Facts About Me

                    On 9/20/2004 - Weight: 190.5 lbs ... (Highest weight was 271 lbs in 1992)
Height. 5' 0" - Goal weight 115 lbs 

Began Logging ALL food intake into a computer food journal
On 1/27/2006 - Reached Goal Weight: 115 lbs

Click here to see my numbers in Maintenance during 2006
Click here to see my numbers in Maintenance during 2007
Click here to see my numbers in Maintenance during 2008
Click here to see my numbers in Maintenance during 2009
Click here to see my numbers in Maintenance during 2010

For more numbers click links to charts below:
Charts detailing my Weight-Loss & Mainenance, years 1 thru 3.
Charts detailing my Maintenance, years 4 thru 11.

I am a retired California Attorney, who spent 25 years in private practice, specializing in Family Law.  I have a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and a Doctorate in Law.  I am a wife and a mother, and I also fulfill various other roles in life. This website is a Digital Scrapbook about my personal experience with weight-loss and maintenance. 

After a very large weight-loss, I’ve been successfully maintaining my weight at-or-near my "normal" BMI for more than 14+ consecutive years.

I developed a weight-problem at puberty…which for me was age 9. I am now 75 years old. From the age of 9 until age 48, I spent my lifetime yo-yo dieting, I lost more than 100 lbs three separate times, two of these times, I regained it all plus more. I also lost and regained 20 to 50 lbs numerous times.

As an overview, I'll list a few of my dieting efforts.

• When I was in my teens and twenties, I took various diet pills,
.....while under the care of various "diet doctors";

• I've joined and participated in Weight-Watchers more than 15 times;

• I'm a lifetime member of Jenny Craig;

• I participated in Nutri-System and many more commercial diet organizations;

• I followed numerous popular diets, both “fad” and “healthy”;

• I counted calories, points, carbs, meals, and bites;

• I worked to eat only when Hungry;

• I worked to eat only what “hummed” to me;

• I belonged to numerous Gyms; and engaged in various exercise activities;

• I spent about 4 years as a TOPS member;

• I spent 5 years as a very active Overeater's Anonymous member;

• I participated in a 6 month doctor's assisted, liquid-fast program;

• I participated in an outpatient, eating disorders program;

• I also spent almost 20 years in individual Therapy...
....much of which was spent on issues surrounding my weight.

Finally, about 29 years ago at age 47, weighing 271 lbs. while 5' 0" tall, which is a 52.9 BMI = Stage 4 - Super-obese,  I had an RNY gastric bypass, with NO removal of any intestine, which means that every calorie I eat is still digested, and still counts.

The surgery made my stomach smaller, and the first 6 to 8 months immediately after surgery, my body would allow me to eat almost nothing. Due to food intake of about 200 to 600 calories a day, my weight dropped from 271 down to 161 lbs, which is a 31.4 BMI = Stage 1 - just over the border of obese.

For the next 2 to 3 years I maintained in the 160s while eating as much food as my body would tolerate, however, my stomach begin stretching, and my body began to tolerate more food, and again, I had to begin dieting to keep my weight down.

For the next 10 years, I did this, but my weight kept creeping up. I felt I simply could not bear weighing over 200 lbs again, after all my effort, pain, and expense. My struggle to avoid gaining more weight allowed me to maintain in the 190s for several years...which is a 37 to 38 BMI = Stage 2 -Severe obesity, near the top border between Stage 2 and Stage 3 = Morbid obesity.   In September 2004 I began logging my food into DietPower, which is a computer software food journal that I discovered online.

At that point, I begun losing weight, and about 16 months later, after working to eat a daily average of approx 1230 daily calories, I reached my goal weight of 115 lbs, which is a  22.5 BMI = in the middle of the "Normal" weight range. This was the first time I weighed 115 lbs since I was a Freshman in High School, and at that time...in 1959...I did it while using Doctor-supervised, prescription diet-pills.

Since that time, for more than 15 years, I have maintained at, or near, my goal weight. This past 12+ years I've needed to work hard to maintain my weight within my weight-maintenance range by eating a daily average of less than 1000 daily calories, and even while consistently doing this, I've experienced a twenty pound creep. I am consistently working to reduce and eliminate this gain by dropping my calorie averages below that number, and engaging in as much moderate exercise as is appropriate within my chosen lifestyle.

The only thing different this time, from all my other prior dieting attempts, was the continual, consistent logging of ALL my food into this computer food journal.

  My weight loss surgery still gives me a slight advantage, in that

• I still get dumping syndrome, if I have a high sugar or refined carb intake within a very short time-period,...although my body now does tolerate grazing on small amounts of refined carbs throughout the day, which is behavior that I now have to work hard to avoid; and

• My body won't physically tolerate more than 3000 to 3500 calories of any kind of food in one 24 hr time period, which limits bingeing.

Here in Maintenance, I frequently experiment with different eating plans and eating patterns. While doing so I always continue to track all of my food in a computer software journal which provides me with caloric information. This helps me limit my food to the 1000 calories or less that is currently required for me to maintain my current weight. Tracking my food also helps me avoid Bingeing because doing this causes a focus on the fact that I am Accountable for my behavior ALL of the time

When I reached my Goal Weight, only a part of my Goal was achieved. The first part of my Goal was to get my body to my Goal Weight number, and the last part of my Goal is to get my body to stay within a reasonable range of that number.

I don’t view weight-loss and maintenance as two separate Goals. My Goal is structured to never become in the past tense, and therefore, while I am alive, it can never be viewed as “achieved” .

I now understand that Obesity, once established, becomes a Life-Long problem for which there is no known cure.

I found that believing and accepting that Physical Fact, resulted in a change in my Feelings and my Behavior.

I learned to Accept ….  

• that I was fat;
  
  
• that if I wanted to be thinner, I needed to change my eating behavior;
  
  
• that there is something permanent inside me that causes this condition;
  
  
• that I will never be "naturally thin";
  
  
• that I can only become and stay normal size through constant effort;
  
  
• that all of the things listed above are Okay.
  

Since the entire process is always going to be a part of my life, I had to change my Beliefs and my Attitude about that entire process. It was necessary for me to Embrace entirely the Weight-Food Issue and learn to enjoy dealing with it.

Most of the time, I now view Dieting as an enjoyable Hobby, one that takes a lot of my time and effort, and sometimes provides frustrations, but which, in return, does also give me many enjoyable hours.  For more read: Dieting is my Hobby.     

Here are a few pictures of me at my Goal Weight Maintenance Range.


January 2006 at 115 lbs

July 2007 at 105 lbs

I don't post BEFORE pictures, because If I wanted people to see me fat, I would have stayed fat.
Here's a music video of California Dreamin', with Mama Cass.
Visualize a fat version of my face on Mama Cass's body to get a fairly accurate idea of how I looked fat.