Zephyr's Introduction

Current stats:

AGE: 27

WEIGHT: 310 lbs

HEIGHT: 6'0"

SHIRT SIZE: 24/26  or 2x-3x (depends on the cut)

PANT SIZE: 26 (little snug) to 28 (little loose)

CURRENT LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: low. A lot of walking on campus, walks with the new dog, yoga when I can squeeze it in, but overall, barely amounting to an hour at the most.

CURRENT DIET: It alternates between not eating much at all, which triggers starvation mode, and eating whatever's easiest, resulting in an upsetting amount of fast food.

WEIGHT LOSS HISTORY: I was a relatively normal sized child, until I hit puberty.  From that point, what had been a slight bit of chub turned into a large amount of chub.  It didn't help that I was sedentary, shy, and a klutz. Any time I joined some kind of sports, if I didn't wind up getting injured badly enough to have to sit out the rest of the season (soccer) or laughed out (volleyball),  I freaked out and quit (track).

I went to Denmark at age 18 as a foreign exchange student, and was warned that it was very likely I would gain at least 20lbs.  Interestingly, quite the opposite happened; I lost 50. I was much more active, biking and walking everywhere, and eating food that, while not as healthy as it could have been, wasn't loaded down with the same things our food here in the states tends to be. I looked and felt great, down to just about 200 lbs for the first time since I was 14 or 15.  Unfortunately, the circumstances there led me to returning to the US sooner and under much less pleasant circumstances than it should have been. Because I'm an emotional eater, and came back very bitter and angry, I gained back all the weight, and another 30 or so besides.

And in the column of things that change your body forever, I got pregnant at 20.  There was complications at delivery and after, and between those and the changes to my body, I never lost the baby weight (though, admittedly, I didn't gain much; only about 15 lbs all told, including the 4 lbs lost in the first couple of months).  It was more that the muscles never recovered, and over the six years since I had my son, fat settled into place in places it shouldn't have been.

Fast forward to now, 2010.  I've got a heart condition that no one can determine the cause of (and while i've been reassured that it's not weight related, I still have my doubts), joint issues from old injuries and the excessive weight I carry, and a myriad of other complaints that can be traced back to my weight, up to and including viciously low self esteem. I can't play with my son for more than a couple of minutes without feeling like I'm going to die, I can't convince myself to go out and do things because I'm positive everyone is looking at me and making fun of how heavy I am, I don't fit into some of the desks on campus (I'm an undergrad), and so on.  All of these things can be fixed by getting myself healthy. If I could just do it.

WEIGHT LOSS PLAN:  Take of sports/exercises that don't place too much stress on my beat up body and that keep me interested, change my eating habits to not only include several small meals a day, but to eliminate fast food. 

LONG-TERM GOAL:  135 lbs for a final weight of 175.

SHORT-TERM GOAL: 10 lbs by Thanksgiving (November 25, 2010) through healthier eating and more exercise, in the form of taking more stairs, parking farther, and doing yoga for at least 20 minutes, 5 days a week.