I have been overweight or obese pretty much my whole life. I remember in 3rd grade I weighed in at 109 pounds. By my Freshman year of high school I was up to 180. At the time I felt huge. Now, I would love to be 180 pounds. March of my Freshman year I tore my right Achilles tendon. It didn’t completely rip into. It was a hairline tear, but it was very painful. I spent 6 weeks in a plaster cast up to my knee to keep my foot immobile and then spent several weeks in physical therapy after that. I was not able to play rec-league softball that season, and I missed about 4 months of horseback riding lessons.
In the fall of my Junior year (the night before the Homecoming dance) I got kicked by a horse in my left leg just above my ankle during a horseback riding lesson. I got 7 interior stitches and 11 exterior stitches at an emergency clinic that evening. Later that night, I had to be taken to the emergency room because the pain meds had worn off and the pain was unbearable. There, I was treated by the same doctor who treated me for my torn Achilles tendon. He said that a nerve had probably been severed, which was why I was in so much pain. They gave me IV antibiotics and morphine, a prescription for Loritab and, after about 2 hours, sent me home.
After a couple of appointments with the doctor at the clinic who stitched me up, it became apparent that my wound was not healing properly. He scheduled an appointment at 7:30 a.m. with Dr. O’Boyle – the orthopedist who had treated my Achilles tendon and who had seen me in the emergency room. At that early morning appointment, Dr. O’Boyle told me that I had developed a hematoma and told me not to eat anything because, “Even if I have to cut open and drain that hematoma at 3 a.m., it will get done tonight.”
My parents took me to the hospital around 5 p.m., and finally at 11 p.m., they took me down to surgery. I had a fairly miserable 3-day stay in the hospital. My leg felt better, but between the strange place and the nurse coming to check my temperature every 4 hours, I couldn’t get any sleep.
When everything was said and done, I missed almost a month of school, had to wear a strap-on cast for several weeks after surgery, then had months of physical therapy after that. I did not resume horseback riding lessons after that incident. The whole time I was in the hospital and at home, I never received a phone call, card or anything else from the stable owner (who was also my instructor) where I had taken lessons for 7 years.
By the middle of my Senior year, I was up to about 275 pounds. That was when I went on my first diet. My parents and I joined Healthy Weigh, at my mother’s insistence. She had dieted off and on for several years and was a bit overweight, but not obese. My father had steadily been gaining weight, and he and I were both obese according to our BMIs. Over about 4-5 months we all lost weight. I lost about 50 pounds. When I graduated high school, I weighed about 225 pounds.
My first year of college I continued to be conscientious of what I was eating, I walked a LOT and even tried out (unsuccessfully) for the girl’s rugby team. The summer after, I had a great trip to Spain (despite lots of pork, lots of walking kept my weight the same). Early the fall of my Sophomore year of college I noticed a pain in my left heel. Dr. O’Boyle informed me that I had a tear in my left Achilles tendon. Another cast. More physical therapy. After that, I didn’t walk as much. I used to walk 10, 12, 15 blocks at a time, after being in the cast I tended to keep to a 4-6 block radius. Junior year, same thing – less exercise, less attention to what I was eating. By the time I graduated from college, I weighed about 280 pounds.
The summer after college, I stared Weight Watchers and lost about 15 pounds before I moved to Kansas. I got to Kansas just before the start of winter. The cold kept me indoors and loneliness and frigid temperatures made me crave fatty comfort foods. 3 years of lots of restaurant eating, lack of exercise and battling depression resulted in my weight climbing to almost 350 pounds.
About 12 weeks ago I went to the doctor to get the vaccines I needed to travel to Panama. When they checked my weight, I weighed 346 pounds. I started then to try to be more conscientious of what I was eating. Over 11 weeks, I lost 11 pounds. From past experiences, I know that it is easier for me to actually track my calorie intake when I write things down. I figured I’d pair that with a need for accountability and my love of cooking and start this blog. Hopefully you find it interesting. I welcome suggestions on how to improve the blog.
As I mentioned earlier, this is not a lose weight quick scheme. I want to lose the weight through gradual, permanent changes, not through some fad diet that I can’t follow the rest of my life. When I started this week, I weighed 334.6 pounds. Tonight I weighed in at 331.8 pounds. This week I have lost 2.8 pounds.
Yay! Go, Amy.
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