Hydroxycut Prologue

Hello out there!

This is Christina. I am 25, soon to be 26, a full-time graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology, part-time developmental interventionist, full-time girlfriend and auntie to my new baby nephew, Brenden!

This is my blog about my adventures in losing weight. I have decided to do something I've never done before- take "diet pills." I am excited and nervous at the same time. Here is some information regarding the path that led me to this point.

I am 100% Mexican-American which automatically means I most likely don't have good health genes lol. Both of my parents were trim when they were younger but are now overweight (more like obese). Both sides of grandparents suffer from weight problems, diabetes, heart problems, and high blood pressure. I was born at a healthy weight of 8.5 lbs and have been a "big kid" ever since. The notable thing about my childhood is that it was spent consistently engaging in sports and other activities. I began dancing and playing soccer in Kindergarten and in 5th grade I took up running as a hobby. In order to train for a local 5k, I would wake up at 6am every weekday morning to go running with my Dad. I was only 10 and definitely a big girl (I think I weighed 130 lbs!), but my Dad understood my athleticism and believed in me enough to let me run with him (he was a seasoned marathoner and triatholoner at that point; a USMC Gunnery Sgt as well!). I finished the 5k with ease and with a good time (I think it was approximately 24 minutes- not bad for a fat 10 year old lol). I was a runner from that time forward until NOW.

I'll return to running in a minute...my true passion has always been, still is, and always will be soccer. I loved it when I was 5 and I still love it at 25. I play for three teams, all strong and competitive, and with 20 years of experience, you better believe I am a consistent goal scorer! Even on my co-ed team, I get a good 5 goals per season (10 games). I played avidly in my childhood beginning in AYSO, moving on to club soccer in 7th grade, making th JV team at a VERY competitive high school (I was 1/5 Freshmen to make JV, only another 5 made Varsity, the rest of the freshmen played on the Freshmen squad or were cut all together), and became a Varisty captain in 10th grade. When college came around, I decided that after over 10 straight years of intensive training and playing, I would take a break...big regret!

Not only did I miss soccer (so much that I started playing on an intramural team less than 6 months into my freshman year at UCI), but I put on the infamous "Freshman 15" AND THEN SOME! Lack of physical exercise, and poor eating habits combined with a poor relationship with a man who constantly lowered my self esteem led to an estimated increase of about 30 pounds by the end of my 4th year at UCI. I was large and NOT in charge. At approximately 212 lbs, this was me:

Discouraged and depressed, my favorite roommate ever suggested I try weight watchers. The fact that I was now outgrowing the standard PLUS sizes (18s were getting tight on me) meant I needed to stop the upward spiral and try something. So I went the next week (mid April) to register and hit the "points" system with full force!

The weight steadily slipped off and by graduation in June, I had lost 22 pounds and was weighing in at 190! I was so excited but still not satisfied. Here's me at graduation with my brother (still have that round face):














As a graduation gift I was able to travel to New York, Amsterdam, and Italy and was sure I had gained some weight back but when I returned I was happy to find that all the walking, and firing metabolism helped me to lose another 5 pounds without really trying! Here I am leaving Amsterdam with my travel partner and best friend:

I finally had shoulders and my face was starting to slim down! BUT I STILL WASN'T SATISFIED. I realized that I could really make some changes if I dedicated myself to exercising so I started training for a marathon in October of 2005 and the weight just melted off.

By the time I completed the marathon, my fittest level ever, I weight a healthy 165 lbs (lower than I was in high school). Now I know 165 lbs doesn't sound all that healthy, but I had my body fat checked and I was 22%, which is considered "great" for a woman. Again, I have an athletic build...Here I was at my favorite point ever:






















All was well for about a year until July 31, 2007. I broke my wrist in my soccer game-BADLY. Here's a picture of it:

Gnarly huh?? It required an immediate closed reduction (so my bones would not be on top of each other) and surgery with three pins to hold the bones in my wrist in place. I was put off work for three months which also meant no exercise. Big bummer! :( I know I probably should have REALLY watched what I ate (I was back to being able to eat mostly anything like I used to in high school) and done some light walking to stay in shape but I became depressed and decided I didn't want to do ANYTHING.

I gained a good 13 lbs as a result and even when I was able to return to soccer and exercising, those 13lbs wouldn't budge! My metabolism had slowed back down and I was once again frustrated. By December of '07 I decided it was time to return to the tried and true weight watchers. Here I am, pre-weight watchers (part 2) with the extra 13 lbs (183ish) at a wedding:



I worked my ARSE off on weight watchers (an upcoming family member's Vegas wedding was a huge motivation) and struggled just to lose approximately 10 lbs. I was back to 173, my steady weight for the previous year. It was hard but definitely noticeable. I became faster in soccer and was getting a lot of "are you losing weight?" from people. Here was myself and my *wonderful* boyfriend at that wedding in late April 2008:




The biggest difference was in my face and shoulders. Anyhow...after the wedding, I was supposed to keep working hard to lose another 10lbs for my June 2008 Bahamas trip, but I was exhausted from dieting at this point. It was an uphill battle for nearly three years and I completely gave up. I didn't stop exercising, in fact, I rejoined my girlfriend Bobbi with some friends to run 3xs a week in the A.M. I completed an 8K (5 miles) the week before the Bahamas with an average time, but I had absolutely NO motivation in continuing to run. I have decided I am pretty much done for good with running-especially since it really jacked up my knees (had never had problems until the marathon).

I also stopped tracking what I ate and dropped weight watchers again (I said I didn't have enough money to pay the 40 per month fee...partly true). By June I was back to 179 and although I was uncomfortable the entire time in the Bahamas in my 2 piece bathing suit, I decided I didn't care since no one knew me there lol. Here's me at the Bahamas:


This time what was different was my face was filling out and my ARMS were getting DIMPLY. The final straw came this weekend when my boyfriend took a picture of my cousin and I at a party and my arms looked like this:










YUCK! They look like the arms of an old lady.




SO HERE I AM!

Now, I did a lot of research about hydroxycut. I read the good, and the bad. I KNOW the best thing for me to do is "Eat healthy and exercise" but I find it incredibly loathsome at this point. After reading multiple accounts from successes and failures, I decided I would give it a shot. I have a pretty addictive personality so I know that I will follow the procedure to a tee and hopefully I will see some results!

Thanks for reading my epic journey of weight issues. I will be searching for some childhood/teen year pictures so you can get a good idea of what I was like as an adolescent lol.