Do you like my new header image?  I thought about posting myself in a bikini (of course), but this is a better depiction of me as a person. It is one of my favorite childhood photos & memories.

I also discovered the CSS land that is the back-end of this blog. But I must remember – baby steps.  :)   Today header image, tomorrow the world!   Mwah ha ha ha ha!

Now to the topic of today’s post:  A Diet Retrospect.  WARNING: not for the faint of heart (aka “Alli”).  Oh, yes… it’s coming.  Hold on to your butts.

Starvation: Yes, this was my first diet.  It was band camp in the 10th grade, and I wanted to lose 15 pounds.  So, I stopped eating except for a tiny meal at night.  I did this for 3 week and lost 15 pounds.  Once I started eating again, I gained every pound back.

Healthy Eating & Exercise: The summer before my 12th grade year, I decided to try to lose weight again.  This time, I did it the right way.  My starting weight was probably around 160 and when all was said and done I dropped to 140ish over the course of 4 months.  Then two years later while in college, I gained about 20 pounds of it back.

Over the course of the next 3 years I gained and lost about 10 pounds on a regular basis.  Then came my…

Appendectomy: OK, so this really isn’t a diet – but it got me down to 150 real quick.  I managed to keep it off for a while until I moved to Georgia.  While living in Rome, GA & Atlanta, GA, I once again started gaining and losing 10-15 pounds on a regular basis.

Atkins Diet: Oh, Atkins Diet.  How many times have I tried thee??  My first time was in Atlanta, and of course it worked.  I probably dropped about 15 pounds the first time I tried it.  Nothing but meat & cheese baby.  Good times.  As soon as I started eating other foods though, I ballooned back up immediately.

When I moved back home to Birmingham my weight skyrocketed to 198.  That is the most I have ever weighed.  I can’t really remember how long I weighed that much, but it was definitely a year or two.  I was about 24 or 25.  And I can’t find one photo from that time period (what a shocker).

A few more Atkins Diets later, I made a short film about weight-loss called “Piece of Cake”.  You can watch it on my Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=149367917795

Healthy Eating & Exercise: The next memorable diet I did was when I lost about 30 pounds 3 1/2 years ago.  I decided to take on a 12-week sprint triathlon training schedule and I also ate about 1,500 calories a day.  I went from about 190 to 160.  Then, I started a new job a year later and quickly gained it all back from stress.

Alli Diet Pill: Last year when Mike and I got married, I wanted a lose-weight-fast solution.  So I bought Alli.  If you are easily made sick, you need to stop reading NOW.  This diet pill is easily abused.  If you eat too much fat (more than 15 grams per meal), you basically expel grease.  And you better not get caught away from a restroom if the urge strikes, because it is violent.  You can easily take advantage of this pill by doing just that – eating fat… b/c that is the only way it actually works (it blocks up to 25%).  Otherwise, you are just eating healthy and taking some random pill.  Another way people abuse Alli is by taking up to 2 pills for meals when you expect to eat a lot of fat.  This blocks up to 40%.  (The prescription equivalent is equal to 2 of the over the counter pills.)  I did end up losing about 12 pounds on Alli just in time for our Honeymoon, but the second I stopped taking the pills it all came right back.  I think taking the Alli pill triggered something very unhealthy in my brain.  I am not going to compare it to vomiting or starvation, but you are basically causing your body to “get rid” of the food you just ate.  I can see how some people might get hooked on that.

This brings us to the here and now.  It is no secret that I love The Carb Lovers Diet because it has taught me how to eat right & incorporate exercise in a healthy way.  It isn’t a fad.  And believe me, I know a thing or two about fad diets.  As I have said a million times before, the real trick is going to be keeping it off.  When the time comes, I plan to make short & long-term goals to ensure this.

I leave you today with some funny photos from my past.  Hello Glamour Shots!

Photos from the PAST