Note: This post is more personal than others I have written. I hope this series will help me examine some of my eating habits and help me make better choices in the New Year.

I hate the word “resolution,” especially when it has to do with New Year’s Resolutions. It’s like a pie crust promise – easily made, easily broken.

Still, I want to make 2011 great. I want to feel better, and I think my weight has a lot to do with why I don’t sometimes. I have asthma, eczema and allergies. I eat when I’m stressed out. I eat when I’m bored. I eat because it also makes me happy.

I’ve always felt like I’ve struggled with my weight. In high school, while I was a swimmer and quite active, I still weighed 145 pounds at my best. Just outside what my “healthy” weight and BMI should be at for my  height (5 foot 3). For someone my height, I should be between 105 and 140 pounds (18.9-24.9 BMI), depending on my body build. Currently, I’m at 176.6 – a BMI of 31.2 (I took the photo on the right after I ate lunch and had clothes on). My measurements are 38.5 inches at the waist and 42 inches at my hips.

My weight has fluctuated constantly since I left grad school in 2005. At that point, I was down to a size 10 jeans. Today, I’m in a size 16. The yo-yo effect of trying to lose weight has been because of various events and reasons – my wedding, someone else’s wedding, a reunion, wanting to exercise more, etc.

Nearly a year and a half ago, while I was at my last employer, I was getting ready for our biometrics screenings – a test of your weight, BMI, cholesterol and other factors. If it were a graded test in school, I didn’t too so hot at it. I felt horrible. I needed to make a change. So, my boss (and good friend) told me that she was doing the South Beach Diet to get her numbers in check for her test. I read the book and it sounded like a good plan.

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