Weight-Loss Story:
Martha Wilkinson

Age 38, from Toledo, Ohio

I grew up in a very strict and religious family. My Mother was very careful
about what we ate and when we ate it, and forced us to eat all kinds of
strange vegetables we didn't want to eat. We were a big family, and money
was tight, so we were always surprised with something different at the
dinner table. My parents had to... improvise, sometimes. I developed
strange food habits as a result of this. I had huge cravings for all kinds
of foods that I just wasn't allowed to have. I was a slightly above average
sized kid when I was growing up, but I was still pretty normal and I wasn't
worried about it.

When I got a little older and had a job and a license, I had my ticket to
eat whatever I wanted. I snuck out for treats all the time. I would tell
my Mother I was going to mail a letter, or run some errands, or see a
friend, and I would go out for junk food. I liked to go to sweet shops,
bakeries, even the grocery store, just to get my favourite foods. That was
the beginning of the problem, and it didn't go away. I started to gain
weight, and I was a little chubby by the end of high school.

In college, things went from bad to worse. I moved away to another city,
and I had no one watching me, no one to look out for my diet. Everyone has
their thing... some people spend money on beer, some people buy a lot of
cigarettes - I was buying food. I was buying and eating too much of it, but
I couldn't help myself. The girls I was living with all knew I had a
problem, but they didn't really want to talk to me about it, and I'm sure
they didn't consider it a serious thing. How dangerous is food, anyways? I
could have been on drugs. But this was really bad for me, because I started
gaining a lot of weight. After two years of college I had gained 40 pounds,
and after the next two years I had gained 85 pounds. I was a mess, and I
was spiraling out of control.

After college I really saw what I was doing to myself. I wanted a future,
and I wanted to have children some day. But I wanted to be healthy enough
to be up to the challenge. So I started dieting and exercising. First I
started on whatever fad diets I could find, and they helped a little, but
not very much. I always exercised though, and that helped to keep me from
getting any bigger. I was still craving a lot of snacks though. A friend
advised me to go on the Atkins diet. That sounded like the first sensible
idea in a long time. I really liked the diet because I could still eat all
the satisfying stuff I like and lose weight at the same time. That really
helped me deal with the junk food cravings. I started the Atkins diet at
250 pounds - it's been about a year now, and I've lost 53 pounds. I'm very
proud of the results. That's not just the diet, of course. I also began
jogging for an houur every second morning before work. I've always been a
morning person, so the waking up isn't a problem for me - plus I'm really
refreshed by the time I get to work.




Based on 3 votes, this diet story has an overall score of: 8.00

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(#1) Julia posted on Sep 30, 2003 (IP: 64.48.73.137)

Sounds like a steady, healthy weight loss. The inclusion of exercise is the real key.