Throughout my life I had a weight problem. I grew up knowing what was called a diet. My mother tried very hard to help me. I learned about the basic food groups at an early age and began selecting my foods from it. However, I grew up and the weight kept going up, up and up.  My mother was so concerned she even had the doctor do his part to check to make sure it was not a health reason causing my weight gain. The test came back showing that it was not any medical problem causing this weight gain. At that time, being honest with you, I would say I prayed that it would be one that was found and corrected.

Then it happened slowly I was having health issues because of my weight. I was so concerned but I could not do anything to change it. Everything I tried seemed to be one more failed attempt. It was getting harder to exercise and so anything I ate seemed to add more and more weight. I began to understand how people could become to large to move. Trust me; I watched those shows always wondering who was giving the individual enough food to become that large. If I did not find a answer to my weight problem I was going to be one of those individuals that would not be able to get out of bed.

To add to my problem, I ended up falling and getting my leg run over by a truck. That was the end of my walking as far as I could see at the time. I tried many times to put my weight on it and I just could not handle it. The pain was beyond my ability to handle. Then one day I decided that I was not going to do any more dieting. My life was going to be what it was. I needed to except it and that is what I did.

After accepting my choice I made, I still only held one question for myself. I wanted to know why my little experiment failed. A few years earlier a few of us over weight mothers decided to follow exactly what the other one did and ate for a whole week. The other two had great success, I gained ten pounds. I truly felt that they thought I did not follow it completely and I did.

Then one day, without anyone knowing I decided to try something else. It was not a diet. It was a lifestyle and the way that I felt about eating and enjoying what I ate. It started out slowly and then picked up in pace. My weight came down, down and down. I reached my goal a little faster than I would wish it to happen if I was to do it again. Remember to lose weight to fast can have its effects too. In my case I needed to slow down to get my body tone in balance with my weight. However, I can say that my weight lost was done in a healthy matter and I enjoyed everything I ate and I ate what I wanted to eat.

This month I decided as I was looking through my pictures that what I learned and did might help others, so I started a group here in Care2. It is known as “New Lifestyles (No More Diets).” I am just like anyone else I like to see it when my groups grow, but this one is very different. I want to see people come and join the group that want to share and learn help each other. I have some pictures that I could show, but prefer to show the members rather than just have people looking and talking, because I used to be one of those people and it is not a good feeling from either side. We just started up and so you will get in the group and not miss anything…except the feeling of having to diet again in your life. Hope to see you.