From the beginning...

OK, so in order understand how I am where I am right now, I guess I should give you a brief look into my past...weight wasn't ALWAYS an issue for me. Actually, when I was younger I was SKINNY...I mean SKINTY!! My dad used to call me chicken neck LOL. It wasn't until my early teens that things started to change...chile, I wasn't ready! Truth is my family went through some pretty hard times which propelled me into an intense struggle with depression and low self-esteem. Food became my drug...it hid my insecurities and masked my true feelings. I found solace in eating and indulged in any and everything. Going through puberty and dealing with depression is a lethal combination. Couple that with the fact that I HATED any physical activity and the combination became even more lethal.

I can honestly say that I was probably my heaviest in high school. Those were some tough years. During that time, my mom tried to help the best way she could think of. She took me to the doctor, got me some weight loss meds and even tried a brief stint in Weight Watchers. Can you imagine a young girl in her teens sitting in a room with a bunch of older women getting ribbons for weight loss??? CHILE.....BOO!!! (no suh lol). I remember losing a significant amount of weight my senior year of high school from taking meds but never changed my relationship with food. In bible college, I started walking 2 miles a day and lost more weight but it was short lived I'm afraid. Not too long after that, I gained all that weight back and more.

Now I'm leaving out A LOT of details but you get the idea...I have been on this journey for a LONG time. I honestly thought I would never conquer this struggle. You know how it feels to just struggle and struggle and struggle with something feeling like this is something that you may deal with for the rest of your life. Yep, been there, done that.

So fast forward, I had lived in beautiful, sunny Florida for 7 years and had decided to move to North Carolina in December 2009. For the first 4 months of 2010 I was unemployed and BORED!!! and so I ATE!!! and ATE!!!! and ATE!!! Ugh...gained so much weight :( Finally the time came that I was tired of this struggle and decided something had to be done. So I decided to do something I hadn't tried yet....EXERCISE!!! Talk about scared...***remember I said I was going to be transparent???**** April 21 (or 22), 2011 I went to my first FIT Camp...

My initial measurements were:
Weight: 270 pounds
Waist: 45 inches
Hip: 53 inches