Weight-Loss Story:
Bertha Cobbin
Age 23, from St. Paul, Minnesota
Well, it started in my teen years I guess. As a child I didn't have any
kind of weight problem, but my Mother always did. She had really strange
eating habits... she hid foods, and ate at strange times, and always ate
when she was upset. I didn't know it yet, but I was watching and learning.
As I grew up, I came to believe that that kind of thing was normal for
women. I now understand that it isn't, but my Mother was all I really had
to compare myself too.
When I was about 13 or 14, everything started to change for me. I was
becoming a young woman, and all the emotions that came with that were really
hard to deal with. I didn't know how to handle it, well no one really does
- you just make do. But I started taking after my Mom. I found that food
comforted me when I was feeling low. It was the one thing in my life that I
had complete freedom with. I could eat when I wanted, where I wanted, and
what I wanted. And it felt great. I started hiding things as well... like
bags of cookies and chocolate bars under the bed. The way I thought was
that if no one saw me eating junk food, and if no one knew that I was doing
it - I wouldn't get fat. Every time I got upset about something, I would
turn to food. By the time I was 17 or 18 I had gained some noticeable
weight. I was becoming a big girl, where before I was just an average or
slightly above-average sized girl.
I knew I was getting really big, but I was in denial. I felt that it just
wasn't my fault. I justified everything that I did and ate, and it didn't
add up. I felt like I was getting the short end of the stick somehow. But
it really was me, I was not treating my body very well. When I moved away
from home for college, that's when I really began to understand things. The
girls I lived with were great, they were very supportive people and true
friends. They wanted to help me out, and they did. They noticed the way
that I would hide food, and eat too much, and they told me about it. Things
got very emotional, and I just wanted to run for the ice cream, but when I
calmed down I really understood what they were saying. So, I got them to
help me to lose weight. I got them to make sure I wasn't hiding anything,
or eating unhealthy meals. They were good about it, and it looked like I
was making progress. But after a while, I slipped into old habits. I got
really good at hiding things from them. Plus they couldn't watch me all
day, I was always free to go to the Dairy Queen. I started to gain weight
again, and they noticed. Things got difficult again, but this time I was on
my own. The school year was over and I was going back home to live with my
Mother for the summer. When I got back home, I was shocked to see that my
Mother had lost a ton of weight, she looked fabulous! I wanted to know how
she did it, and she wanted to help me do the same. She told me she was
taking Phentermine diet pills, and that did the trick. I didn't want to
take drugs, but I knew that the problem wasn't going to go away, and I
didn't think I could handle it on willpower. I started taking Phentermine
and doing about 20 minutes of exercise, 3 times a week. After 4 months, I
had lost 30 pounds, and I was thrilled! Over the next school year, I lost
another 50 pounds, and I couldn't believe it. I'm almost at my goal weight
of 145 pounds already, and it's all because I no longer have the appetite to
sneak food anymore - now it's just food to me, nothing more. Thank you
Phentermine!
Based on 4 votes, this diet story has an overall score of: 6.00