paperballet
14-24 years old
from puberty to a few years after i got married in 1997, i was obese. i developed macromastia, extreme enlargement of the breasts by the time i was 15. i spent my junior high and all of my high school years with an increasingly hard-to-ignore confidence problem. this led to drugs and other problems, like sexual dysfunction. byt he time i was married, i went to college and tried to better my life, but i was so depressed by my weight [u to 245 lbs] i retreated and decided to hide from the world.
25-31 years old
by this time i had decided to get out he Norplant birth control i was on, which was a surgical procedure. i got pregnant immediately and had a non-eventful pregnancy until the 7th month in which i swelled up like a balloon. my feet and hands looked freakish. i had developed preeclampsia and had to have a premature baby at 7 months. she is 8 years old now and beautiful. happy, height and weight proportional [in fact, actually TALLER than most kids her age] and she understands healthy eating. she's the love of my life! after her birth i lost about 40 pounds, but put it back on after my divorce, plus 60 more.
31-36 years old.
i decided i was going to lose the weight for good and i lost 110 pounds on my own, but due to anti-depressant, hypertension and anti-anxiety medications took a toll on my metabolism, i gained 60 back. now i am finally at 250, after losing 10 lbs for my surgery, and i am still losing. i am so ready for my life's journey to keep on... i say keep on because i am already challenging myself everyday, even before surgery. i want to be happy and healthy ON my surgery date!! no excuses for not being active and no shocking reduction in food and calories. i know it's a challenge everyday fromnow until i die with the battle of obesity. but i KNOW i will win.
Jan.15 2011 --- my start weight at the time i quit smoking was 260. 
Feb. 2011 --- my weight loss is 10 12 pounds. i am at 250 248 lbs. i have quit smoking for two weeks now! 
March 2011 --- started pre-op at 243
April 2011 --- surgery date, April 19th, 2011 
recovered, 15 lb loss
May 2011 --- 2 weeks post-op, eating soft foods. down 33 pounds total, may 5th
June 2011 --- this was a wonderful month for me. down 20 more pounds. total loss 60 pounds!
July 2011 ---
August 2011 ---
September 2011 ---
october 2011 ---
November 2011 ---
Dec 2011 ---
Ellen Degeneres
You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is. 
Benjamin Franklin
You may delay, but time will not.
David Viscott
You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be.
Eleanor Roosevelt
You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
George Bernard Shaw
You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
Ralph Marston
Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality.
