This is a friend of mine that I used to work with. I like to talk but I think she can tell her story better than I can:
Ok so people have asked me my story
a few times. And I've skirted around this issues and left information out
because it was still something I hadn't fully dealt with. So here's the whole
raw story of me up til now
When I was a kid, I was a little chubbier than the other kids, no big deal. By
second grade though, I wasn't just chubby, I was the fat kid. The years of
teasing and being picked on sucked, at first I would come home and cry a lot
with my mum, then I began to internalize it a bit more and just dealt with it
on my own. Lets fast forward to middle school, I HATED LIFE, teen age girls are
mean but the guys were even worse. It was then I developed an eating disorder.
Now mind you, I tried everything to lose weigh, I was in dance, horseback
riding, swim team, I did not just sit around and do nothing. I began to binge
and purge, regularly, it allowed me to have some form of control in a world
where I felt like i didn't have control over anything else. Middle school was
the most miserable time of my life. So much so, I transferred to a magnet high
school so I wouldn't have to be around those people anymore. By my freshman
year in high school I was already in a size 18. I went through the motions of
high school, but never fully enjoyed it. I still was picked on and made fun of
for my size. After I graduated high school, I went on to college, packed on the
freshmen 15, which was more like 35 lets be real. I was still binging and
purging regularly, like everything I ate. My cousin finally confronted me about
it, and I broke down and cried with her for hours. I got married at 20, he was
my world. So I lost about 20 pounds for the wedding and I was so happy. I had
controlled my urges some to stop binging and purging everything, I still dealt
with the voices that tell you 'oh you ate to much you really should get rid of
it'. Between my cousin and my then husband I had a good support system. Then I
decided to try a new diet, medifast and it worked great! I was seeing results
and working out. My husband left for basic training, which pushed me to work
even harder. He didn't even recognize me at his graduation. But then I moved
over seas, stopped medifast, I kept up my workouts, but the weight slowly crept
back on. After seeing my doctor, he attributed a lot of my weight gain to my
medications for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which I had suffered with my whole life. I became very
depressed. But then a miracle happened, I became pregnant.
Let me tell ya, I took full advantage of being pregnant, yes I worked out, but
man I ate EVERYTHING. By the time I gave birth I weighed a whopping 289 lbs, and
that is a lot on my little 5'3 frame. When my son was almost 2 we moved back to
Florida for a year, and I began to go thru a lot of personal issues with my
marriage and myself, I stopped working out as much. In 2011 I moved to WA state
after my husband came home from Korea. It was clear that we both had changed,
and we were fighting to stay together for our son, but there was nothing left
between us. After 11 months of being utterly miserable and depressed, I finally
told him I wanted to go home and that I wanted a divorce, we sat and cried
together but we both knew it was what was best for all of us. In January of
2012 I move back home with my son to my family's house. I spent a lot of time
pitying myself and just eating to ease the pain. By the summer of 2012 I
finally had it, I had gone thru the process with my insurance to have the
gastric sleeve surgery and 2 weeks before my surgery they changed their mind. I
was crushed. My mum then said she would pay for me to go to Mexico and do it
like my cousin had. Within 4 weeks I had my date for the surgery and was
starting my pre-op diet.
On July 19th 2012, my world changed. I had the gastric sleeve surgery. My
starting weight was 268 before all of my pre-op diets. As soon as I got back
home I went thru my 3 weeks of liquid only diet, then soft foods, then slowly
learning to eat again. But the weight was coming off fast. The first 50 pounds
was gone in a month. As soon as I was cleared by my doctors, I began working
out. It was intimidating at first because I had no idea what I was doing, so I
enlisted the help of a trainer for 6 months, and my body transformed a lot. I
took a break from training and tried it on my own for a bit. But now I am back
with a different trainer since my original one moved, and it has been a tool
that is so beneficial to me. He pushes me and challenges me every session, and
even in the last 6 months I have leaned out more and gained way more upper body
strength, most importantly I gained someone to continue and motivate me on my
journey. I currently weight 161 now, I gained back some of what I lost
initially after my mum passed but then regained my motivation as I know she is
watching down on me and helping me thru this journey. From a size 22 to a size
5, I gained my life back, my son gained his mom back

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