I hate you muffintop! : My Story....

Here's my story...

When I first graduated from High School (almost 10 years ago! crazy how time flies!) I packed up, hopped on a plane and ventured to a HUGE college in the south. You would think moving from New England to the sunny warmth of the south, would encourage people to stay skinny, but for me that was a challenge.

This is me in 2006 after gaining weight in college. Im with my college boyfriend in this picture, and notice my huge MUFFINTOP!!

I lived in a dorm my freshman year, and was also on a varsity athletic team. That mean long days of class, and practice, late nights of homework and a social life. I'd eat my meals at the dinning hall, which of course was buffet - something I have NO self control with. When there is a buffet I think to myself "why not try everything as long as you don't eat it all" Next thing you know my plate was empty! I'd eat breakfast, lunch, a snack before practice, and then a late dinner by the time practice was over (9:00). Of course the Ben and Jerry's store that was open til 2 am (literally right next to my dorm) that took your meal plan flex bucks sure didn't help. Did I mention a social life that included snacking and beer drinking.....that didn't help either. Before I knew it I had packed on the pounds, and was not prepared to be laying beach side in a bikini!

My sophomore year I moved into a house with some teammates, which helped a little with eating healthier, and not having a constant buffet in your face, but the pounds stayed on.

Me with my parents in 2006 End of Junior Year at about 160lbs

2007 after loosing about 10 pounds - still have a muffintop!

Second semester Junior Year, I came back from Christmas break, and started running. I begged my dad to buy me a Ipod nano because Nike+ had just come out and of course I had to have it! I told myself that this would help me to loose weight, and it did! Every day I put on my shoes, walked two blocks to the water and ran through the park along Tampa Bay. Ok, so maybe I walked a little too.... Each day I literally started in the same spot and ran 2 lampposts farther than I did the day before, then walked the rest of the 3 miles. Weeks later, I was running to the final lamppost of the 3 mile loop, and it felt great! I was finally loosing weight!!! YAY me! I continued running almost daily through the rest of junior and senior year and was able to drop 15 pounds!

2008 at my college graduation with my college boyfriend and one of my skinniest weights about 145

Then......I graduated and moved home. I got a job at an elementary school from 8-3 and began my masters with classes 4 days a week from 4-10. I would snack all afternoon partly because I was hungry, tired, bored, etc. then I'd get home at 10:30pm eat dinner, and do it all over again. Oh, and there was ZERO time for working out or running. The most working out I did was walking from my car to class, and lifting my fork to my mouth. Those 15 pounds came back, oh, and they brought 15 more with them - I had gained 30 pounds!!!!!!! I completed my masters program in the length of one school year. That summer I broke up with my 4 year college boyfriend, he moved back to Florida, and I continued on with life.

Now in the fall of 2009 I'm FAT, and Single - Life sucks! Christmas time I decided I couldn't just go to bars and hang out there. 1. I live in a small town and know everyone 2. College kids with their fake IDs go there 3. I'm fat and this is embarrassing so I joined Match.com I wanted to find someone who didn't know me, and wouldn't know that I was "fat", someone who never knew the "skinny me". Mid January I met a guy, we agreed to go out and get a drink and meet. He called me that night and asked me to go to the aquarium with him and out to dinner. The day after that he wanted to go ice skating. Two days later, to the movies. In one week he had sent me hundreds of text messages, phone calls, and we had gone on 4 dates! Things were starting to look up! After a couple weeks of dating, I knew that deep inside he thought I was fat, so I knew it was time to do something about it. I had some friends who did Weight Watchers, and all had positive results. So I joined too.

2011 with Mr. Match (my current boyfriend) at almost my heaviest wight ever about 172 :( HOLY MUFFINTOP!!!!!

I joined Weight Watchers Online and began tracking. At first I didn't tell a sole what I was doing, and it was very hard because we were constantly going out to dinner and enjoying life. The pounds started to come off slowly. Soon I told the new man and a few of my WW friends, and they were all very supportive. It started to make the journey easier. I began running again, just a minute at a time, and now I run 3-6 miles a few times a week. Throughout WW I've lost 20+ pounds. I still have another 10+ to loose. These last few pounds are the worst!

Mr. Match (match.com) and I have been together for almost 3 years now. Life is good, but would be better If I ever felt that I could loose these last 10 pounds and of course get rid of the Muffintop!