Hello, Hello, Hello!
Well most of you have probably met me in the comments of your posts, but now I’ve been invited to become an official member and I can write proper posts to my heart’s content 
Hi, I’m Debs. I’m 24 and I live in Walthamstow which is North East London (and at the end of the Victoria Line on the London Underground, just in case any of you ever come to London and want to come visit. That’d be so cool!).
I’d say I’ve been overweight, or just downright FAT most of my life. I can remember at school one time, I must have been about 8, we were making these passport things which included stats like height and weight. I distinctly remember knocking some off my weight just because I was embarrassed about it. I was embarrassed and hated the way I look, but I’ve never really been able to stick to any sort of dieting plan. I’m the fat girl that would listen to my stick thin friends complaining about how fat they thought they were, and think “you’re not fat, I’m the fat one”, but not know how to deal with it.
One of my problems is that I comfort eat. I hate the way I am, but instead of doing something about it, I just stuff my face with more junk. I think one of the great things about OWOA is that I’m beginning to, very slowly, change my mindset and take control of the negative way of thinking. You ladies have introduced me to a fantastic alternative and I’m striving to try to live it out.
Ummm, Blest suggested saying a little bit more about me and what I am\do etc. Well, it would take an awful long post even to scratch the surface of all the changes that have taken place in the last couple of years, but I’ll try to keep it brief….
I love kids and they love me. For about forever I’ve known that I wanted to work with them (and maybe have some one day - a few minor details need to fall into place before that one though!). The obvious choice seemed to be being a primary school teacher. I went to university and did my degree and then my one year PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate of Education that qualifies you to be a teacher). Actually I didn’t finish the PGCE - I was on my re-take of my final placement in September 2005 when I finally woke up to the fact that it would be ok to not be a teacher. I didn’t have to continue stressing myself out and making myself ill. I could just stop and leave the course. So after much discussion and prayer I did just that. God had his hand on my life, however, and the school I was in offered me a job (which ended up lasting the whole school year). I also did several other jobs (see a post I wrote on my blog for more info on God’s hand on my life)
This summer (2006) that job (working one-to-one supporting a boy with various ’special needs’ including being on the autistic spectrum and being French - so having to learn English) came to an end and I moved back home to London to live with my parents. I didn’t have a job, but I’d decided that I needed to do something about my weight. It was around that time that I started reading Blest’s site and also going across to the original OWOA site. God was so in control of my life! 
Since then I’ve got a couple of jobs - childminding a 16 month old boy, and for the last 3 weeks working in a primary school (5-11 yr olds), again one-to-one with a couple of different people (one in the morning the other in the afternoon before anyone asks how you can work one-to-one with 2 people).
Sorry, this has got really long, but I kinda wanted people to know a bit about me and where I’m coming from (quite literally!). I’ve got two sisters, one (Bekki, 27) who now lives and works in Cambridge (which is where I was at university and lived last year) so I can keep my links there. Hannah who is 19 is at university down in Exeter in Devon. (Sorry if these place names don’t mean anything to you!)
Finally, I wanted to mention that I’ve got two blogs. The one linked to on the sidebar is my weight-loss journey, and the other one is called It’s My Life and is all the other general stuff. Please pay me a vist sometime
Oh, finally finally, I started this journey weighing 21 stone (294 pounds) and I’m aiming to lose one third of my bodyweight (at least) to get down to 14 stone (196 pounds). So 100 pounds\one third of my current body. Guys, I hope you’re gonna be around a while, cos I’m really gonna need you
(And I’m new to this wordpress thing, so hopefully this post will turn out right)
Yippee Skippee!!! WELCOME Debs!!!
Comment by blestwithsons — November 2, 2006 @ 1:49 pm
Thank you for sharing more with us. Can you explain “stones” a bit more?
Comment by Tami — November 2, 2006 @ 2:21 pm
Welcome, Debs! I’m so glad you’re joining us. And I’ve got a long, long way to go to reach my goal, too, so I’ll be here for a while.
Comment by Carrie — November 2, 2006 @ 2:22 pm
Here in the UK we tend to use stones to weigh in. 14 pounds = one stone. That’s it really
Comment by Debs — November 2, 2006 @ 2:51 pm
Great to “meet” you here. Best wishes to you!
Comment by Shrinkingmom — November 2, 2006 @ 3:42 pm
Stones eh? Sounds interesting. I need to roll a few stones off my “property” myself lol.
Welcome Debs!!
Comment by Blair — November 2, 2006 @ 3:52 pm
Oh man, I got so caught up thinking about stones I forgot to thank you for sharing more about yourself.
((hugs))
Comment by Blair — November 2, 2006 @ 3:57 pm
So nice to meet you. I love, love, love the Miss Read books. I have been on layovers in London twice but never really got to soak all that is England in. Hubby and I laugh ourselves silly over some of the British comedies (let’s hear it for Jeeves and Wooster) and the saying are liberally sprinkled through our speech.
So glad that you are here. I am a huge emotional eater. ( I found out yesterday that they labeled my son as mildly austistic–so I assuaged my sorrow with fries–don’t tell Blest she will WHOMP me.) Hey you can come help me with my son’s theraphy since you have had more experience with autism than I:-).
I guess I should stop now. Nice to have you around. Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. I need to get busy over there.
See you around,
Leigh Ann
Comment by Leigh Ann — November 2, 2006 @ 6:00 pm
Thanks, Debs–I just discovered that I weigh roughly 10.428577 stone! I really like the sound of that better.
Welcome, welcome!
Comment by lady laura — November 2, 2006 @ 6:36 pm
Welcome!
Comment by stephanie — November 3, 2006 @ 7:41 am
Welcome! Glad you could join us. I LOVE London! And the next time we end up there, we may just take you up on your offer and look you up.
Comment by Anita — November 3, 2006 @ 8:20 am
Hi, Debs! Welcome to the group!
Comment by Jana — November 3, 2006 @ 9:34 am