I was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. I'm the youngest of 6 children (3 girls and 3 boys, kinda like the Brady Bunch).

  I come from a fat family, but I was the only fat kid. Guess that sounds kinda confusing. But what I mean is that both of my parents battled the bulge, and my siblings got to that point as they became adults. As for me, I battled it when I was a kid. My weight issues actually started out with being underweight.

  Yep, that's right -- UNDERweight. I had been a normal, healthy weight up till I was 6 or 7. Then I got the chicken pox and didn't eat. I was given food, but just had no appetite. I was a long time sick (I accidentally scratched one of the last pustules open, triggering a relapse). Consequently, I lost a lot of weight and my mom was worried.

  Mom took me to the doctor, and he gave mom a small envelope full of little white pills. Told her to make sure I took them all. Well, I think he put too many pills in that envelope, because by the time it was empty, I was fat. Thus began a lifetime of weight problems and the consequences that went with them. I was made fun of at school, and even my family made jokes about my weight.

  I did manage to slim down as a teenager, but only for a few short years. By the time I was 17, I was fat again. I stayed that way until I had the gastric bypass in 2005, despite trying so many diets and programs. I tried NutriSystem, tried Susan Powter's program, even briefly tried Richard Simmons' exercise routines. But nothing worked for long. I'd lose weight and then gain it back and more. I finally got up to 270 lbs. before deciding I needed to do something "drastic". By then, I had Type 2 Diabetes and my feet were starting to go numb at night. I also had high blood pressure (it's still a bit high, but getting better).

  So that's the story of my life so far. The best is yet to come!