dasie
My first successful weight loss event occurred in 1969, at age 13. I weighed in excess of 160 pounds and was entering high school the coming fall. In anticipation of that milestone, the previous spring I drastically reduced my food intake and walked. I lost 20 – 30 pounds prior to entering high school.
By my junior year, I had regained the weight and more. The summer before my senior year, I again reduced my calories and lost 35 pounds. However one year after graduating high school, I regained 45 pounds. At that time, I met my husband to-be and lost that weight prior to getting married in August 1974. These efforts were self-imposed, without medical supervision, and always consisted of the typical “teenage starvation diet” with little attention to nutrition or health.
Following the birth of my first child in 1975, I weighed in excess of 200 pounds. This was not pregnancy weight. My daughter was 2.5 months premature weighing only 2 lbs 13 oz. Ten months after her birth, I became acquainted with a “weight loss clinic” in
Once I enrolled in college in 1984, it was at this juncture my most significant and continuing struggle with weight began. Since that time until now, my weight routinely exceeds 230 lbs punctuated by numerous weight loss episodes including, but not limited to, 2 significant weight loss efforts of 70 pounds or more in 1997 and 2001, and 40 pounds in 2004 and 2007.
In addition to my weight loss history, there is another obesity component I sincerely believe impacts my struggle with this issue now more than ever. Although it is not used as an excuse and does not cause obesity, it is inescapably a contributing factor that exacerbates the problem and is also part of my story.
In 2004, I medically retired from my mathematics teaching career due to a degenerative retinal disease. I lost my ability to drive in 1997 seven years prior to my retirement. At that same time, I began relying on family members for all transportation needs, including driving me to-and-from work each day. Once my children matured and left home, I lost a large portion of personal freedom - not to mention a substantial part of my transportation provision. My yo-yoing weight issue became more severe once I lost their assistance.
