The backstory

OK, I was always fat. From puberty on, it just got worse. 7th and 8th grades were bad, and high school was worse (weight-wise, at least). College came and went, along with my friends making jokes about how when I took off my shirt there would be a "flabilanche." Ha ha, look at the fat man laugh at himself!

So in grad school I pulled it together and went from around 280 to 190, and that was a solid 190 - I got it from diet and a LOT of hiking. The steep, desert mountain hiking that I miss so much in Phoenix.

But then came the move to Berkeley for more grad school. Some of the weight came back on, and then I got married and started working. Lo and behold, I topped out (officially, according to Weight Watchers) at 304.8. Wow.

By 2003 I'd lost more than 115 pounds and was well below my goal of 192. The weight stayed off until we moved to Virginia in 2006, when I gained about 15 pounds. Over the next 2 years I gained another 15, and then after my dogs died in 2008 I gained about 20 in the next month.

I rejoined Weight Watchers in Nov. 2008 and since then I've lost a bunch of weight (see the sidebar for current stats), but as I near my goal weight I'm noticing I'm significantly flabbier than I used to be. So I'm reading one of my favorite blogs, and she's talking about doing some video called "30 Day Shred." I looked at the sample on Amazon, liked that there was no modification of the jumping jacks for beginners, and figured "What the heck?"