My journey.....years of pictures

I promised you a while ago that I would post some pictures of me along my journey. It's not too easy to find pictures of me.  I found enough to bring back some memories.  You will notice that most of them are from my children's baptisms.  That's the one time that I'm not the one behind the camera.

I couldn't find one of me as a child so you'll just have to take my word for it when I tell you that I was not overweight as a child.  I was always conscious of my body and my weight but I was not overweight.  It was not until high school that I became very aware of my weight but was still at a healthy weight for a teenager.  I found pictures of me in high school but if I ever get brave enough to post them, you see them at a later date.  The 80's were......well, the 80's.

This first picture is of me and my 2 brothers.  I was about 20 here.  As you can see I was at a pretty healthy weight at this time in my life.  I'm the one in the middle;)

The picture below was about 5 years later.  By now I had been married 3 years and Jason was one-year-old.  I gained a little weight after I got married and then gained 60 pounds with my pregnancy and only took off about 30 after the pregnancy.  You can see what a change occurred in me in just 5 or 6 years. I'm the one in front on the right.

Three years later (almost to the day) Josiah was born.  I gained another 60 pounds with my pregnancy and took off about 40 afterwards.

Just 18 months later Gabriella was born and I gained 50 pounds with her pregnancy.  I was now heavier than I had every been.  This was the last straw.  That outfit should have been against the law but it was what I could find to fit.

As I told you about yesterday in my blog, it was then that I really decided to change my life.  I had tried here and there in the past but this time I was more determined than ever.  I lost about 40 pounds after Gabriella was born and then became pregnant with Ethan. I actually started Ethan's pregnancy in a better position than I did with Gabriella.  After I had Ethan I had less to lose than after Gabriella.  The picture below is after Ethan's birth.

 After Ethan was born I got back to taking care of myself again. I continued to lose the weight and finally made it to my goal.  It's hard to put a number on the amount of pounds I lost because of the number that I gained and lost so many times but my total weight loss from my highest weight to my final weight was a loss of 65 pounds.  I even reached a loss of 70 pounds from time to time but maintained the 65 pounds better. I kept it off for 3 years.  Then, along came Samuel.  I changed my eating habits during his pregnancy.  I gained only 40 pounds.  This was me after his birth.

My picture diary shows my many ups and downs.  It shows the struggles and triumphs that I faced over the last 20 years with my health and weight.  I'm happy to say that I've learned a lot over the years.  I'm not perfect.  I never will be.  I'll leave that up to God. I've learned that I want to take better care of myself.  No matter how busy I am with life and kids I need to take some time to care about myself too. I have learned to eat less, be more conscious and to take more pictures;)

This is a recent picture of me now.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"...to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young - let the wise also hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles." -Proverbs 1:5-6