About Me.

 

Hey there, you probably already know that I'm Brittanie! You can call me britters too, its my childhood nickname that I've grown to love even as an adult! I'm 27 years old and according to all medical charts when I started my weight loss journey on 12/30/2015, I was 114.5 pounds overweight. You read that number correct and I about had heart attack when I saw it.

 

 

Lets go back a few years, well more like 13 years! When I was a brand new high school student! My older brother was a Junior his name is Matt. We were pretty close growing up. We did a lot of things together and had most of the same friends. That may be because we grew up in the small town of Palco, Kansas (go ahead I'll wait while you google)! Freshman through Junior years of High School  were years I wish I could basically forget and NEVER EVER remember again in my life. Sadly that isn't the case. If I remember much of my childhood, its those 3 god awful fucking years! I was made teased so so much. I was called "Sasquatch". It was not a good time my friends. NOT AT ALL. I was miserable. However,  those 3 god awful years probably shaped me into who I am today and the simple fact is that now I take zero shit from anybody. Also, most of those guys who made fun of me now have daughters of their own and I'd like to think some sort of karma has come back to get them and I pray that their daughters are never harassed like they did to me. In high school I thought I was overweight. Mind you I'm 5'8.5"-5'9" I'm not a short person at all and the good lord graced me with some boobies. So my weight was probably anywhere from 140-160 all though high school was no means that overweight. I was active, I played sports for most of high school, and I worked.

 

 

This is me my freshman year of college. Yup clearly not overweight...YET!

 

My dad will often joke that I only went to college to get married, however that is probably the closest thing to the truth I ever did hear! I went to college when I probably shouldn't have. I had no idea what the hell I was doing with my life or what I wanted. Other than someone to be married to and be a Wife and Mother. In December of 2007, after I had graduated high school earlier that year, is when I met my husband. Good ol' internet helped me find him! He was active duty in the Marine Corps, stationed overseas in Iraq. We would talk a few times a week on Yahoo Messenger. He got back in March of 08 and we met in real life on his 21st birthday (March 23rd to be exact)! Remember this date, things go fast so hold onto your seats! We hung out almost every single day. I'm not sure there was a day we didn't hang out until he went to annual training in Utah before our marriage. In May 08, he was going to Las Vegas to see his brother and nieces who he hadn't seen in a while and asked if I wanted to go with him. Of course I did, I was head over heels in love with this man! So remember we met March 23rd. Sometime between then and May 27th, he had met my parents (Laura and Leonard) and asked my dad (who he had just met) if he could marry me! On May 27th, 2008 (in Las Vegas) he asked me to spend forever with him. How could I say no? I was young, dumb, and so in love! Soon after we realized that it would be better for Eric to go from a reservist to active duty in the Marine Corps for our family. So we needed to get married and needed to do it rather fast so he could put in the paper work to go Active Duty! So on June 30th with one of his friends and a complete stranger, we went to the JOP and got Hitched!! So we met in real life on March 23rd, got engaged in Las Vegas on May 27th and Married on June 30th. Is your head spinning? Most people shake their heads when they hear our "love story" and say that will never last!

Eric and I the year we got married

Eric and I the summer of 2015

 

 So soon after we were married, we waited for paperwork back from the military to tell us where they were sending us. That would come in early 2009. We found out we were moving to Jacksonville, NC and Eric was going to be stationed at Camp Geiger (SOI East) He would need to go to school for 2 months because he needed to change his MOS (new job basically). So we would spend the next year and a half in North Carolina. In that time I probably put on anywhere from 20-40 pounds I never really weighed myself EVER. It was all the beer and eating out we did that did that to me, I'm sure. I was 19/20, he was 21/22 and we were young, newlyweds who didn't have any children, so why not? We basically drank every single weekend. We quickly became friends with a bunch of other Marines from a motor T unit in the same area who were married and had wives. We would play beer pong almost every weekend in my apartment's front lawn. To say I spent the next like 6 summer months trashed wouldn't be an understatement!! I was drunk a lot. I rarely drink by the way, at least now I rarely drink! In the spring of 2010 we found out we were PCSing (moving) to Yuma, AZ. Its hot as balls there people, like ON FRICKEN FIRE! By now Eric and I were out of our partying stage and okay with welcoming a child whenever god saw I was fit for our family. We decided we were finally ready to be parents. We were both working towards college degrees and Eric had a good job in the military! It wouldn't be until Labor Day weekend in 2011 when we found out after seeing a fertility doctor and me gaining another good 40-50 pounds that we indeed were going to have our first child the next May! I started my pregnancy with our Kaitlynn at 212 pounds. I gave birth via emergency c-section on May 10th at 3:45am weighing 232 pounds. After I had Kaitlynn, I started weight watchers to try and lose the baby weight and then some to get healthy for my family. Well, we know how that went. It worked for a few weeks as I lost weight but then I gave up hope after a gain week. How it always goes right? This would only be the 1st attempt of many to come in my days ahead! Before this, I never really tried to lose weight because I just simply didn't care. Now I had a reason to care and it still didn't work in my favor!

Kaity a week after she as born, and Kaity now!



In February of 2013, we moved to where we live now in Des Moines, IA! Here, Eric has been a recruiter for the past 3 years. He's no longer on Recruiting Duty any longer and instead works as a site inspector of other recruiting stations. When we first moved to Iowa, I started my 2nd weight loss journey. I again started weight watchers that summer while trying to get my associates degree in Medical Assisting. I have a super motivating family, my dad and I (the first summer here) made a bet who was going to run the fastest in a Color Run 5K here in DM! He won but hey, from about March-July I was able to lose 40ish pounds. I believe I lost a bit more but I can't remember the exact number of pounds I lost, I want to say like 43-46 pounds. After the color run I stayed on track, until one day shopping I had this sinking feeling that I was PREGNANT. I was getting up at night to pee and I only did that when I was pregnant with Kaity.  I just knew I was going to be pregnant. Sure enough after I skyped with my niece and sister in law that were in Hawaii,I peed on a stick and I was in fact pregnant. I didn't think it'd be that easy considering everything we went through to conceive our daughter. On Thanksgiving in 2013, we found out we were having a little boy. A c-section was scheduled so my mom and dad could be there and on April 7th at around 8:45am, I had our son Gavin (Gman).

Gavin the day he was born, Gavin just a few weeks ago! Don't worry ladies he's taken by his momma for now!!

 

So after I had Gavin I worked really hard on finishing school and did in October 2014. I made the Deans List the last few semesters of school. I started my externship and was offered a job at the place I externed. It was an Oncology Office (something that is near to my heart) and I enjoyed it for about the first 3 months as an employee. I even started weight watchers yet again and was losing weight. Then after about 3 months I hated everything about it. I was basically the bitch there, I did everything while other employees sat on their phones and did not a DAMN thing. So I went looking for a new job and found one at Iowa Heart Center. I thought I would love this job. I liked it but I didn't. It was a lot of work. I was traveling all the time to other offices 1-2 hours away and gone from my kids way more than I wanted so I left that job in August of 2015. Since then I've been a stay at home momma to K&G and of course a furbaby momma to Jesse, Abby & Allie. I also crochet like a little old grammy and run a small etsy shop. I won't bore you with that because that is not what I'm here to tell you about.

So now, read along with me in my journey of struggles, bawling, annoying, crazy person postings to watch me lose the weight I need to become the healthiest version of myself for my husband, kids and really just for myself!! I hope you enjoy what you've read so far.

 

**Disclaimer**

 

I cuss a lot, I'm a 27 year old lady who cusses like a sailor... You've been warned!!!