a story". What's yours? How did you get to where you are (health wise, life style, non-healthwise, etc)? Where are you going? What have you done in your life (accomplished, semi-accomplished, wanted to do but never did, etc.)? This is the thread to talk about your life whether it has to do with your weight, family, life, children, anything that suites your fancy. I will start.



I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. My parents divorced when I was probably 3 or 4 and my mom took me and my brother to Hawaii where she was born and raised. I grew up there my whole life. Got into drugs during high school and when I graduated, I moved back to Salt Lake with my dad. My boyfriend who lived in Hawaii followed me there and we got married, which was the biggest mistake ever. 11 months later, divorced. A year later, got pregnant and had a baby boy, named Powell. I named him Powell because I went into labor at Lake Powell. Boy did I have fun that weekend (which ironically was Labor day weekend). My father wasn't much help so I moved to Japan where my mom was living because she married her 2nd husband again for the 2nd time. They were there because they were contracted with the military. I lived there for a year and met my now husband. He was in the marines and working part time at the burger king on base and so was I. He got stationed in California and I followed. Shortly after, we married at a Las Vegas drive thru. We lived in California for 3 years and loved every minute of it. Had another boy, Jaisen. DH got stationed to Iraq and I moved to Houston to live with his parents (another BIG mistake). He came home and everything fell apart. He came home with PTSD and since then, it has made the whole family's life miserable. Shortly after he came home, I got pregnant with daughter, Miranda. We've gone through marriage counseling and it has helped but not completely. He's supposed to be getting some help but hasn't really. He has become a very negative person. He became the man I would never marry. We're working on it though. I love him very much. He's never physically abusive but just really really negative. We just recently had another boy, Kristopher. And here we are, still struggling. DH is gonna be trying for Dallas Police Department next weekend. Other than his PTSD, we are generally a happy family.


Now it's your turn.

My story;

I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. Because of my mom I recently got my german citizenship. So I a both a canadian and german citizen! I lived the typical "leave it to beaver" family life. Mom was a stay at home mom, and my dad's a lawyer. My dad is a bit of a workaholic, but he never missed a soccer game or school play. I was seriously involved in horseback riding for many many years. Unfortunately, I developed patella fermola syndrom from all my riding and have had serious knee problems ever since. During jr high and high school I travelled lots, over the summers and spring break (greece, italy, spain, morocco, portugual, vietnam, egypt, and germany among others). I moved cross country at 17 to go to university and lived in London, Ontario until I was done. I have a degree in Sociology with a double minor in psychology and criminology. A few months after I graduated and on my 22nd bday my mom was diagnosed with termimal cancer. That's when I developed weight problems, I began eating out of comfort and b/c I was scared. My mom, even though she was terminally ill, convinced me to continue with my dream to volunteer overseas and a few months later I took off to costa ric and panama for 7 months. I spent a few month builing a school and a commuinty kitchen. I had the time of my life! And gained more weight from eating to much arroz con pollo, and pollo frito and drinking to much beer. However, I did have the time of my life and I'd do it all again. Thank-fully my mom's cancer was misdiagnosed and she survived (14 months in remission!) A few weeks after coming home I landed my first "real job" as a corporate training specialist. I've been doing that for almost two years. I met my current boyfriend right around the time I landed my job. Mom my was also diagnosed in remission that same week (best week of my life!) Last may I bought my first house. I will be in debt until my great grand-children are old enough to vote. But it's abosuletly perfect. Now I'm just going through the normality of day to day life.....and I can't wait to travel again.

yeah I love to talk about myself. I think it helps me 'be okay' with my life.

I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada but grew up 700 kilometers north of there and hated it growing up. I was really picked on as a kid... mostly by guys who threw stuff and spit stuff on me. I never had really close friends as a kid -- my parents are great people - just amazingly overprotective and it kind of stunted ANY social development.

