Losing weight

I have been trying to shed these pounds for years! It took me fifteen years to get this way and I need to realize it will take a while to shed them. It's weird - I want to lose the weight but when the tough gets going, I just sit down and quit. Yep - I'm a quitter when it comes to losing weight. Granted the last few times I tried, I lost weight and then got pregnant... gained the weight back, and then quit the dieting. Oh and this isn't Nick blogging - it's Jenny. It's been a hard road - it totally stresses me out to not be able to eat what I want but what I need to understand is that what I want is so bad for me. If I keep continuing the way that I am going, it will only be harder on me, my family and my attitude.

I decided that I am sick and tired of being this way. I have to be honest - yes, I love food. And yes, I hate planning ahead - I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. But look where it has gotten me and my family. I am way overweight, my husband could stand to lose some weight, my daughter is telling me that she would like to eat healthier and overall we don't eat enough fruits and vegetables.

I took the first step on Tuesday and joined Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers has always been a plan that I can work with and lose weight. I called my mother-in-law because she wanted to attend the meetings with me. I changed the start date about four times because I had my kids with me and I didn't think I could bring them with me. I went anyways - I went in, weighed in and asked about bringing the kids to the meeting. I was told that if they made any noise that I would have to leave. I totally understood since I wouldn't want to sit through a meeting with fussy kids. But lucky for me and thanking God, they didn't fuss at all - they sat and played quietly.

I feel great about starting the program and am ready to make the right choices. I'm including the kids in my journey and cooking well for my family. This is a great start for them and an even better life change for me!

I HATE taking pictures of myself because I see what other people see. I cannot believe that I've gained so much weight. But I am going to face it now, be in photographs, and start taking care of myself. Here's to losing weight!

This is me after having my third child. I keep telling people - I'm going to lose weight but I just had my third child. Let me tell you - I can use this exact excuse for YEARS. I've proven it too - I used that excuse after my first turned four. The girl I was talking to said, "Oh my goodness, you just had a baby? How old is she." I was totally embarrassed that I had to admit that she was four years old.

The bottom pic is me at 19 or 20 years old. I was in college at the time and dating Nick. This is where all the weight gain began. I remember days of eating at McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Chinese Buffets and Auntie Anne's just came to Bham so we ate a ton of pretzels. Being a broke college student, we ate at a burger joint right down from campus that sold incredibly cheap burgers. I can imagine that they were incredibly fattening.

It's not easy to admit to all of this but I wanted to. I wanted to blog about it so I can look back and see my journey! We're still going to look for great places to eat in Birmingham but I'm going to make wiser choices and if there are times that I don't, I want to blog about it too so I can learn from my choices.