Here we go…

Hello friends! I am a new addition to ExPounds. My name is Sarah, and I am excited to be here!

Let me tell you my story. We are on a story-telling platform, after all. I have always been the chubby friend, for all of my memory. There are photos that exist of me as a preschooler, rail thin and grinning, but I don’t think that counts. In elementary school my mom had me play soccer. I hated it, because I was fat and couldn’t keep up and none of the other girls liked me. In middle school my mom had me dance jazz. I hated it, for the same reasons. I watched the video of the final performance and you could just see how unhappy I was to be there. I didn’t fit in. I was fat, and no one liked me.

In high school, I tried getting into martial arts. I joined the Tae Kwon Do club at my school with a friend. She was Korean, and I was afraid of hugging her because I thought I’d snap her in half. I got my black belt, but somehow I gained weight in the process? My highest weight in high school was 160 lbs (72.5 kg). Keep in mind I’m 5'2" (158 cm)…I was getting pretty hefty. Somehow, though, I lost 30 lbs in my junior year there. I still have no idea how that happened.

Once I entered college I was diagnosed with all sorts of fun stuff. I also started birth control. So all these medications, plus my inactivity and lack of knowledge about how to feed myself, caused me to gain and gain and gain some more. Despite trying things like capoeria and aerial silks and even going through several personal trainers, I arrived at my current (and heaviest) weight: 210 lbs (95 kg). Yeah…I’m pretty upset about it.

So, ok. I have a problem. I know I do. What to do about it? Well, I am part of r/loseit on Reddit, I am part of a weight loss slack community, and perhaps most importantly I am tired of my own shit. I woke up the other morning, weighed and measured myself, and just shook my head. So, I downloaded C25K and finished week 1. I went to the grocery store and bought a spaghetti squash to go with my homemade meatballs. Who does that? (I ended up cooking it with salmon instead, still delicious!) I have been researching heavily into the ketogenic diet and while I haven’t started drastically cutting out carbs I have been a lot more mindful of the shit I put in my mouth. It’s only been a few days, so I can’t say anything has really happened. But when it does, you’ll be the first to know.