My life weight story

[purplegirl1818 1]

ive already posted an intro post, but i wrote this to send with my insurence papers. and just so you know, im only 16 and im 99% sure im getting this done and im beyond excited

so with out further ado....

From the mere age of eight, I have been struggling with my weight. As a child, around five or six years of age the weight was regarded as "baby fat" and said that I would grow out of it. I remember feeling relief from this, knowing I'd grow out of my weight problem. This in itself should say something. A child in kindergarten or first grade shouldn't have to deal with weight problems, but I did. Upon the third grade, I changed schools. Being "the new kid" didn't have its advantages, giving kids reason to mock and make fun of me. I often came home with a tear stricken face, wishing everything I owned away just to be "normal". I began seeing a nutritionist at the age of eight. Diets were followed by these meetings, but no results were ever shown. Around this same time frame, my doctors already noticed chafing on my inner thighs.

Throughout the following years I did a yo-yo diet with my doctors and slim fast plans. I also began competitively swimming at the age of ten; I had always been an avid swimmer because swimming gave me an underwater escape from the harsh words of schoolmates and made me feel better about myself. I had practice every weekday and swam 2-3 hours a day, plus a few hours swimming in various pools and lakes throughout the week. I also competed in a local race that consisted of a 1.13 mile swim across a local lake for the first time when I was ten.

Upon the following year, I began a L.A. weight loss program, and saw no results. At this point I was already frustrated with my weight, but I still had the willpower to keep trying. Some of this willpower came from my great grandmother, who had often given encouraging words about my weight loss, and always caring about my health. As cancer took her over, I saw how easy it was for one disease to take over a person's body and rob them of the life they once had. This alone scared me, knowing all the diseases one who is morbidly obese is able to easily acquire. The last time I ever saw my grandmother, we had just said our final goodbyes, and I turned to leave the room. She touched my arm and with a small flicker of her old self in her eyes, said "let's try to get some of that weight off, ok?" I nodded with tear-filled eyes, and exited the room. To this day, I do not know why she chose those words to be her last with me, its just one example of how my obesity has robbed me of special memories.

My next weight loss adventure came with Curves. My mother and I went to Curves 3-4 times a week for many months and came to see minimal results. Personally, throughout my curves experience I lost a total of eight pounds, and the following months I lost nothing. I turned back to natural dieting, and just attempting to maintain my weight.

In the eighth grade, I began going to weight watchers meetings. I also attended these meetings once a week, and began to see small results, but after about 4-5 months, I still had not reached my 10% body fat loss mark. I avidly followed every rule, not surpassing my points, writing down everything, and yet I still gained 1-2 pounds. Frustrated with the results of this program, and in its financial branch, I started to fade out of the meetings, while still following the plans through out junior high swim season.

Upon the end of my eighth grade, I began going to Gold's Gym 3-4 times a week. This consisted of a 15 minute warm up, a work out, and a 15 minute cool down. On the first day I saw my school counselor leaving the gym. About a week later, he called me down to the office and told me that he was proud of me for doing this, and said he'd do whatever he could to help me stick with the program. Throughout the months I again sadly saw no results from this program either.

As I began high school, the swimming intensity took one colossal increase. We began by running 1-4 miles a day along with dry land (weightlifting, core work, crunches, pushups etc.) and around 1500 yards a day. As the year continued I lost about 20 pounds in the first month, but quickly regained it for reasons unbeknownst to me. The daily yardage sky rocked to over 10,000 yards during our 'peak week'. We swim up to 4 hours a day during high school swim season. This is one of the most frustrating parts of my weight loss, the intense workouts with no results.

After season finished, I swam spring season and did Water polo, and during the summer there is never a day you can't find me in some body of Water. In addition to swimming I began taking shakes as a meal substitute. Again no results. The following year, I began taking Meridia, a pill designed to help with weight loss, I lost around 12 pounds, but again gained it back.

This trend continued until this past fall, fall 2006. During the first part of swim season we always run. The day we ran the football stadium stairs (this consists of running ¼ of a mile and running up 14 stairs, and back down three times, and repeating this around 4-5 times) I was at the top of the bleachers and couldn't breathe very well, I began to get light headed and returned to the ground. By the time I got back to my coach, I was crying from not being able to breathe, and the frustration that I had that I knew that I could do this but my body wouldn't allow it.

In the middle this season I was diagnosed with depression. I knew it was my weight; my whole life has revolved around my weight. At this point I am out of ideas; I'm frustrated with my weight to the point of tears. In my freshman year we went to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio for the national physics day. That year I finally get the backbone to ride the Millennium Force, all of my friends and I got in line. I decided to sit in the chair outside the line to make sure I fit. Well, I didn't. At the age of 14 I couldn't fit on a roller coaster seat. Not just this ride, but many others too.

This fact still taunts me, especially because my high school's honors choir is going to Disney this spring, and I am scared that I will lose the Disney experience because of my weight. When I shared my fears with my mother this past January, we decided something needed to be done. After a lifetime of failed diets and gyms, a lifetime of frustration and just wishing on every start that I could be 'normal sized', I am finally taking my first steps toward a healthier lifestyle, and a new me.:mad:

[TracyinKS 7]

WOW!!!! what a story!

You definately have the activity level down and I bet you have a lot of lean muscle mass underneath the layers. Just know that your depression meds can make you gain weight. Have you been checked for a low thyroid, and PCOS??? all things that would work against any weight loss effort..... eating a lower carb higher Protein diet (even BEFORE surgery) will help yo to shed pounds... I KNOW.. I gained on both slim fast and WW.. the carbs were just too high for me, and I know that after surgery I will have to eat mainly a low carb diet for me to WORK THE BAND.

Good Luck and Keep us posted!

[Lovingit 3]

Dear

i know exactly what u mean...i have always been fat ...a fat baby a fat child...a fat girl...and a fat woman...have been the butt of all cruel childhood jokes...insults...called everything under the sun from lazy to a hog...n i can't remember a single period in my life wen i have not been dieting...i am 26 now...though because of my weight n huge frame i was excluded ...well yes of my own choice from all forms of sport...i knew i would look damn funny running...and kids will make fun of me again...

anyways for last 6 years i have been an avid gymmer...but even that was of no avail too as i kept gaining at 240 pounds i finally decided taht it couldnt go on...i was 25 and pretty...but my self confidence my personal and professional life was taking a beating...and this is not the way a yound girl should spend the best year's of her life...

i m happy for u n ur family...glad u took this decision at the age u did...