When I was a teenager I could eat anything. That didn’t mean I did, but I could have if I wanted to. I was on a perpetual diet, always trying to lose that last five pounds so I could be “model thin;” paranoid over the eventual onset of Cellulite .  Being a teenager, though, I never achieved that perfect weight, I attribute it to a colossal lack of will power. You see for every day I dieted and every five pounds I lost; there was the inevitable “throw your hands in the air” moment where I indulged in all my favorite vices. Haagen Dazs ice cream, M&M’s, mom’s peanut butter cookies always did me in. I was the definition of a yo-yo dieter, but my variations were small. I could gain and then loose that extra 5-10 pounds almost at will.

This worked for a while, and then I entered my twenties. All of a sudden I had to exercise!  This realization, as horrid as it was, didn’t stop me from my indulgences. Regardless of what the health articles said to do, I still ate all of my favorites, I just rode the treadmill an extra 30 minutes or so for a week and then started the routine all over again over the weekend. I never realized that I was playing Russian roulette with a very real women’s health issue.

Then I became a mom and everything changed, those health articles were right. Especially about my metabolism, and no matter how hard I tried to get rid of that pregnancy weight, nothing worked. If I starved myself, my body went into deprivation shock and my metabolism slowed even more. If I worked out it would increase my metabolism, but also my appetite and my muscle mass, it seemed like a cosmic joke! Of course, I never even considered giving up my indulgences, I just made excuses over why things didn’t work the way they used to.

Over time my gynecologist started to get concerned over my excess weight and not in the “you’re a little heavy and need to lose a few” pounds kind of way that I was expecting. No this was a more serious concern over potential heart disease  and possible high cholesterol ; and if you’re wondering, no I did not pass the cholesterol test with flying colors the first time around.

As depressing as this was initially, it really changed my mind set. I used to look at my weight gain as an annoyance; I tried every form of denial to justify that ice cream cone. As hard of a realization as it was, I now see it for what it is, a very important women’s health issue that is a daily struggle and requires lifestyle changes. And yes, I miss the days of yo-yo dieting but I’ve accepted that with age comes change and I’m working at changing my habits to accommodate a healthier lifestyle. For one I don’t live by the scale anymore and I worry more about what I’m eating everyday instead of how fast I can lose that indulgence, now I try to skip it all together. I want to be around for my family for a very – very long time.