Nothing tastes as good

Three years ago today I weighed in for Weight Watchers and posted my first loss--three pounds of an eventual thirty-five that I've managed to keep off thanks in one part to the brilliance of the Weight Watchers plan and in another to my oftentimes painful determination to keep my hands out of the cookie jar. Sean suggested that we celebrate this milestone with a hamburger and fries (ha!), but I've opted for a different approach--an uncensored glimpse into the psyche of a one-time fat kid. Behold, the Sarah of yore:


Fourth grade school picture.


Tenth grade school picture.


Christmas break, freshman year of college.

These are three reasons I am moderately terrified of chicken fingers and pizza. They are three reasons I do not keep snack food in my house. They are three reasons I pass all of the food-related gifts that I receive off to my beau. They are three reasons I will not drink my calories (Starbucks notwithstanding). And they are three reasons I laugh a little whenever anyone asks me for diet advice.

My weight was ALWAYS an issue when I was younger and being a fat kid was terribly socially debilitating. I was rife with self-esteem issues and did everything I could throughout high school to make myself invisible. I tried every diet under the sun from about third grade on, but I could never stick to any of them. It wasn't until the summer before my freshman year that I finally tried (and succeeded with!) Weight Watchers. I lost about ten pounds, but gained it all back and more during my first year at A&M. When I started up again three years ago, I weighed in at 168 pounds and was muffin-topping over my size 12 jeans.

To date I've been called everything from "skinny" to "string-bean" to "anorexic" (which I clearly am NOT, but jealousy has a tendency of rearing her ugly head, ESPECIALLY when she's married to someone who was caustic even in the womb). But the best thing about being thin for the first time in my life is not the compliments, cat calls, bikinis, or single-digit pants: the best thing about being thin for the first time in my life is the willingness to finally be noticed.