hi there! my name is Betty! this is my second attempt at blogging and being accountable for my workouts and eats. my first time around – life got crazy – and i didn’t pay much attention to the blog. hopefully this time , i’ll keep up with it!

i’m 25 and live just outside of richmond, va. i’m a recent grad of VCU Master’s of Accountancy program. working full-time as an accountant and a CPA hopeful.

i have always been overweight but i have also always been pretty active. my mom actually gave me the nickname “sweaty betty” when i was 12 years old playing travel softball. 100* days + catcher’s gear = a sweaty betty. cute, right?

circa 1995

i was an athlete my entire life; i played basketball until my junior year of high school and softball year-round for almost 19 years (yes, i started when i was 3 playing T-ball). during my junior year of undergrad, i blew out my knee during conditioning drills and ended up having to get the cartilage repaired in my right knee. i had accumulated quite a few injuries along the way, including 2 torn menisci, and my body was just tired. all those years of catching wrecked havoc on my knees. it was then, i decided to resign as a student athlete and finish up college as just a student.

july 2005

may 2006

from that decision on, my weight slowly climbed up. i would start a low-carb diet, weight watchers, south beach, or something of that sort and lose about 20 or 30 pounds, then gain it right back after about 3 months. finally, i guess you could say i let myself go. i remember taking a pic with my sister while we were in Disney World (i was coaching an 18u girls softball team) and being completely disgusted with how i looked (sounds like every other weight loss story, huh?). i remember feeling uncomfortable in my own skin, like if i gained one more pound my skin would burst at the seams..

july 2010

i lost a little weight and then got really serious after my 23 birthday. i was doing zumba, body pump, body step, and body combat (probably 5/6 days a week) and i was feeling great. by christmas i had lost 43 pounds. well, the holidays were over and something hit me like a brick wall and i gained EVERY. SINGLE. POUND. BACK. it sucked. i was depressed. it was so hard cause i wasn’t on a schedule, i was stressing out about school.. basically i made every excuse that i could for why i gained the weight back, but really it was because i chose the wrong way to lose weight and i couldn’t do it any longer.

  november 2010

fast forward a few months to august 2011. once again, i was at the highest weight i had ever been (265 .. at that point). i probably looked about as big as i did in the mickey picture above, because i remember that uncomfortable feeling coming back to me full force. i started the program body-for-life and had great progress. i lost a total of about 35 pounds, but what really stuck with me was the idea of clean eating. although i’m right back where i started, plus some more, being more conscious of what i’m putting into my body/how it makes me feel is something I’ve paid attention to.

september 2011

i am using this site for accountability and tracking – eating/workouts/progress. i can’t wait to get to my goal, which is to lose a total of 130 pounds.

february 2013