On a Wordless Wednesday, 3 months ago, I posted this picture:
and wrote that I would follow up with the story. and then I didn't.
I only had like 5 followers then, so I guess it would have gone mostly unread anyway.
I did talk about my childhood obesity briefly in the interview I did for TruthinSlimming, but my life would be COMPLETELY different if I'd never lost the weight, so it deserves it's own post.
Here goes nothing, this is going to be lengthy.
I was, for pretty much my entire childhood, a chubby kid. Like most children who have weight problems, I went from chubby kid to overweight adolescent; had I not decided to make life changes when I was 13, I would most likely still be struggling with my weight today. I never would have discovered my ability to run, it's highly unlikely I would have my physical lifeguarding job, I wouldn't be pursuing my training cert, and I'm 99% positive there would be no Nolan (due to my PCOS).
(Note: I'm not saying that you can't do any of these things if you are overweight; I'm saying for me, personally, I'm fairly certain they would not have happened.)
My younger cousins and I at the beach where I currently work.
This is about a year before I started losing the weight.
None of my other family members had weight problems; my younger bro and sis were string beans and my dad was (and still is) super fit. (Side note: My birth announcement in his work newsletter joked that I was born with New Balance Running Sneakers on :D)
One of the things that likely contributed to my excess weight was a diagnosis of Legg Calve Perthes. LCP is a childhood hip disease where the ball of the hip doesn't form properly (my right hip ball is still misshaped). For almost 2 years (2nd and part of 3rd grade) I had to wear a brace that looked like this :
I tried to find a pic of me wearing it, but no luck
This meant very little physical activity for me, but after a few years of treatment I was good to go :)
I don't remember exactly when I started to notice that I was "fat" and that being fat was a negative thing. Probably around 5th grade and I realized it more each year after, very rarely did anyone say something nasty to my face, but they weren't exactly discreet about making fun of me either.
7th and 8th grade were really tough for me socially. Not only was I overweight, I was super quiet and a little immature as well. I loved Winnie the Pooh and I used to always wear a dress with his picture embroidered on it (junior high suicide ;) I was fortunately some what naive as well and couldn't tell a lot of the time when I was being mocked, but looking back I can see it now. My high weight was around 160-170 (based on phys. ed fitness test) @ 5'2" (now 5'4")
I spent A LOT of time day dreaming in my room. In all my dreams I was thin and pretty. I remember vividly, in 8th grade (right before I started losing weight that summer), thinking over and over again about how I was going to come back to school thin. I was going to get the (positive) attention of everyone who ever made fun of me or looked down on me. I wanted to shock people; wanted to prove something.
I don't recall what made my thirteen year old self go from sitting around dreaming to getting up and making it a reality, but I'm still amazed (and thankful [to myself :D]) at the courage she had. One day I just up and decided to start walking around my block (almost 1mi), I got out there and walked my little heart out for 5 laps. I continued to do this everyday (I didn't start running till after I reached my low weight). When my family would drive to the local beach club about a mile away, I would walk and meet them there.
And that is basically it, I knew what I wanted and I kept walking till I got there. I definitely started eating better too, I didn't go on any diet plan, I just ate healthier. I think one thing that made a HUGE difference was getting rid of all juices from my diet and drinking solely water. I'm lucky that I've never enjoyed soda, but I drank a LOT of juice.
By the time I started 9th grade I was down to around 135 and continued to lose till I reached 115-120. and yes I cause quite a commotion :D
I still have a bunch to say on this topic, but I'm going to save that for another post in the next few days.
