Busy lifestyle, weight gain, weight loss, more weight gain, hypertension, frustration…repeat. Many of us know this story, and how aggravatingly cyclical it can be. But how do you break the cycle?
Ask Kia.
Kia is a married, employed mother to two. While change is hard enough for anyone, it’s even harder when you have other people depending on you every single day. But here’s how she was able to change her life:
I have been overweight all of my adult life. I started to gain weight as a pre-teen, around the age of 12. While in high school, my dad allowed me to sign up for a weight loss program. I was able to lose approximately 30 pounds, which put my weight at 168 pounds. But I hated the food, so the program was not sustainable because eating their food was the only key to success. By the time I entered college, I weighed a whopping 210.
By the way…I’m 5’4″.
The weight continued to snowball, and when I returned home from college, I weighed 260 lbs. I immediately joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. This also proved to be futile because I was not ready to change my eating habits. I lost no weight during this time. I quit!
Through the years, over and over again, I tried, and failed at, all sorts of weight loss plans – most of which involved crash dieting and extreme food deprivation. I would lose weight for the short term, at times as much as 40 pounds, but I would shortly gain it all back, plus a little more.
I haven’t yet shared this next part of my story with everyone because it is deeply personal, but I want to be totally honest…
By the age of 31, I was completely fed up with myself topping out at 319 pounds. This prompted my decision to go under the knife and have lap-band surgery. This surgery probably assisted in me being able to get pregnant, since prior to the surgery, I did not have a consistent menstrual cycle because I was morbidly obese. After the surgery, I immediately dropped 50 lbs and within a month, I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I was over the moon with excitement and did not care that I had just invested a ton of money into the surgery.
Within 18 months I was pregnant again, but this time I wasn’t so lucky. I lost the son that I had prayed for, which sent me into a tail spin. I had no outlet for stress…that is, other than food. Since eating was what provided comfort in any other uncomfortable situation, I turned to my old standby once again, and quickly started to put the pounds back on.
By the grace of God, I was pregnant again within a year with another son.
During my second pregnancy, I developed hypertension. I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me at the age of 36, but I accepted it as my fate. I thought that I was just an overweight woman. I spent many years…