So after high school I moved thousands of kilometeres away to the west coast. I made a life for myself and did my undergrad degree. I got to see amazing places and experience things like a semester in Canada's capital interning for the government.. and did a french immersion summer session in Quebec. The Manitoba Metis Federation even paid for my last year of university -- I agreed with a friend to move to South Korea and teach English because I didnt want to start a career at 21 anyways!

During my fall midterms I lost vision in one of my eyes. The next day I woke up and couldnt write my own name or walk without leaning against a wall. Each day followed with a more disturbing sign that something was very wrong. My best friend pulled me around our school campus by her backpack because I had lost most of my balance.... some people laughed at me for talking like a drunk... despite being completly sober. Others prayed for me or told me I should drop out of school.

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and told not to leave the country. (cant get the meds overseas.. the meds that hopefully will keep me out of a wheelchair for a long while) but I finished my degree and ignored the fact that I was very sick. I did this mostly with chocolate. oy.

I was pretty defeated by this point.. I could barely walk myself across my university grad platform so I had no choice but to let my parents take me home that year. That along with a chronic disease at 21 made me very depressed. I started disease modifying injections to change my immune system and spent 4 months very sick as I got used to the drug. I thought my life was over.

I gained 50 pounds... but the meds eventually stabilized my disease process -I hope! After spending months with some disabling MS symptoms they went into remission and I had my very own new lease of life. I need to make the most of my mobility while I have it. I dont want using a cain at 25 wishing I had gotten healthy and cared enough about my life before that point. I want to do it now.

And so I am. Whatever multiple sclerosis throws me. I will be able to take it. My life is worth living.

Wow. You both have very interesting lives. I love hearing about peoples journey in life. Things that got thrown their way, obstacles they had to overcome and are going through, etc. It is so interesting. I am impressed and honestly, alittle jealous at the traveling the both of you had done. I traveled alot in my life but not like the two of you. Wow.

Shantroy-good for you!!!! You helped build a school. They are very lucky to have had you there.

Valpal-Sorry to hear about your MS. You are very strong. Most people would've given up. You kept strong and finished as much as you could and you are still going. I don't know if I could do the same.

Anyone else?

HI...
I was born in Ca, typical teenage life, stupid BF that drove my dad nuts, I met a guy at a party when I was 17 and married him 3 months later, can you spell mistake? I had a terrible miscarriage at 5 months gestation and the weight started creeping up then, was pregnant again in three months time and gave birth to my daughter. Marriage still sucked but religion wouldn't allow divorce. My dad died, leaving my mom all alone and in a large way adding alot of stress to all our lives. My husband suffered from seizures and anyerisms, was on several medications and eventually after the birth of our son, he was forced to go in Social Security. Having him home full time made our marriage worse. We really never should have gotten married, he was a very negative person and abusive both emotionally and physically, about the time I had finally had enough, he suffered a major brain bleed and was given three years to live. So the seperation was put off, so that he could pretend to be a good dad for the rest of his life. He actually didn't do to bad, but he passed away 11 months later. Very hard on every one involved. A year of so later, I met my fiance at the park. He's wonderful and we are getting married this June. My kids finally have the dad they deserve and I have the man of my dreams. Now it's time for me to lose the rest of the depression weight that I gained ( kinda envious of the ppl that lose weight when depressed ;-) )
and move on with my new and improved life. Happier and healthier to boot.

Wow!!! things are looking good for you now. Hope all goes well and good luck (and congratulations on the engagement).

