I have tried dieting in the past with some success, but I always end up falling off the wagon. I joined DietBet for some much needed accountability, since I don't seem to have it my personal life. My husband and I have been together for 7 and a half years (married for 2 and a half) and our weight has gone up together. My mom told me this is called "happiness weight," but it's making me sick and miserable. This time last year I was at the highest weight of my life (254lbs) and my doctor told me that my weight combined with my PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) would make it next to impossible for me to get pregnant. As a newlywed couple this was heartbreaking to hear so I set out on a mission to reclaim my health. I joined a local boot camp and started my doctor's recommended diet (Low Carb) and the combination of HIIT and the low carb diet started to work. I got down to 213lbs by the end of three month challenge and I lost over 35 inches all over my body. I felt strong and on the path to health.
But then we were hit by a string of bad luck. My husband (who works in commissioned sales) was having a rough time at work and we were struggling to make ends meet. This meant that my boot camp, at $150/mo had to go despite my great results. We both put in longer hours at work to try and help our situation and longer hours meant fewer workouts and less time for food prep which started a slippery slope. In July I had a sharp pain in my abdomen that put me in the hospital. After rounds of tests the doctor informed me that they had found a mass on my cervix and that they would remove it and biopsy it to check for cancer. Cancer. That one word made it feel like my whole world was ending. My mom is a cancer survivor but it was hard and I was terrified. My husband tried comforting me and made me all my favorite comfort foods (full of carbs and sugar of course) and the weight started to creep back on. Fortunately my biopsy came back clear but I am considered "high risk" and have to go in for more frequent exams. Unfortunately, our health insurance didn't cover much of this and we were buried in even more debt, debt that we cleared out our "buy a house fund" to pay off.
But the bad luck didn't stop there, in September I started experiencing headaches and blurred vision. I've always had bad eyesight but this time I was experiencing partial vision loss. My regular optomitrist referred me to a corneal specialist and I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition. He was able to stablize my eyes with treatment but my dreams of LASIK were shattered.
Then came my birthday and the holidays, I ate as best I could but my activity was minimal. Work was awful and I was stressed and depressed. My new clothes that I had purchased after my weight loss were starting to get tight and I knew I had to make a change.
I had heard great things about DietBet through a friend. She had done a few and had great success, so I decided I wanted to sign up and I knew a Transformer was the way to go for the consistent accountability. I had avoided family picutres during the holidays because I knew that I had put weight back on and the full body photos for the weigh in were a big wake up call to me, so was the number on the scale when I compared it to my last logged weight on MFP, I had gained 13.2 lbs since August. I went through the pantry and fridge right then and there and threw out all the junk, I deleted the takout ordering apps from my phone and moved the scale from my bathroom to the kitchen. I also decided to buy the weigh in tokens (I didn't purchase them initially I did it as a second purchase after reading that they were good for added accountability).
I tried to get my husband to join me on this DietBet but he refused. I worry about him, he has much more weight to lose than I do (and he was in the ICU for 5 days 2 years ago because they thought he was having a stroke...at age 30...) but he is not interested. So my hope is that my changes influence him and motivate him so we can live long happy lives together. Success for me isn't a number on the scale or the size of my jeans, it's being able to run and play with my niece (and hopefully future children), its resolving chronic conditions and getting off medications and about finally feeling happy and comfortable in my own skin. My goal weight is 140 lbs but if I find health and happiness before that then that to me is success.