Today, I am going to participate in Friend Making Monday. I learned about this from Sarah of OnMyWayToHappiness.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Before Photos

1. Are you on a weight-loss journey? Have you lost weight in the past? Are you trying to lose it now?

I am on a weight-loss journey. I didn’t always struggle with my weight. I never had a problem until I gave birth to my fourth child in four years. I used diet pills to help me lose the weight, but I didn’t realize I ate huge amounts of calories. I didn’t change my diet, and I ended up gaining the weight back. That was in 1999. In 2003-ish, I was maintaining at a high of about 180 or so. I wasn’t actively trying to lose weight. Then my dad died. I started working very long hours, and I brought in a grocery bag full of food with me to eat at my desk while working. This often included things like a box of Wheat Thins and a half-pound of spinach dip. I don’t even want to know what kind of calories that added up to.

Needless to say, I gained weight. I was now hovering around 200-210. In 2006, I went back to grad school. For the next two years, busy is not enough to describe what my life was like. It was overflowing, and my eating was the least of my concerns. I frequently ate fast food twice a day because it was all I had time for as I commuted between home work and school. I was putting 700 miles on my car a week. My days started at 6 a.m. and usually went until 1 or 2 a.m. I’d be away from home from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. I gained weight.

In 2007, I tried to lose. I would have some success and then put it back on with even more weight. In 2011, I noticed that no matter what I tried to do, I was gaining steadily. In June/July of 2011, my weight had reached an all-time high of 255 pounds, and I decided that was unacceptable. I went to a meeting about bariatric surgery at the end of June. My surgery was scheduled for Aug. 9, which was less than six weeks from the time I attended that first meeting.

In addition to my surgery, I am doing a lot of exercising, drinking fluids and eating right. The weight is coming off. I am now almost back to that 180 that I haven’t seen since at least 2003 if not longer.

2. Do you like being in pictures, or do you shy away from the camera?

I am usually the one taking photos in my family. I do like being in pictures although I shied away from it more when I was overweight. I know that pictures aren’t just about me, and my family would like pictures of me too, so I tried not to avoid getting my picture taken. Still, there were few pictures of me since I am the one behind the camera.
3. Does looking at old photos of yourself motivate you?

Old photos do motivate me, and I am motivated by photos of me when I was skinny and when I was obese. There are some pictures of me from 13 years ago where I was very skinny (the first time I was on the diet pills actually), and I was at the goal weight I hope to see soon. Those pictures are just as motivating as the ones where I was 255 and couldn’t walk without rubbing my thighs together and getting chaffed.
4. Weight-loss bloggers, do you post progress pictures on your blog?

I do use progress photos on my blog.
5. Will you share a before photo with us (even if you don’t have an after yet?)

This is a photo that I shared not that long ago on my blog. It shows a 64 pound loss. Since then, I’ve lost another 5 pounds.