ZumbaJen
I have been overweight since the age of 6 when my parents got a divorce. I had a mother who was an alcoholic and severely depressed. Which meant she slept most days away. My dinner mostly consisted of a happy meal from McDonald's, unless I was with my dad and then it was basically whatever I wanted at the restaurant we went to that weekend. Did I mention my dad is obese as well, yep double kicker for me. I continued to gain weight and was always the little fat girl from the house on the corner. In the 8th grade my Dad and I went to what we called the "fat doctor" who gave us diet pills to suppress our appetites. That worked for me, I lost about 30 pounds and was finally getting noticed at school for something other than the fat girl. Then my mother had a great idea to move me and her to Idaho, potato country. At the age of 14 I was forced to back up my room and move from the only town I had ever known and leave all of my friends. The moment I arrived in Idaho I hated it. I just wanted to go back and live with my Dad. I didn't have any friends for the first year except food, so of course I gained the 30 pounds back plus some. Idaho doesn't allow teens under 18 to be on diet pills so I was out of luck there. Once again with a mom that slept the days away, so I was basically on my own for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By my senior year I had lost about 30 to 40 pounds again. I had a boyfriend (who turned out to be gay, darn it!) and was really enjoying living in Idaho, I had a new life here and wasn't made fun of for being overweight like I was in California. 2 days before I graduated high school my mom informed me we were moving back to California and as I was finally 18, I decided to make my own choice and stay in Idaho, where I still live. Living on my own wasn't easy and there was a lot of fast food runs. So I continued to gain the weight. I met my husband in 1997 and was about 204 pounds, at that time I had finally got into another "fat doctor" and was given more meds to suppress my appetite, but then my body decided it didn't care for those meds, even though I was loosing weight, I ended up with a lot of chest pain and had to quit taking them. So I was on my own again to try something new, nothing worked! At the age of 25 I lost my mother to lung cancer, one of the worse things I had to go through was watching her lay there so sick and there was nothing I could do but tell her it was ok to go. She wasn't ever mother of the year, but she was still my Mommy and I miss her dearly, problems and all. Before she passed I was able to get her blessing to marry my husband. We married in 2004 and I weight 240 pounds. Although I look back on the pic's now and think, eww, I felt like the most beautiful bride on that day, even in my size 24 gown. We had our first daughter in 2006, at 9 months pregnant I weighed 270 pounds. Yes I was pregnant but I had lost 30 pounds during the first 4 month with morning sickness and then gained and gained. Our 2nd daughter came in 2008, and I only got up to about 260 with her. So then I was overweight with extra baby weight. Again back to yo-yo dieting. In 2009 my husband and I joined a gym and I started weight watchers for like the 100th time, this time it worked. I lost 50 lbs, down to 210 pounds. I kept that off for a full year, but haven't been able to get back in the mode of loosing. Even after I found my love for Zumba. I would Zumba 5 days a week and never shed a pound because I was still eating poorly. At the beginning of 2012 I started gaining back that weight, I am currently at about 230 pounds. I have just had enough of all of this "dieting" and decided to go and see if I qualified for gastric bypass. I am exactly 100 pounds overweight so I qualified. I'm hoping to have my surgery by July of this year and to start a whole new life. I don't want my girls to be overweight, so I need to learn how to eat right once and for all so I can teach them.
