Day One - Weigh In - by Karen

I used to be a skinny girl. It's true. I was teased mercilessly in grade school. Bones Jones and Toothpick were my ugly nicknames. My mom was very sympathetic and always knew when something was wrong. One look at me and she'd ask, "What happened?" Tears would flow as I spilled out what the kids had said to me.

They were ruthless. "If you turned sideways and stick out your tongue you'd look like a zipper. I bet you can walk through a screen door without opening it," and my personal favorite, "Do you have to run around the shower to get wet?" I'm talking stick thin. My usual retort, "I'd rather be skinny than fat!" And I still mean it.

As the years progressed, so did my waistline. When you have been skinny for so long, you still see yourself as thin. But when you gain a few pounds and people comment, "Karen, you've gained weight," you start thinking you must be fat. Now, when I look back at those pictures where I was told I gained weight I see a stick thin skinny girl. What? I thought they said I was fat. I just recently realized they were trying to say, you look good since you've gained some weight. I didn't want to gain weight but babies will do that to you. Well, the last baby did it to me. My 9 lb 4 1/2 oz baby boy. Thanks Cam, love ya!

I can't blame it on my son, though. In the years after he was born, I gained enough weight to have 2 more kids. Only no baby, just fat. So now I am on a new journey. Losing it! I know, I know, some of you think I have already lost it but I'm talking weight here, not mind. Hopefully, losing weight will clear up the brain fog along with all the other health disorders I carry around. Diabetes, high blood pressure, acid reflux, osteoarthritis and so on. Since I have already experienced breast cancer, the reports are out that women who exercise have a higher resistance to breast cancer. Well I don't want it coming back, even though I have had the bilateral mastectomy, it can still return in other locations. I am already fighting a pre-malignant mucinous cystadenoma on my pancreas so why not do something proactive to stop it in it's tracks. If exercise and losing weight can do that, then I'm all for it.

So here goes. My daughter Autumn and I are on a Ruby/Biggest Loser Inspiration driven challenge. We had our first weigh in today. Mike, my hubby who is also Autumn's dad, and our biggest supporter, has hidden the scale until next Saturday. I am a scale-aholic so if I want to weigh this week, I have to do it on the Wii and exercise at least 10 minutes. So, that is my big incentive to get up early and exercise. We will be posting our weight, thoughts, and exercise routines throughout the process.

If you want to join our challenge, please do. Post on our comment sections. We'd love to inspire others to get healthy. The sooner we start, the healthier we'll be. I just wish I had started a long time ago but it's never too late.

This is one skinny girl dying to get out of this fat prison. I just need to use the keys. Exercise, diet, and break the addiction.