“I spent years trying to sabotage my marriage in hopes he’d leave me for someone skinny. Day after day, I’d tell myself how nasty, disgusting, fat I was. I had no idea my gorgeous daughter was listening. She started saying how fat she was. How ugly. I was HORRIFIED. I knew I needed to make a change.”
‘I can do this, right?’ I scanned the faces around me, absolutely mortified. ‘Of course. Just take your shirt off!’ Peopled waved, said hello. Where were the looks of disgust?!’ Mom embraces plus-size beach body to set example for daughter
‘I wouldn’t care if I didn’t wake up,’ I texted my husband. I planned to ram my car into the cement pillars under the overpass.’: Woman battling depression reminds us to ‘take it one day at a time’
“My husband got a new job so we could see each other more. Things were going well until one day I randomly got extremely depressed. My husband left for work and I started thinking, ‘You’re fat. You’re ugly. No one loves you, and you aren’t going anywhere in life.’ I grabbed my keys, hugged my cat, got in my car, and started driving down the highway. This was it. This was the day I was going to commit suicide.”
‘Are you going to lose weight for the wedding?’ I felt judged for my shape, ashamed and humiliated. ‘Yes, I will be losing weight.’ Then came the moment where I found the dress.’
“I stood there semi naked, holding my breath. I stepped into the wedding dress. My consultant whipped the curtain open and my mom gasped. All I could think was, ‘Here comes my further humiliation.'”
‘She could’ve lost a few pounds and worn a cuter dress.’ I was fat shamed at my husband’s funeral.’: Woman loses husband to motorcycle accident, embraces body, ‘I love all 247 pounds of me’
“Just when they were about to put him in the ground, I heard it. It came from across the other side of the casket. A place I thought would be a safe zone. When grief hits you, I can assure you the last thing on your radar will be your weight.”
‘He had a stranger over at my house where my kids sleep. My entire 10-year marriage was a lie.’: Woman credits husband’s infidelity with life- changing weight loss
“In one night, I found out I weighed over 400 pounds. I also found out I was pregnant and losing a baby in one breath. That moment was a severe wake-up call I needed to change my life. I didn’t realize how much my husband’s infidelity had affected me until I stepped on that scale. I left him without a car and without a plan.”
‘I was in an abusive relationship. She was a lesbian with a man she didn’t love. I was falling for her. One day, she strolled up to me, a grin on her face. ‘I want to be with you.’
“I was shocked, confused, taken aback. I’d never been with a woman before. I stammered, stuttered, and turned into a blubbering mess. I listed all the reasons why it wouldn’t work. I was scared to admit my feelings. Then my mom told me something I’ll always remember.”
‘Ugh, you’d be so much prettier if you just lose some weight.’ I was only allowed to drink water. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.’: Woman finds confidence after lifetime of body shaming, ‘I set MY OWN beauty standards now’
“At 14 years old, I tried to end my life by downing a whole bottle of antidepressants. I dropped out of high school and was ‘promiscuous’ at every opportunity. The bullying was relentless. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and cry. When I went to the doctor to get my weight checked, she looked at me with disgust. ‘How did you get so big? Why are you so overweight? Your body is mostly fat!’ I was speechless. I couldn’t even look her in the eye.”
‘He crept in my room when my mother was working. My stepdad said she wanted me to do ‘those things’ to make him happy in her absence. I was afraid. I could trust no one.’
“I was told I was ‘Pretty for a big girl.’ Because I was overweight, I thought that would keep me safe. If I stayed fat, no one would want to touch me. My grandparents would ask me questions. Of course I denied it.”
‘Oh wow, my thighs look huge in these jeans. After you have an eating disorder, they say you’ll never be normal again.’
“The next five minutes I spent trying to change the illusion of what I had just seen, pulling up the waist of my dark jeans a little higher, smoothing out the denim hoping that may give the twins a slimmer appearance. I pulled on the hem of my sweater a bit, pulling it down a little further than the widest part of my thighs, hoping once again to give a thinner illusion.”
‘Doctors told me I was ‘lying.’ I hadn’t started my period. Before I took the birth control, I took a pregnancy test. It was POSITIVE!? We bought 5 more tests. All of them were positive!’
“I was having vivid, strange dreams. A neighbor said, ‘Are you pregnant?’ I said ‘no’ and cried. A switch flipped in me. I became crazy emotional. I was having day dreams about drilling a hole in my head or cutting it off. I went to doctor after doctor. They all said that it was because of my weight.”
