[kATIECANDOTHIS]

i was made fun of as a kid. and now that i am so overweight, i didn't realize how "not fat" i was. i started gaining all of this weight about when i was 22. i am 27 now, and i used to think at 170 that i was huge. a cow. i mean in high school, i see old pictures and i looked great. all of my friends were size five, but i wasn't cut that way. i had to learn that by gaining 100 pounds. you know, the bible says that god works all things together for good. i have learned alot about being overweieght.

1. i can't erase the past, but i can change the future.
2. i have learned that i can and need to love my self despite all of my circumstances, regrets, addictions. etc.
3. i am lucky that i have people who love me no matter what my body looks like
4. i will never, ever, have to base my life on what other people think.
5. that life is to short to not be healthy.

[Talitha]

I've gone through the same thing. My first 'boyfriend' at 12 years old dumped me and said that he would 'Go back out with me if I lost 40 lbs" He never even kissed me, all we ever did was talk ont he phone and hold hands in youth group, but those words changed the rest of my life.

If I remember correctly I wore an 8 or a 9 at the time. Haven't seen that without a 1 in front of it in years!!

COme over to the weekly board and post with us!!

[DeafinlySmart]

My dad started obsessing about my weight when I was in 8th grade. I was 135 at the time. It caused me to become a closet eater and a bulimic for a while. I ballooned to 155 (which isn't huge, but a good size weight gain for that year). When I moved in with my mom the next year, she cooked big whole foods meals and never said one word to me other than to switch to diet coke instead of coke. She enrolled me in gymnastics. She let me go out with friends, etc. The first summer I was with her, I lost 12lbs without trying and without noticing. She let me have candy and whatever I wanted and it freed me from having to gorge on it. Now I vow NEVER to go back to feeling like my weight is the sum of who I am. I make choices to help get it off when I am ready, and not because it devalues me.