I am excited to take on my weight loss journey and log it here along the way. 

By way of introduction....

I am 32 years old and the mother of two young children. I am a middle school teacher. I don't know that I would describe myself as a chubby or even overweight child, but I wasn't very active. Starting around the time I hit puberty in late elementary school, my weight just kept creeping up. Throughout high school. Throughout college. I was overweight on my wedding day. I was overweight when I got pregnant with my first child. 

I lost a few pounds just before getting pregnant. That stopped as soon as I got pregnant and I gained very little weight throughout my pregnancy. After giving birth, I was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight within days. But throughout that first year of motherhood, I gained about 20 lbs and was the heaviest I had ever been. I started counting calories and wearing a Fitbit and lost about 20 lbs....

And then I got pregnant again. I had intended to keep logging calories during pregnancy, but I just . . .  couldn't. I didn't gain a ton of weight, but I certainly gained back all that I had lost. 

After my second baby was born, I was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight soon and I tried to count calories again so that I could lose the weight I was sick of carrying around. But I found it too difficult -- I was constantly getting up in the middle of the night and needing to eat. I was nursing and hungry all the time. I felt like I just didn't have the willpower to focus on that aspect of my life. 

I gained back all of my pregnancy weight -- plus another 20 lbs. 

A few weeks ago, my sister carefully broached the topic of Jenny Craig. My sister, who has always been slim and healthy, is a nurse and so even though I know she has no idea what it is to live in my skin, I take her guidance seriously. She said that Jenny Craig was award-winning and seemed like a healthy choice. She offered to pay my membership fee as a Christmas present. 

So here I am. I am in week 2. At my initial weigh-in, I was 241.6 lbs, I think. Last week I was down 3 lbs to 238.6. The holidays are an awful time to start a new diet, but I figure if I can make it through them this year, next year will be a piece of cake. 

At my second meeting, my consultant asked me what my motivation was. It seems like a strange question to me -- doesn't everyone want to be a healthy weight? To look better? To fit into clothes better? To prevent obesity-related health problems? It seems odd to ask someone what their motivation is for losing weight when they are 100 lbs overweight. But I told her the truth -- which is that I am mostly just curious as to what I will look like when I strip away all the excess weight. Having never seen my adult body at a healthy weight, I truly have no idea what it will be like. This first part will be boring, since I know (and remember clearly) what it was like to be 20 lbs lighter, 30 lbs lighter....but once I lose about 65 lbs....that's pretty much uncharted territory for me. This is an entirely new adventure.