an A1C to check for diabetes.  I was borderline at that point and told to follow a low carb, low fat diet and then we would check it again in 6 months.  The doctor said that based on my medical history and weight she was diagnosing me as diabetic with no meds at this time. In July of this year I developed 3 hernia's which need to be surgically repaired.  One more significant than the others, and going to be fixed first. I am waiting for cooler weather so that I can heal more quickly. 

I have a friend who started her weight loss journey with Weight Watchers in 2008 and she has made great strides at achieving her goals and blogging about her success.  So one day recently it just hit me ...that's what I need to do!  For me knowing that my close friends and family are out there reading my blogs and seeing my pictures I feel like I will be more inclined to work harder to reach my goals.  I am not only going to post pictures I am also going to post my weekly weight...thus the name ...Ups and Downs.  I realize that this will be an ongoing battle and some weeks will be better than others. I hope that you will join, follow and support me through this journey and that you will find tips to help yourself along the way!

And so in closing this beginning entry I leave you with this thought...

" If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves"--Thomas Edison