I continued to gain weight in Ventura county, and when Keith and I would visit family in San Diego once or twice a month people were beginning to say stuff to me about my weight. It hurt my feelings and made me angry, but I ignored them. I was about 175 lbs here, and this was taken on my 20th bday weekend in March 2003.
This is a picture of me in Hollywood with Jesse Metcalfe of Desperate Housewives fame, one month later. As you can see, my arm looks about as big as Jesse's head! 
This picture made me sad, and I ate my emotions, such a vicious cycle. As the year went on I steadily gained more weight, and then it got REALLY bad over the holidays. I missed my San Diego family and ate a lot for comfort, and did not exercise at all.
After New Years 2004 I hit what I consider to be my "rock bottom." We went to San Diego to attend a wedding and I had nothing to wear. I was aware that I had gained some weight over Halloween-Christmas, so when I went to JC Penney to buy a dress for the wedding the night before, I grabbed a size larger than I normally would, thinking it'd be too big. Much to my anger and disgust it was too small! I had somehow gotten myself to size 20! I cried in the dressing room, and the next day I cried in Keith's arms telling him I refused to go to the wedding and be seen by family who would probably only stare and judge. I stepped on my parents' bathroom scale and was horrified to find that I had reached 190 lbs. I was morbidly obese at 5 ft tall. I ended up going to the wedding anyway, but was very embarrassed.
Pictured above are the pics I developed after attending the wedding that made me realize I needed to do something. You can tell how unhealthy I was at 190 pounds, even in my skin. (I am only 5 ft tall!) These were taken January 5th 2004. I was so disgusted with the person I saw in those pictures that I started my weight loss journey the following Monday. I lost 10 pounds on my own by simply cutting out regular soda and Hot Cheetos. After seeing my neighbor Michelle's 30 lb success on Weight Watchers I went to her house one night full of questions, and then I joined myself on January 17,2004 at 180.2 lbs.
I started out slowly with my new lifestyle by sticking to the WW points system and attending weekly meetings. I learned so much at the meetings and the accountability was great for me! Once I adjusted to eating smaller portions and healthier foods I added exercise---very slowly. The first time I went to the gym on base with Keith I left in tears and felt very defeated because I only last 5 minutes on the elliptical machine before I felt like I was going to die and had to stop, but rather than quit I kept going back. The next time I lasted 7 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, and before I knew it I was up to 60-90 minute cardio sessions at a high intensity! I added in aerobics and light weights and started to shrink very quickly!
By Valentine's day I was 169.6 lbs, down 20.6 lbs. By my 21st bday I was 158.4 lbs, down 32 lbs. By June I was in the 130's, down more than 50 lbs, and on July 19, 2004 I hit my WW goal of 128 lbs, down 62 lbs! In order to earn my Weight Watchers lifetime membership I needed to maintain that weight (or be no more than 2 lbs above it) for 6 weeks. 6 weeks later on August 23, 2004 I was still 128 lbs and I earned my lifetime membership!
The above two pics are Polaroids my hubby Keith snapped of me on August 20, 2004, three days before I earned WW lifetime membership! I was 128 lbs, my official WW goal on paper. WW worked wonders for me and really changed my life and my relationship with food. I ate to live, no longer living to eat. It was at this point that I decided my new personal goal weight would be 110 lbs. I wanted to gain some muscle tone and firm up my trouble spots.
Months later, I exceeded my goal by reaching 107 lbs (pictured above) after firming up with weight training and pilates. This picture is of me and my friend Jessi. Keith and I visited her and her husband in Camarillo, where we lived when I started WW, and this was her first time seeing me at this size! (As mentioned, we moved back to San Diego county 3 months into my weight loss journey because my hubby Keith was getting out of the Navy.) She didn't even recognize me!
This is me, still at 107 lbs. At this point my metabolism was so fast that despite my efforts to maintain my weight, I continued to lose it. I ended up losing 7 more lbs, getting down to 100 lbs. I was a size ZERO! I was down 90 lbs and 20 dress sizes. It got so bad that even my size zero pants were getting loose on me, and you can't get smaller than that. It did not suit me at all. My family, who'd been used to seeing me curvy most of my life, said I was way too skinny and many accused me of an eating disorder. I ended up having to *purposely* gain weight back, which is kinda funny to think about when you look at my "before" pics! I never thought in a million years that I'd ever want to GAIN weight!
I increased my calories and reduced work outs until I was a healthy, curvy, comfortable 124 lbs and I maintained that weight for several years, until I got pregnant in 2008.
I'm throwing this pic in just for fun. I like to call it "Halloween 2003 vs Halloween 2004!" On the left side is me at about 170, the weight I kind of hovered around as a set point before I skyrocketed to 190. On the right, I am Catwoman! When I made lifetime membership on August 23, 2004, my new goal was to tone up and be 110 lbs by Halloween 2004! Well, I didn't quite make it there, but I was close enough as far as I was concerned! I was 112 lbs. My size small Catwoman pants were too big for me!
