Maureen McDonald
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I am a 55-year-old mother of 2. I have a life time partner of almost 13 years who is my biggest support.  I have a married 27-year-old birth daughter who lives in Lexington, and I have a 15-year-old adopted son still at home. My life is a happy one, and I am at a place where I feel content and totally comfortable with who I am, except for how bad I feel carrying around these 12 extra bowling balls every day.  As the years pass and I am still very heavy, my knees ache more, and I get out of breath easier. I would be embarrassed to let anyone see how I have to get up from the floor on those rare occasions when I find myself ON the floor! I know I am beautiful on the inside, and now I want to feel better and healthier on the outside.

As a child I was always thin, but had 6 siblings, and there was not always an abundance of food to go around.  When I was in my 20's and still had siblings in their teens, my mother died suddenly of a stroke. She was only 55 years old. Granted, she abused her body with alcohol, cigarettes, and overeating, but it was a shock to us all. When my father received her death certificate it read the cause of her death as morbid obesity. He was furious! He died a few years later of multiple myeloma. I see how much she has missed by watching us all grow up, and start our own families. I do not want that route for me.

I did not begin to gain any weight until my pregnancy with my daughter, now 27 years old. I gained 75 pounds and yo-yoed it off and on for many years until I just gave up! Gradually more weight appeared. At only 5'2" it is so much worse! Ugh! My daughter has been married to a wonderful husband for 3 years now, and soon they will be starting a family. I am looking forward to many years of playing with grandchildren!

At the age of 40 I adopted a tiny preemie while fostering fragile infants. He has many special needs, and I would like to be able to keep up with him for many years to come. He is the joy of our lives. My partner is a second mother to him, and together they do some fabulous guitar battling on Guitar Hero!

We have two wonderful cats who have adopted us, and always know when one of us has had a rough day and will snuggle up to that person as soon as they sit down.

I work as a Special Education Para Educator as a personal aide to an 8-year-old girl with CP. This is my third year in school with her but I've been in the school systems for many years off and on working with multihandicapped children and adults, which requires a lot of lifting. This has kept my upper body strong, and has helped me maintain some fashion of fitness throughout the years.


I know this will sound silly, but one thing I really want to do is run marathons. I ran in high school for a bit, and just really want that to be a goal of mine in the next couple of years. I love being outdoors, and running is such a freeing feeling! I don't have to come in first, but I know I will not come in last either!

That's a bit about me.

Maureen