Losing Weight and Starting Over
M. Willis,
Fresno, CA
I have been heavy
most of my life. It was never really a biological
problem, I just ate too much. I was very fortunate to
meet a man that loved me even though I was overweight.
My family was surprised, because they were all average
weight and assumed I’d never find anyone until I trimmed
down. In fact, my family is probably one of the reasons
I was overweight, but that’s not the point. Two years
ago, my husband died suddenly and I was in shock. But
as I go my life together, I decided to lose weight, and
I’m now down 68 pounds!
After the initial
impact of my wonderful husband’s death wore off, I
realized I was alone for the first time in many many
years. We never had children, so he was the center of
my life. I couldn’t even think about what I would do in
the future. But my friends helped me realize that I
should move on and part of that would be to find another
relationship.
I decided that to do
that, I wanted to lose a lot of weight. I’ve never been
very good at following programs of any sort, so I made
up my own. I joined the town gym and started reading up
on food and healthy recipes. I have always been a good
cook, so I started making things that were low in
calories and still were something I looked forward to
eating. It wasn’t easy, but I am kind of stubborn, and
I was determined to make it work.
My first few visits
to the gym were awful. Everyone else was there in their
trim workout clothes and I was huge. The effort was
enormous to push myself. But as I said, I am stubborn,
and I kept at it. I found that if I got up early and
went before too many other people were there, I could
workout without feeling so self-conscious. I also got
to know the “regulars” and made a couple new friends.
After two months, I
had lost 12 pounds. I wanted more, but it was
encouraging. I kept at it, and slowly but surely, the
pounds came off. Managing my wardrobe became a
challenge since I was changing sizes all the time. So I
bought inexpensive things and gave them away when I got
too small for them.
Now, I’m about where
I want to be, with maybe a few more pounds to go. I
rewarded myself with a better wardrobe, and I am ready
to start thinking about a new relationship. That part
is just as scary as starting to lose the weight, but I
figure if I can knock off 68 pounds in 14 months, I can
try to go out and meet some new people.
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