Erin O'Donnell

My story...hmmm.

Well, I'm Erin. I'm 20. And I'm overweight. I've been overweight for my whole life. By the time I was like...8 months old, my parents had to water down my formula and had to wait as long as they could to feed me. I've always been chubby but things got really out of control once my parents had less control of what I was eating. My mother was a bio-chemist and my dad is an OBGYN, so both of them are well educated on the topic of nutrition, which means I am pretty well educated about nutrition. I know for some people their weight issues are because they simply don't know what's good and what's bad. But for me, it's different. I don't know what has caused me to be overweight as an infant but I do know that I didn't help myself out as an adult. I've become 'addicted' to food. It's sad. It makes me feel like such a loser..really?! Addicted to food?! Anyway, I've tried dieting for forever, weight loss camps, everything (seemingly) but nothing worked long term, mostly because I didn't stay committed. But now my weights gotten to a point where it's actually stopping me from doing things I've always done; of course being overweight makes things much harder. But when it started making me have trouble getting up after being on the ground, or not being able to ride a ride at an amusement park (so humiliating..) and even making it difficult to paint my toe nails, that's when I knew I was at a point I told myself I'd never get to. That's disappointing. I'm the biggest one in my family, surrounded by long, lean, beautiful people. My family has always been supportive though, and I'm grateful for that. It's time. I'm 20 years old, I have two years left of undergrad and I wanna make  it the best! I've held back socially my entire life because of my weight and I don't want it to effect me anymore. I'm gonna do it. 
My surgery is on August 13th, 1 week from now. See ya on the other side. ✌