At my worst, just a few months ago, I was almost at 240 pounds. Thankfully, part of that weight is due to my inherited larger bone structure, and so I didn't look quite as big as the scale made me out to be. However, I was still visibly overweight, and very unhappy with myself. I hadn't been happy with myself since middle school, but up until January of 2005, I also hadn't felt the urge to change my lifestyle. I, like everyone else in America, wanted something that would magically transform me overnight.

Of course, I never found that magic potion.

Sometime around mid-January, I began seeing a LOT of banners on websites, advertising Weight Watchers. I'd done WW for a few months in the past and had seen results with it, but at that time I was still in high school and didn't really feel like paying the money just to go in once a week and get weighed. For some reason, though, everything clicked for me this time. I knew this was what I wanted to do, and so I signed up for their online plan.

For exercise, I started off by going to the campus gym every day after class. I would spend about 40 minutes on the elliptical machine, and then I would walk around the track (sometimes, I'd try to jog) for another 10 or 20 minutes. I wanted to add in weight training, but was too nervous to go down to the weight room by myself. Finally, in March, after hearing SO many rave reviews about an exercise system called The FIRM, I went out and bought the first two systems (to date, there are 4 systems). These exercises combine cardiovascular exercises and weight training all in one...and best of all, I could do it all from home! This solved the problem of what I'd do when I went home during vacations.

My roommate keeps telling me I'd be an inspiration to her if she wasn't so lazy. *laughs* All I know is, I'm loving the results I'm seeing, even though right now they're still small.