Who is Simple Moon?

Hi, I'm Tere and I'm fat.  I wasn't always fat and I have almost never felt bad about myself.  I know, weird, right?  I was the homecoming queen in my senior year of high school and the dress I wore to my high school graduation was a size 9.  I was an athlete.  I had lots of friends and no one ever made fun of me.  Until 2009 when a redneck in a red truck called me a fat bi***.

This is what I looked like in May of 2009 - that's me at 292 pounds.

I am way over 40 and a mom to 2 young 20 somethings.  I was married for 20 years but my husband died in 2001 of a heart attack.  I made several attempts at weight loss after that because I didn't want to die and leave my children with no parents at all.  My program of choice was Weight Watchers and it worked well for me.  But I would lose weight and then lose focus.  I would go back and start again, get tired of it and gain back all the weight lost and more.  That went on for about 8 years.


So in July of 2009, I was at my highest weight ever.  I have always been pretty healthy and active in spite of being fat.  But now my knees hurt.  I was tired.  I had to raise the steering wheel to get out of the car.  I FELT fat.  

 And then I went to my youngest sister's wedding.  When the pictures came back, I was appalled.  Sure, I could still do the splits with a drink in each hand but man, I was FAT!

I knew I had to do something.  It took me awhile.  I finally made up my mind the last week of July.  You can read my thoughts here.  I eased into it over the next week as I decided what I was going to do.  I did not want to go back to Weight Watchers.  I loved their program and still support it but I needed to do something different.  So after a lot of research and self reflection, I decided I was going to just count calories.


I found Livestrong.com and their food tracker The Daily Plate.  I started losing. I put off exercise but finally found some options.  I made changes in my life.  I didn't give up.  I couldn't give up, I needed to lose well over 140 pounds.  And it kept coming off.  And it will continue to come off.


I started this blog as a diary and a place for advice - from me to you and you to me.  Please share and make comments and ask questions.  I am certainly not a medical professional or expert (disclaimer there) but I have lots of experience with dieting and this time it's working.  I know what works for me and me only but some of it might work for you too.

Oops, almost forgot . . . Simple Moon is the name I use in my photography.  It worked better with "shrinking" than "Tere" did.