By: April Thompson
I’m a wife and a mother of four. If you saw me and talked to me today, you would think that I’m a fitness nut. Well maybe I am, but I haven’t always been that way.
As a kid, I was pretty happy, but the divorce of my parents left me feeling a little hollow and empty. I turned to food for comfort. It was an easy choice. Every time I ate, I felt better. I would feel full. I wasn’t obese, but I was bigger than most other little girls and was teased about it. I told myself it didn’t matter, but I knew inside that it really did. These feelings continued for years.
I met Joshua, the man who is now my husband, and he changed my world. Most of the changes were great, but . . . well . . . I’m not going to blame my weight issues on my husband, however he was an integral part of them. I adopted many of his HORRIBLE eating habits, and bit by bit, they added up to me being UNHEALTHY.
Through the next 8 years, I had 3 beautiful daughters and supported Josh through graduate school, and managed our apartment complex among other things. If I was treating my body the way I should have, I could have handled the stress. But because my fitness and eating habits were terrible, I topped the scale at 269 pounds!
You heard me right.
Outside I seemed happy, but inside I was sad. I hated looking in the mirror—yuck! I felt trapped in my body but with the brain of an athlete. Not only that, I had pre-diabetic blood sugar levels.
What was I going to do about it though? I started where many start: with a few fad diets. I tried hCG, Body for Life, South Beach and Weight Watchers. As fad diets always are, these diets were a temporary fix. I would lose weight, but eventually it came back.