I am an entirely different person, and health is now a priority. I have never been more active in my life and I am very happy. In 2006 I worked as a surf instructor and hula danced with a polynesian dance troupe, and in 2007 I got into the fitness industry. It's very much a part of who I am now.
This is me on May 24, 2008. I am the one in the pink bikini top. I was somewhere between 124-128 lbs here.
Believe it or not I was 6 weeks pregnant in those photos, though I suffered my first miscarriage that day. Below is me in June 2008, just before I became pregnant with my son Jeffrey!
At this point (June 2008) I had been a WW lifetime member just shy of 4 years, and going strong!
Due to my history, I was advised not to exercise at all during my first trimester of pregnancy with Jeffrey. This was difficult for me, since I worked as a trainer in a gym lifting weights a few times a week, doing boot camp style classes twice a week, taking yoga classes & doing pilates a few times a week, and doing cardio every single day. Going from extremely active to completely sedentary was not a good thing for me. I was bored and anxious sitting around at home, and I ate for comfort. My boss at the gym asked that I take a leave of absence and come back in the 2nd trimester. Once my 2nd tri rolled around I found it difficult to get back into a routine and exercised very sporadically throughout my pregnancy, and never went back to work. I ended up gaining 64 lbs!
Pictured below is me during my 1st trimester with Jeffrey...
...and for comparison, this is me on my 26th bday, 5 days before Jeffrey was born.
I nursed Jeffrey for a little over 12 months, and contrary to what everyone told me the pregnancy weight did NOT just melt away! I struggled with milk supply for most of that time, so I had to be careful about restricting calories. I did not take my weight loss seriously until Jeffrey was around 8 months old, but once I started attending WW meetings again the weight started to melt away! By January of 2010 I had lost 40 of the 64 lbs I gained while pregnant with Jeffrey....and then I got pregnant again! I was determined not to gain a stupid amount of weight with this next pregnancy, so I downloaded a WW diary app for my Droid and journaled my food for my ENTIRE pregnancy, and I worked out at the gym and with my prenatal fitness DVDs several times a week. The day I delivered Chloe I weighed in at 168 lbs and on her 2 week birthday I was at my pre-pregnancy weight with her!
This was me a little more than halfway through my pregnancy with Chloe:
Chloe was born in the wee hours of Monday October 11, 2010. I was careful to follow my midwife's recommendation of not exercising for 6-8 weeks after delivery, and taking that break was bad news as I fell out of my routine. Then came Halloween. And Thanksgiving. And Christmas. I packed weight back on and it wasn't pretty. This is me when Chloe was almost 8 weeks old, the last week of November 2010. I wasn't happy with myself in this picture at all.
This was me on June 11, 2011 with my 8 month old Chloe.
These are progress pics taken July 1, 2011 (the day I decided to shake things up and chop off my hair!) I am about 10 lbs away from my personal goal weight here, but 6 lbs away from WW goal.
This is my most recent progress pic, taken July 26, 2011.
It is now August 26, 2011 (7 years and 3 days after becoming a WW lifetime member) and I am 4 lbs away from my WW goal weight, which means that I am 2 lbs away from reclaiming my "lifetime member in good standing" status! However, my personal goal of pre-mommyhood weight is another 8 lbs away. I hope to be there by Chloe's 1st birthday on October 11, 2011, if not sooner. The second half of July and first couple weeks of August were rough, as I slacked a lot and celebrated too many birthdays, baby showers, etc with a little too much wine and goodies, but I am happy to report that I am back on track with journaling my food, planning my meals and (almost) daily workouts. I am currently doing Weight Watchers online and loving PointsPlus. I highly recommend it. I do not feel deprived in any way, fruit and veggies are "free" and I can have anything I want in moderation. And best of all it WORKS. I will be back with an update as soon as I reclaim my lifetime membership status, which should be some time in the next couple weeks if all goes according to plan!
Progress pic 9/3/11 at 129.9 lbs:
Update Monday September 19, 2011
After a rough couple of weeks (with stress from putting our home up for sale) I weighed in this morning at 128.3 lbs, just .3 lbs over my WW goal on paper. Unfortunately I weighed in later than I planned, so I wasn't able to make a WW meeting to go reclaim my lifetime membership status, but I plan to do so either tomorrow or next week. Woo-hoo!
***UPDATE SEPTEMBER 26, 2011***
I DID IT!!! I have officially reclaimed my status as a lifetime member in good standing. I weighed in at 127.4 lbs this morning (.6 of a lb under my WW goal) and am only 3.4 lbs away from my personal goal of pre-baby weight, woo-hoo!!! 
