Lost the College Weight

jess1jane · July 2014

I joined MFP last year, after coming home from my first year of college. I didn't feel any different, but I bought my first scale, stepped and freaked the **** out. I literally gained the freshmen fifteen. I had seen others on this site before, but never really knew what it was about. After exploring a little, this site became my best friend. So did my mom's home gym set. The first five pounds came off easy. The last ten took a little more work. I would lose a bunch, then celebrate by taking a break and eating whatever I wanted, and gain it back. I was teetering back and forth like that for the rest of the summer. Going back to school for my sophomore year, I gave in to the same bad habits that gained me the freshmen fifteen in the first place. Campus dining food, vending machine food, midnight snacking, partying with friends, etc. This summer, I started over working it off again. I managed to get ten pounds off easily, and hovered around the five-pound wall. I could not seem to break through it. About a month and a half ago, I split from my boyfriend and it was really hard on me. I ate all day the first day, cried all day the second, flirted with strangers the third, and then I decided if I was ever going to recover, I needed to feel good about myself. Being single is the best thing that ever happened to my body. I was determined to return to high school, once and for all. I refused to return to my third year of college less than my best. That meant parking my butt on the stationary bike every single day, watching Star Trek to make the time pass. It didn't seem like much, yes it made me sweat, but it was not running or elliptical training or any other cardio exercise that gets the heart pumping. I'm sure the machine over estimated my calories burned, but still the weight came off. Slowly, but consistently. I weighed myself obsessively, everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. I never got disappointed when the scale didn't budge or went up during the day, I was just curious about what my heaviest part of the day was. I was counting calories, I was staying away from sweets, I eventually started an abs program for ten minutes a day. I had my slip ups, I had two cheat days in a row, but I got back on track because I was always looking forward. School is going to be here before I know it, and I have to get ready. Now, a year and a half after the initial weight gain, the scale told me I reached high school weight. I didn't cheer out loud like I thought I would. Instead, I spent a lot of time on the internet researching how to calculate body fat. I need something else to work for, or I will let myself go again. It's not a very inspiring story, but it's my story. I worked hard with a goal in mind and hopefully you can too.