As a child, I was always considered tall and big for my age. At school children would taunt me like only children can do. They called me, “Fat” and “Jolly Green Giant”. When people asked my mother what she fed us she would reply, “Grow Puffs”. My mother belonged to TOPS and so, as a teenager, I joined, only to quit.
Being overweight means health problems and I went through a lot of them. Again I joined TOPS and again I quit. My weight had increased to 400 pounds. Unable to walk more than a few steps, the wheelchair became my friend. I would lose a bit of weight and then gain it back plus some more. It was about this time that I started feeling depressed. I felt that my loyal husband deserved someone better than me. I felt that my family would be better off without the burden of taking care of someone in a wheelchair. My illnesses were putting a strain on our finances and my weight was ballooning out of control.
Then I found out that I was going to be a grandmother. Unaware, I was starting to use the tools that I learned at TOPS in my younger years. When I held my granddaughter for the first time, I knew that I had something or someone to get healthy and to live for. With the help of my doctor I was able to lose 80 pounds. My mother talked me into returning to TOPS. On Tuesday, August 4, 2007, I walked into #ON31, St. Catharines for the 5th time. Our weight recorder told me not to worry about losing 100 pounds; we were only going to work on taking 10 pounds at a time and work to keep them off. I knew that if I wanted this time to be different, I had to make some changes. I started with the small ones; eating lots of vegetables and cutting down on my fats. I drank lots of water, herbal teas and switched to skim milk. I started educating myself on what kind of nutrients my body needed and fed my body with them.
For exercise I would slide my granddaughter down my legs and do leg lifts using her as my weights. Soon I was able to walk more and walked as much as I could, first around the yard. Before I knew it I was walking a mile then 2 miles. When I weighed in at 299 pounds, a big high five and a hug from the weight recorder reassured me that I could do this. The pounds came off fast at first but then it became harder to take off the pounds. When I reached my 100 pound loss, tears on my cheeks and on our weight recorder’s cheeks reassured me that I was on the road to a new, healthier me.
My message to you all is very simple. Crash diets don’t work. As a teenager crash dieting in high school, with eating only 300 calories a day, ruined my metabolism. But most of all is honest with yourself. Be honest about what you are eating and why you feel the need to eat. If you can be honest with yourself, you too will lose weight and you too will be able to stand here, in front of your fellow TOPS members to say, “Yes, I am an intelligent person”.
Being overweight means health problems and I went through a lot of them. Again I joined TOPS and again I quit. My weight had increased to 400 pounds. Unable to walk more than a few steps, the wheelchair became my friend. I would lose a bit of weight and then gain it back plus some more. It was about this time that I started feeling depressed. I felt that my loyal husband deserved someone better than me. I felt that my family would be better off without the burden of taking care of someone in a wheelchair. My illnesses were putting a strain on our finances and my weight was ballooning out of control.
Then I found out that I was going to be a grandmother. Unaware, I was starting to use the tools that I learned at TOPS in my younger years. When I held my granddaughter for the first time, I knew that I had something or someone to get healthy and to live for. With the help of my doctor I was able to lose 80 pounds. My mother talked me into returning to TOPS. On Tuesday, August 4, 2007, I walked into #ON31, St. Catharines for the 5th time. Our weight recorder told me not to worry about losing 100 pounds; we were only going to work on taking 10 pounds at a time and work to keep them off. I knew that if I wanted this time to be different, I had to make some changes. I started with the small ones; eating lots of vegetables and cutting down on my fats. I drank lots of water, herbal teas and switched to skim milk. I started educating myself on what kind of nutrients my body needed and fed my body with them.
For exercise I would slide my granddaughter down my legs and do leg lifts using her as my weights. Soon I was able to walk more and walked as much as I could, first around the yard. Before I knew it I was walking a mile then 2 miles. When I weighed in at 299 pounds, a big high five and a hug from the weight recorder reassured me that I could do this. The pounds came off fast at first but then it became harder to take off the pounds. When I reached my 100 pound loss, tears on my cheeks and on our weight recorder’s cheeks reassured me that I was on the road to a new, healthier me.
My message to you all is very simple. Crash diets don’t work. As a teenager crash dieting in high school, with eating only 300 calories a day, ruined my metabolism. But most of all is honest with yourself. Be honest about what you are eating and why you feel the need to eat. If you can be honest with yourself, you too will lose weight and you too will be able to stand here, in front of your fellow TOPS members to say, “Yes, I am an intelligent person”.
2009 Provincial Queen Runner up: Heather Purnell
