Picture this...it was Sicily, 1927... Kidding. That's from one of my favorite shows, The Golden Girls (note: if you, too, like The Golden Girls, you can get shot glasses and play drinking games whilst watching reruns).
Okay, for real. Picture this... it was Sydney, Australia, October 2001. You don't really have to picture it because I've done it for you:
I'd started off in Texas in 1994 at 130ish pounds, and by October 2001 I was up about 50 pounds from that. Yes, 50 pounds. I stunned myself, really. That's the kind of weight gain you read about in magazines. Or blogs.
Anyhow, what's 50 pounds amongst friends, right? I didn't let it stop me from a bucket list vacation to Australia, where a friend and I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, went to the aquarium (where I learned that male platypi are deadly - they have a claw on their hind flippers that is full of poison; I swear everything in Australia is trying to kill you), the Taronga Zoo (got to hang out with koalas in their eucalyptus-filled enclosure; did you know Hugh Jackman used to dress up as a kangaroo, and that I harbor a massive fangirl crush on Hugh Jackman? More on Hugh Jackman later), the Sydney Opera House (where I slept through a beautifully-staged opera, yay jetlag), Manly Beach (got shit upon by a seagull, that rat bastard) and Bondi Beach.
It was a great trip (despite being shat upon) but I was wearing Eddie Bauer jeans in a size 12 and I remember distinctly telling my friend at Sydney Harbor I needed to take an escalator instead of the stairs because my jeans were too tight. Ugh.
And despite feeling fat and uncomfortable, I kept getting bigger and found myself three months later at 186 (have I told you I'm only 5'2"?). I don't know what prompted me (was it the Duchess of Pork commercials?) but for the first time I joined Weight Watchers®. By then the low-fat thing had passed, but they had 'points'! I could go to their website and log what I was eating - each food had a 'point' value and it was like a game to see if I could stay in my 'point' budget. I was also supposed to track the number of servings of fruit/vegetables, glasses of water, and servings of calcium - more games to challenge myself with! And you could 'earn' a few 'points' for working out which meant...drumroll please...eating more!
The whole gamification thing was perfect for me: I'm abnormally competitive (THAT'S a long story, but suffice to say Mama and Papa Boopsandbugs had high expectations of their children) and I love-love-loved meeting the various daily and weekly challenges. And lo and behold it worked! The weight melted off, and I loved the way I felt, the way I looked and what clothes I could wear.
I returned to Australia in October 2002, going to Cairns (The Great Barrier Reef) all by myself. I'd alternate a day tour on the water with a day tour in the rainforest. It. Was. Awesome. I weighed 162 then. Thank you, Weight Watchers®!
I kept up with Weight Watchers® for about six months after this trip, and got down to about 155 and a size 8 for a hot minute. And I mean HOT. I looked and felt great, was wearing the cutest clothes, and then took a business trip to NYC in January 2003. All of a sudden it was restaurants every meal for ten days. And there was a crippling snowstorm (like, over a foot of snow - the drifts were taller than me), so not a lot of walking around the city to burn off what I was eating. I was also away from a computer (back in the days of desktops!) so I couldn't track my food really well. And there wasn't a ton of time to use the hotel gym. And blahblahblah excuses upon excuses. The weight started creeping back.
In May 2003 I went to Cancun for the first time. I'd re-gained about 10 pounds, but I felt great. I played in the pool and the ocean, I went jet skiing, snorkeling with squid, snorkeling in Cozumel. I wore swimsuits and shorts and dresses, I danced on the bar in some club... Life was good. Who needs Weight Watchers®!
But going to Cancun with a friend that looks like THAT does awful things to one's self-esteem. I remember her delight in finding a Zara, and my crushing despondence that even at this relatively-low weight I STILL couldn't fit into their clothes. By the time I returned to Texas I'd chucked all pretenses of tracking what I ate, I stopped going to my personal trainer, my new boss was stressing me out, and by February 2004 I was close to the weight I started at two years prior. Who needs Weight Watchers®? Apparently I did.
Gah. It was another ten years before I got control of my weight again. But that's another story.
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