Twillwood

I have struggled with my weight since I was a child. I decided to go on my first diet when I was 6 yrs-old after spending the summer with my Grandparents. During my stay with my Grandparents, my Grandmother decided that I needed to be more healthy so she fed me...and fed me. When I returned home, all of my friends in my neighborhood made fun of me for getting fat. So I told my Mother that I was going on a diet. I ate nothing but fruits and veggies for a month and lost the weight. Thus, setting the pattern of gaining weight and dieting for the rest of my life.

In middle school, I skipped meals and would ride my bike for hours in order to lose weight. In high school I resorted to starvation...eating only a small bowl of cereal a day. (I was also on swim team and cheer leading team -- both helped with weight control). In college...I would cycle through periods where I would lose control over my eating and complete restriction. My weight was always up and down.

After my daughter was born in 1997, I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. My Mom and I went on a diet together and I lost all of my baby weight plus some. I lost the weight because I was running 2 miles a day, eating less than 1000 calories a day, and teaching aerobics at least twice a day. I felt great and so proud of myself, only to spiral out of control again.

Then once I had enough of being out of control, I would return to restriction. Some of the ways I have lost weight are: never eating dinner, Jenny Craig, Weight-Watchers, diet pills (from over the counter to prescription), Sensa, slim-fast, cabbage soup diet, Atkins, water pills, detox-cleansing kits, pretty much name the diet I have tried it.

I am considered in the "low" BMI category because my current BMI is about 31. I have even had people tell me that I don't need the lap band and pretty much treat me like I am a crazy person. I know that this is the right decision for me, because I need a tool to help keep me from losing control...what I don't need is another diet where I am starving all the time. Sometimes willpower alone just isn't enough. I don't have a problem eating right. I prefer eating right...I just don't prefer the hunger that comes from eating. For instance, Jenny Craig is an easy enough diet, you just eat the food they give you...it's a no brainer! However, the hard part is pushing through the hunger that eventually I ALWAYS give into.