** For anyone who winds up on my SparkPage for any reason ... Greetings and Salutations. If you would like to add me as a Spark Friend, please do and you will find I add you back in return. For all that I mention being intensely private and will sometimes call myself "non-social", I do make a point of keeping up with friend statuses, blogs, and other news and making comments. (Gotta have somewhere for all my surplus of words to go. =P ) **

Aug 2012
Seemed like it was ...

** For anyone who winds up on my SparkPage for any reason ... Greetings and Salutations. If you would like to add me as a Spark Friend, please do and you will find I add you back in return. For all that I mention being intensely private and will sometimes call myself "non-social", I do make a point of keeping up with friend statuses, blogs, and other news and making comments. (Gotta have somewhere for all my surplus of words to go. =P ) **

Aug 2012
Seemed like it was about time to change my avatar image. I've been hiding behind the hair for a long time.

Fitness (and, within that, weight training) has become a big part of my progress.

Tracking is the other big part of my progress. I haven't missed a day of tracking my food - every meal, every bite (even if some was guesswork) - and it really lets me see the connection between calories in and calories out.


Jan 2012
I talk more about myself in my blogs and Team forums and comments to others. Since this blog is public (as in visible even to search engines), I tend to not put quite as many truly personal details. I'm intensely private about some things and keenly aware of who can see and read and learn what about me.

I'm one of many many Jennifers in the world. In fact, one Jr. High School class there were four of us in the class, and three of us with the same last initial, it's such a common name. I go by Jennifer or include my middle name with it - avoiding, when possible, all shortened versions.

I have three children - one that I gave up for adoption (DDb - 22 yrs), and two with my EX (DS - 20 yrs - and DDa - 19 yrs.) By my birthday, none of them will be teens even. Time sure flies.

I'm a little unusual here on SparkPeople in that much of my weight gain was through quite conscious and deliberate actions. I built my body shield from large amounts of sweets combined with eating all of the servings rather than one that I cooked. Throughout that time, I always walked - something I love doing - so I'm probably more fit than usual ... but have a very long way to go to be FIT the way I want.

I started my journey at a high weight of 250.5 pounds on 16 September 2011. While I do set a monthly weight goal and eventually hope to be at a healthy weight, my real goal is healthy habits and improved physical fitness. The two go hand in hand, but I consider the loss of weight to be a mere side-effect (good as it is) to getting healthy and fit.

My motto, if I have one, is "Do only those things that I will still want to do in ten or twenty years." I'm verbose (... no kidding?), obstinate, stubborn, have a crazy good memory for things, non-social (neither shy nor anti-social) and an eternally optimistic realist (I see it how it is and with the capacity to get better).

I love tracking and spreadsheets, so I have been tracking my food and other stats since I started. I even share it for those curious what I eat. (I am 5'7.75" and big-boned, so with my activity level I have a current range of 1660-2020, though that will drop as soon as I adjust for lower activity while letting two injuries recover.)


Sept 2011
I've bulked up to hide from relationships for the last dozen years. Now that I have my "empty nest", it's time to undo the damage before I actually have health issues from being obese.

I'm intensely private - and trying very hard to overcome that - but can't promise I'll dive completely into the Spark community for some time to come.

Read More About BLUE42DOWN (Updated May 2)

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