Team Beachbody Guest

Growing up I never had a chance to view food or exercise in a healthy way.
My mother who starved herself to stay thin. My father who was a binge eater.
Then after my parents divorced my grandmother spent a lot of time with me
who was a good hearted southern women who was a emotional eater.
Growing up, I have gone back any forth from being a little chubby to severally
overweight.
I have spurts of over exercising and slightly healthy eating. But I would
eventually binge and quit all together. After every time I was would go back
to binging over the years I would slowly gain more and more weight.
When my father died 2 weeks before my 17th birthday I was forced to move
from Michigan and West Virginia. From a large city to a town in the middle of
nowhere. Over the four years I was there with a mix of grief, grandma's good
home cooking, and going to college. I went from a size 14 to a size 26/28
and 296 lbs.!
My life changing event that pushed me to decide that I needed to make a
change was my grandmother. Since I was 8 my grandmother has been a
diabetic. Over the years with a combination of her weight, eating habits, and
absence of exercise. Two years ago she experienced for the first time renal
failure and was placed on dialysis. To see my grandmothers health over the
years change and what she is going through now on dialysis and the pain
that she is in what seems like all the time....all because she didn't take care of
herself over all these years.
I look just like my grandma, just a little taller and weigh a little more. I don't
want my future health to be like my grandmothers. I can think of a million
things I would love to be just like her, but not my health.

I found MDB indirectly through another site that had nothing to do with
weight loss, I wasn't even thinking about changing my lifestyle. I liked the
idea of WOWY. That I could track my workout times and monthly on a
calendar.
For the first month I worked on sticking to working out. When I aced sticking
to my workouts I started working on my meal plans and my ideas about food.
As of Feb. 2008
I have lost a total of 46 lbs. down to 250! It has been amazing to see the
changes my body has made in the past few months and the way my moods
have changed. That is what is the most important to me since I was
diagnosed with Bipolar disorder when I was 10. Anyway to regulate my
moods instead of being on psychosomatic prescriptions. Of course it is
always a plus that my clothes are loose and fitting better than ever before.

I have decided that when I have reached my fitness goals and have reached
my healthy weight. The reward I am giving myself is a trip to Greece. I have
always wanted to go and said to my mom a couple months ago that I will
refuse to die until I go to Greece. I don't care if I am 130, I will not die unless
I have been to Greece. Luckily I have a lot of time to save up the money to go
since I have plenty of more weight to lose before I reach my goal.

I can't wait to see how my life is going to change for the better in the next 50
lbs. and I can't wait to share it with you guys!