Weight Loss Success and its Fallout for My Family

I am a weight loss success story. I am one of those lucky people who lost “Half My Size!”

It took me four years, ending in 2011. But most of the weight came off in the last ten months, when I met a fitness trainer who helped me to understand that everything I was trying was wrong.

I found out through him, that much of the food supply is poison now. I had no idea! I thought if food was “Made in America” it had to be good for you. I found out that many of the additives in food are not only bad for us, they are addictive. This is not even hidden. You can find all this information on the FDA website if you care to do the research. But who has time for that?

Here is the general picture of how I work to get people started on the road to health.

Life After Weight Loss

I had been fat since the age of four and got to my goal weight at fifty. This was the first time I had ever been thin in my life and the adjustment took a very difficult two years. I had been “The Fat Lady in Accounting” for all of my adult life and now I was the pretty dumb chick that scared other women and attracted men. I was terrified of my new thin self and only wanted to cover up in my protective fat again. But I knew that was not the right path and hung on for dear life with the healthy skills even in the face of panic.

After that time, I finally got comfortable with myself and looked around to see the world had caught up with me. When I was a fat four year old, I was the only fat four year old. But now, 80% of Americans are obese or overweight. I took on the task to try to help the people I could by writing books, blogging, coaching, doing photo essays, and filming videos. I have tried just about any idea to try to help people who do not believe there is any hope so that they can get thin too.

My Weight and My Son

One of the driving forces in my journey is the effect my obesity and health problems have had on my son, Caleb @bxlphabet. He has severe ptsd because of what he went through with my health emergencies all throughout his young life. This is the biggest regret on my life and I already wrote about it for another steemit contest a few months ago.

Caleb was often staying at a teacher’s house or a friend’s house while his mom was in the hospital near death. No one would tell him what was happening and he would be so scared that he would never see me again. A quote from my post above gives you an idea of what he went through:

“Mommy, you would be proud of me. I never cried except when they put me to bed. Then I turned to the wall and cried quietly so no one else would hear.”

He has seen me fall many times, found me screaming in a pool of blood, and just had trauma after trauma during his young life. All of this was due to my obesity. Here we are right before I lost weight.

Once I got thin and healthy, when he was 17, we had the sad experience of other parents of his friends who died from their own poor health and obesity. We lived in a small town, so everyone knows everyone. These were his “second moms” who died and left their kids alone. My son always said, “That could have been you, Mom.”

Now Where Are We?

Now, years later, both of our lives are still in wreckage. I help people lose weight and now many other people have done the same thing as me by simply cutting out all of the poison from their diets. Once that happens, they are able to progress in other ways and get healthy. But that simple idea is really not so simple and this is why my coaching help is needed.

I help people constantly and usually for free. I get pm's all the time and work with people. But then after spending a lot of time with them, they either stop trying, try something else, or buy one of my books and I get a couple of dollars for that. I get messages sometimes that tell me, "I read your book a few years ago and now I am thin, thank you!" This gives me great satisfaction but certainly does not pay any bills.

Now we post on Steemit

I came to steemit as another place to get my message out and brought my son in a few months after that. We both post consistently. I post about weight loss, minnow tips, travel and photo posts. @bxlphabet posts his photos and art, travel and San Diego topics. He is the talented one in the family and wins contests with his work. I enter, but don't win! Here is one of his prize winning photos.

And here is a recent post of my minnow tips. I did a big round up before moving to Kuala Lumpur so this gives a lot of help if you are a minnow getting started here. I get a lot of advice to stop trying to help minnows, but I think we need them to keep steemit alive, even if I am in a minority on that topic. This is a little bit similar to the advice I get to stop trying to help "lazy fat people." I do not listen to that either, because I know my people have a struggle just to get up out of bed and face each day.

We were doing pretty good on steemit until the price tanked and now we are both on the edge of doom.

Caleb is in California with two months rent due. He is in a very nice place that is subsidized and if he has to leave there, no other possible alternative will be as affordable. He will be out on the street for sure. He was homeless for five years before this, and does not think he can go through this again. His landlord has been incredibly patient and wants to help, but there is only so much she can do. I worry constantly about my son, and this makes it hard to keep my fit-in-fun attitude.

This is the last time I saw my son when he took me to the airport to leave for Thailand. It has been two and a half years since then.

I am in Kuala Lumpur in a hostel now and barely able to pay for that. The Fat Lady in Accounting cannot believe this mess. Losing weight was supposed to solve all problems, but it surely did not.

What would I do If I Had Money?

I answer this question often. The answer is always the same. I would help my son. I would find a way to get more stable in my own living situation. I would continue to work on my weight loss coaching work so that no one else would ever have to go through what we have been through.

This is my entry for a contest by @erodedthoughts who is looking for people to support on steemit. You can find his post about this here.

I would also like to thank the many steemers who have helped me and my son over our time here. I believe in this place and this is why I continue to post regardless of price.