My Dad’s nickname for me when I was little was Olive Oil. The leading lady in the popular Popeye cartoon was very thin. I hated the nickname. We know what we look like, and whether a nickname is said just in fun, sometimes, it still hurts. In eight grade my hips had filled out but I was still thin. In high school I began gaining a little weight but lost most of it during my junior year. Stress can make you lose weight. When you have a million things going on at once you don’t notice how you look. You just keep going.
My freshman year in college I didn’t gain the typical “Freshman 15″ because I worked two jobs on the weekend and walked everywhere I needed to go. When I began to drive … that was when it began. I began eating out all the time with friends and coworkers and I slowly saw the pounds tack on. It’s slow to the unsuspecting eye. One day you can’t put on your jeans and you just assume you shrunk them in the dryer. It must be the dryer.
In the summer of 2007 at my yearly physical my doctor told me I was obese. She was blunt and to the point. She stressed that if I were to have children it would increase my chances of having a high risk pregnancy. I was not thinking of having kids at the moment but hearing the word OBESE left a sick feeling in my stomach. I knew I had to increase my exercise so I started walking. In 2007 I started paying for personal training classes because I wanted to be healthy. I wanted to NOT be obese.
A month into my training sessions at 6 am with Carole Rubino and I had dropped a pants size. I was making progress! I was feeling good about myself and then fall turned into winter. Can you get out of your warm bed at the crack of dawn?
I didn’t want to fall off the horse though. I wanted to keep my momentum going. But my weekly sessions eventually turned into monthly sessions because it was hurting my budget. I talked myself into ending them altogether a year later. I could keep going on my own. Right?
Have you ever found yourself not recognizing the person in the mirror because of weight gain?
Until then,