I had been overweight all my life. When I got to high school, I thought that things would be different. Even though I’ve always been heavy, when I thought of myself on the inside I was a beautiful person. I liked who I was and thought that everyone saw a “skinnier” me, the way I felt inside. Even when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see someone morbidly obese, but I saw someone beautiful, stylish, and happy.
After meeting someone online who told me he needed to be with someone who looked “good,” I went on a “diet” in high school. I ate smaller portions and exercised using a homemade program of dancing and other aerobic moves I remembered from gym class. I lost about 40 pounds just for him. I wanted to please him and be with him. By the time we met in person, I had him convinced that it wasn’t the outside that mattered, but it was what was on the inside that counted. I had lost the weight for him, not for me. I thought I was beautiful, I wasn’t ready. I moved to West Virginia to be with him and married him. I went to college and he went to work and as time moved on, we just got heavier and heavier. We ate foods that we loved and had a wonderful time.
After a serious illness, some of the medication I was on caused me to gain an enormous amount of weight and I found myself well over 300 pounds, a place where I had never been. During my recovery, I was finally able to get off of the medication that caused the weight gain (I can’t blame all the weight on the medication…I love food…who doesn’t?). That very day my doctor took me off the medication, I drove to my local Weight Watchers. My mother-in-law had been on Weight Watchers for over a year and I knew about the program and how it worked. As a matter of fact, I had done Weight Watchers in college on my own, just using “hand-me-down” materials, where I successfully lost a little over 50 pounds only to gain it all back, PLUS.
That time, I did Weight Watchers on my own; this time, I had decided was going to be different. I was determined to lose this weight…this enormous amount of weight that I had carried around for years and years. I used to watch talk shows and see people who had lost 100 pounds and more and thought I could never do that. With all the new surgeries coming out into the media, it seemed to me that anyone who lost that kind of weight anymore would be telling of their surgery. I didn’t want surgery. I had been sick, I hated pain and needles, and I hadn’t given Weight Watchers a chance.
To be honest, I wasn’t a person who had tried every diet around. I didn’t eat grapefruit and lettuce for weeks; I didn’t starve myself on grapes and cabbage; I did try the Adkins diet once to only discover that if I ever see another pork rind again, I might be sick! Like so many stories I’ve hear, I can’t say that this was my last chance, my last straw. This was probably my third attempt at really, actually trying to lose the weight and I was committed.
When I got on the scale at Weight Watchers for the first time and saw my start weight, I knew that this was my chance, my big chance and I so had a long way to go. I was very skeptical of the plan. I happened to be the only one in the first meeting, so we just went over program. My leader was a caring, inspiring individual and I had already seen her in action as a visitor several times with my mother-in-law. This time, she was talking to me and only me. She told me something that I will never forget in that first meeting, she said, “nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” Those words got me through probably the first month where I lived the program to the letter. I was desperate to get the weight off and I wanted it off quickly. I knew that it wasn’t a race and it wasn’t healthy to do it quickly. This wasn’t a fly by night program. It was one that would last a lifetime. Slowly, the program proved itself to me as I stepped on the scale, 4 pounds, 3 pounds, 5 pounds, the weight began to come off.
Before I knew it, I had my ten pound ribbon with 11 stars on it, showing that I had lost 120 pounds! 120 pounds! Can anyone imagine? I can move again! I can get up off the couch without wondering if my knees are going to hurt. I can walk up a flight of stairs without wondering if there was enough oxygen at the top. I can go into a store that does not have PLUS sizes and buy clothes, real clothes.
Now that I’ve lost 122.5 pounds in a year, I find it hard to believe. It’s almost like that skinny image I held inside for so long turned into an enormous fat image. I had the enormous fat image inside when I started Weight Watchers. As more and more weight come off, I am adjusting to my new body. I have lost a whole entire person! I still have about 54 pounds to lose before goal, but I know that I am “in it to win it!” I’ve conquered food and will always hold the phrase, “nothing tastes as good as thin feels,” dear to me as an important part of my weight loss, but somewhere around the 100 pound mark, I changed my phrase…in it to win it! I will not give up until I reach my goal, and I will never leave Weight Watchers (even if I have to leave to have a baby or two…I’ll be right back!).
Teresa has given me the tools, inspiration, and guidance I needed to become a healthier, happier person. Without Teresa and Weight Watchers, I would probably still be shopping in those big size stores and eating things that didn’t help my body, but hurt my body. I am a new person after losing a person. It’s like a new me and I never want to let her go.

Amber Stull