i was a child of normal weight with obese parents who had terrible eating habits. they started using food as a bribe with me as young as preschool - i didnt want to go, the deal was always - if i went, i got mcdonalds. so in preschool i was eating a mcdonalds lunch monday through friday. in second grade i became homeschooled and my eating habits got worse. mid day it was a break to 711 for a 2 liter of pepsi, a bag of chips and a candy bar. everyday. my weight ballooned but i didnt have a concept of what it was to be 'fat'. i simply just 'was' and my eating habits were normal to me. i was never "forced" to eat anything. the idea in my family was the dinner table is to be a pleasant place. so if i didnt want the pork chop and vegetables, no problem. they would make me a can of spaghetti o's...
when i was 13 my sister was getting married. i was a bridesmaid but the dress she picked out didnt come in my size - i couldnt fit! so i started going on walks everyday... i started going to the gym too after i convinced my mom to get me a membership. i became calorie obsessed and started abusing laxatives. i lost a large amount of weight... i remember a family friend telling me that i didnt need to lose anymore weight when i said i had a goal of 15 more pounds (to get into the 120s)... she told me if i continued to work out i would start to look masculine. i made a conscious effort to stop working out. i didnt want to look manly! i gained weight again rapidly.... and here i am. 24 years old. and i cant muster the will power i had when i was 13. i think i want to approach things more healthily now and the only way i did it before was by allowing myself to get obsessed and over do it... balance is a factor in life i have a hard time finding.

I was a normal sized kid in a family that eats like there's no tomorrow but has a combination of fairly fast metabolisms and lots of exercise so that everyone's fairly thin - hardy peasant stock, big hips and boobs, solid, but middle of the BMI range and fairly slim. My father is a doctor and mother is clergy - when they got married she was in PR and neither was relgious, my mother a hebrew school dropout and my father an agnostic raised christian. 15 years later my dad had converted and my mother started seminary to become a cantor. Odd. I have a little brother who inherited mutually exclusive genes from our parents - we have literally nothing in common, he's an athletic, skinny, blond haired, blue eyed angel who couldn't care less about academics or art or general geekiness.

I've always been the family changeling, I have brown eyes to my parents' blue and green (genetically supposed to be impossible) and I've tended towards the extremes in... well, almost everything. I've always freaked out my teachers a bit, by kindergarten I was writing two page, non rhyming poems, chasing anyone who called me normal (I was the "weird kid" and proud of it) and generally out-smarting everyone around me. I started in private school and a bout of suicidal depression in middle school, combined with crippling anxiety (Sensory processing disorder - picture getting the nails on a chalkboard feeling towards hundreds of textures and sounds inescapable in daily life). In seventh grade I took the SATs without a calculator or studying and got a 1320. My brain was rattling around between the depression and the anxiety and couldn't escape.

High school I started at an all girls' boarding school, which was by far the best decision I've ever made, despite the fact that I barely slept for four years, overloaded on classes, was editor in chief of the yearbook, president of the Jewish Student Union, and generally stretched myself beyond my breaking point several times badly enough that I needed a week at home to get over it. I also tended to irritate the administration by writing fairly aggressive satire attacking their stupider decisions that got forwarded to the entire school - way to make friends and influence people. I went to Israel for a semester in my junior year, which coincided with my metabolism suddenly slowing to a normal pace, so that all of a sudden I couldn't eat 3000 calories a day and still weigh 135 pounds. I ballooned up to 195 over the next few years, before finally getting it under control with calorie counting starting the summer after my freshman year of college and dropping 50 pounds to about 145. I'm up a tad now, but basically healthy sized. I've also had bouts of anorexia and bulimia dropping me as low as 110 pounds flaring since I was.. 12? or so? Lovely.

Now I'm 20, a junior in college, working towards two bachelor's degrees at once, one in art (jewelry) and one in women's studies with a comparative religion minor. I want to go to grad school for nonprofit work and work with NGOs and charities on poverty alleviation issues, especially through microcredit. I tend to terrify guys, because I'm smarter than they are, I'm tough, and despite having most of my crazies under control with daily happy pills and emergency xanax, I occasionally burst into tears for no adequately explained reason, which inexplicably tends to freak guys out, who knew? I've been in plenty of relationships, including an 8 month one that ended recently because we weren't on the marriage track (not a problem for me but...) so now I'm single. Plus Jewelry and women's studies classes aren't exactly great places to meet straight men. What can you do?