How My Life Turned Upside Down - 6/17/2009

My StoryI have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. At the age of 46, I weighed 220 pounds on my average 5'7" frame. I looked and felt awful and my self-esteem was at an all-time low because of this and other family issues. There was a lot of stress in my life. My father-in-law, who lives with us, was struggling with the effects of early Alzheimer's disease, and our younger son was struggling with addiction. Just when I...

Cruising Down The Scale - 6/17/2009

My StoryI have been fat all of my life. I was a chubby kid in kindergarten and stayed that way all throughout high school. I had half-heartedly tried to lose weight many many times, and I say "half-heartedly" because I never tried with the true conviction that I did it with this time.I had been watching a rerun of Oprah with her trainer Bob Green. They both said that you had to decide to lose weight, and that you had to love yourself enough to...

Becoming Me - 3/2/2009

My StoryI started gaining weight in college. I just stopped being involved in sports like I had been in high school. Then, two years ago, I went to my gynecologist and asked to be put back on birth control. She wouldn't do it because I was 334 pounds and had high blood pressure. My general practitioner had never said anything about my weight and, quite frankly, I had been ignoring the fact that I couldn't breathe after walking only a few feet...

My Journey To Getting Healthy - 2/23/2009

My StoryIn May 2007, I was 44 years old, weighed 261 pounds, and was on medication for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. At a check-up with my doctor, she told me that my fasting blood sugar was borderline high. My father is diabetic (insulin dependent) and I did not want that for myself, so that was my motivation to lose weight. I have lost and gained weight over and over through the years and needed to do something different... No more...

Hasta La Vista, Pasta! - 2/19/2009

My StoryGrowing up with an Italian mother, food always meant love in my family. And boy, did my mom love me. We had big pasta dinners all the time. I had struggled with my weight throughout high school and college, and by the time I was 27 years old, I was 220 pounds (at 5’3’’). I tried making my own diet and weight loss plan, but I would only lose 10 or 20 pounds and then end up gaining it back. In 2001, I finally joined Weight Watchers...