After reading several blogs from friends on NS I decided it was time to do my own.

I am a not exactly a stay at home mom, nor am I a career woman. My husband and I own our own electrical contracting business. I go into the office 1-2 days a week, maybe!! I have 3 beautiful children and a wonderful husband.

I have only one real hobbie. That is scrapbooking. I love to take pictures (though not very good ones), and organize them in a book so that they tell a story. It really is nice to sit down with my kids and relive that birthday, vacation or holiday. It will be even nicer when I can feel comfortable having my picture taken so that I am also in those albums.

My weight has been a problem for me since I was about 16. My weight started to go up in high school and has just kept going. In 1999 I managed to lose 40 pounds using a diet pill, low calorie (1000 a day) and a low or fat free diet. In October of 1999 I got pregnant with my son. I knew that my diet was not healthy for him, so I ate and ate and ate. I developed gestational diabetes during my pregnancy. This was something that had not happened in my last 2 pregnancies. My doctor told me it was just a precurser of things to come. My grandmother has "old age" diabetes. By the time I had him I weighed about 210 pounds. I thought that after I had him I could lose the weight. Unfortunately life threw some curves and my diet was the last thing on my mind. Everytime I would go to the doctor for one thing or another the scale had risen. In my mind it was just a "few" pounds, not that big a deal. I eventually topped out at 233. The heavier I got the worse my body hurt. I never considered myself obese. I never even "saw" myself as obese. I can't play with my children. Getting on the floor was hard and getting up was torture. My knees ached, my back hurt and I was just so tired in general. I am not sure what my "snapping point" was. I just knew that I wanted to play with my kids like my husband does, not watch. I want my family to be proud of me. I don't want diabetes. I don't want to be fat.

I had considered other methods of weight loss. Everyone of them had some sort of down side that I could not live with. With pills, I knew that as soon as I stopped taking them the weight would come back. With Weight Watchers or other plans like those, I knew that as soon as I had reached my goal and didn't have the support anymore I would gain the weight back. With surgery, I knew that I would have a long recovery, plus I would not be able to eat healthy (I had a friend that did this and she still cant eat much) Most importantly with surgery there is always that "danger" in there as with any surgery. I wanted a plan that would teach me. I wanted a plan that would support me, and I needed a plan that I could live with. I had seen several commercials on TV for NS. I would look on their website. After several months and a few pounds more I finally decided that this was the plan for me. It gave me everything I was looking for. It is a lifestyle I could live with. I am learning so much and the people on the boards are WONDERFUL. I could not have picked a better way to change my life.

I am looking forward to my future. I can't wait to be able to shop in the regular clothes, or more excitingly the junior section (Now won't that be nice, a thirty eight year old mother of three looking in the juniors section!!?? LOL). I can't wait to make good food choices instead of the ones that have lead me to NS. I can't wait to live.