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Double posting here, but this thread has had me thinking, about my own weight issues, my thoughts in college, etc. I actually think a rule like this would have helped me a lot. As I noted earlier, when I started college I weighed 130 so my BMI was about 24, within the normal range. At that time, I thought I was the most hugely obese woman on campus. My perception was that I was the biggest girl in my chapter. I gained 40 pounds my freshman year, as also noted above and then went home, joined Weight Watchers for the summer and lost it again. The same thing happened sophomore year. I didn't go home again after that and didn't lose the weight I put on junior year or senior year, but I didn't gain any more than that either. I would have been 1-2 pounds away from that BMI requirement. Around the time I graduated, I thought to myself "I'm huge no matter what I do so I'm going to stop fighting my weight and just do what I want". That's when I really packed on the weight.
When I look at pictures of my chapter now, I think "Wow, was my body image messed up or what?" I was gorgeous. I had an amazing body. I had no idea. I have often wondered whether, had my body image been more accurate, I would have ever let it get out of control like I did in later years. My highest non-pregnancy weight ever was 270. It's shocking to me that I ever let it get that bad, but in my head, at 130, I thought I looked just as bad as I actually did look at 270. My weight has been all over the place since that highest weight ever. I got down to 219 at one point, doing Atkins. Then I gained some again. Then I got sick with Crohn's and got down to 159, but that was because I was literally starving to death from not absorbing anything I was eating. My blood pressure was dangerously low, my electrolytes were dangerously low, I was horrifically anemic and was very close to being hospitalized. Clearly, I wasn't enjoying that weight, despite being thrilled to BE at that weight again. I told my gastro that there was no way I was ever going to gain that weight back and he told me that I most definitely would and probably more. He said my body was used to starving and that my metabolism was wrecked and I would be conserving every calorie I could and would pack on the weight very quickly once I was absorbing calories again. At that point, I was losing 2.5 pounds a week no matter what I ate. And, of course, he was right. They removed the diseased part of the intestines and while in the hospital for 6 days on nothing but IVs, I gained 5 pounds. I told him I was very upset that I was gaining weight on IVs and he said I was getting more calories from those IVs than I had been getting from my food. I did gain weight rapidly after that. I yo-yo'd around after that, gaining, losing, then I quit smoking and put on 45 pounds very quickly. It was awful. Last Christmas, I decided to stop hitting the vending machines at work and I lost 12 pounds. I also decided that I wanted to try working out to deal with stress, thanks to DoctorD's inspiration. I would read her facebook status saying she was so stressed she couldn't wait to get to the gym to work it out. I thought.. it works for her, maybe it will work for me too. It felt good and it did reduce my stress. Then, on my birthday (March), I decided that the best birthday present I could give myself was to eat the way my body functions best, which is high protein, low carbs. I build bulk muscle very easily and felt GREAT the last time I tried eating that way. It also works well with the Crohn's, since I can't eat fiber. I knew that eating mostly protein made me energetic. I decided that, since I have a chronic illness that I have very little control over, I might as well control the things that I DO have control over. So, between March and July, I lost about 40 more pounds. I started playing around again, eating more carbs and have only lost a few pounds since then. However, I've maintained 56 pound weight loss now for a few months. I stopped working out when grad school started because managing my time became a real challenge with the kids back in school, working full time, having homework to get done so often. I think I'm in a groove with grad school now though. I'm done with this term and I decided this past weekend that it's time to hit the work outs again. I may not get as many in as I was during the spring and summer, but I need to do it more often than I am now. I'm also restricting the carbs again. I do best if I keep it to around 50 g of carbs a day. My goal now? 43 more pounds, maybe even 50 more. Hopefully by our Convention in late June. Our last convention, I was dangerously close to my highest weight ever. I could be about 100 pounds smaller this time around. I'll have to buy a new white dress for Initiation, but hey, that's ok.
My gastro has warned me that I should NOT go below 150 because, if I get a bad flare again, I could lose 30-40 pounds over the course of a couple months and that would be dangerous. He wants me to keep a cushion. I don't think that will be a problem though..lol. I've never lost more than 40 pounds in an attempt before and usually, when I stop, I gain it back faster. Having maintained this loss for this long gives me more confidence that I can keep going.
But, my original point was.. perhaps a program like that would have made me realize that I wasn't the hugely obese person that I thought I was, at 130 pounds. I can be up to 143 and still be in the "normal" range, per the BMI charts.
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