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 Nutrisystem diet program, and that did the trick. I didn't want to take diets, 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 Nutrisystem 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 Nutrisystem!