Sam

I've struggled with weight most of my life. When I was a teen it was the same mental struggle that most teens go through. I thought I was fat and overweight, even if the scale thought otherwise. When I was in my twenties I made that thought become reality tipping the scales at over 260 lbs at one point. I would go through various diets and exercise plans, nothing stuck. Then I hit my thirties and there was this one moment, this one point in time when everything changed. It just clicked. I lost 80lbs. It took about 2 years but I did it. The moment that scale fell below 200 lbs I said to myself NEVER AGAIN. I didn't exercise any more than I had been, but I did change what I was eating. I stopped eating at fast-food restaurants every day for breakfast and lunch. I stopped getting the fancy coffee drinks from Starbucks and I stopped eating out for dinner 6 nights a week. Slowly as the weight dropped, I started to feel better about myself and started to become more confident and started to do things I never thought I would.

The last year however, I started to make bad food choices again, gaining weight that I promised myself I would never do again. While I haven’t gotten a handle on losing the weight I've gained, I have managed to stay at my current weight for the past 2 months, and that it a feat in itself during December.

I have to buy a bridesmaid dress for a July wedding and I refuse to purchase the dress at the weight I am at now. I would also love for my clothes to fit better again, everything is just too tight, and I'm not even able to wear some of my clothes. I'm also cheap when it comes to clothes; I have better things to spend money on so I really don’t want to get an entirely new wardrobe. So with the help of my friends, we are going to diet, exercise and blog together and all work towards getting healthy and comfortable in our own skins, starting on January 1, 2015 with the Polar Bear swim. It’s going to be a roller-coaster of a ride, with many ups and downs.