“I can’t pass this on to my daughters. I can’t have them looking at their bodies in search of flaws. I don’t want them to put all of their worth in what they see in the mirror. I want them to know, what I still am trying to convince myself. We might have fat, but we are not fat. This is not WHO we are.”
‘I have stretch marks, saggy skin, a weird fat fold around my C-section scar. I don’t really love myself. This has to stop.’: Mom insists weight does not define us, cannot keep letting ‘my imperfections consume me’
‘When he turned a year old, he couldn’t sit up. He didn’t play with toys. He was essentially a newborn. He kept his left hand clenched, and his entire left side was tight.’
“I’ll never forget the words he said. ‘Knowing what his brain looks like, I can’t believe he is talking like this.’ I went to my car and cried. I cried tears of joy and tears of relief. And if I’m being honest, a few tears of fear. By early May, it was confirmed.”
‘My husband was working in a prison. He worked A LOT. ‘I didn’t get married to be alone all the time,’ I thought. I texted him. ‘I wouldn’t really care if I didn’t wake up in the morning.’
“He came home from work immediately. We sat down, he looked at me and said, ‘Do you realize what that would do to me?’ I grabbed my keys, hugged my cat, got in my car, and started driving down the highway. This was it.”
‘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.'”
‘I was fat shamed at my husband’s funeral. Just when they were about to put him in the ground, I heard it. It came from across the other side of the casket.’
“I thought I was the only one who heard. Seconds later, my sister turned to me.”
‘An ex-boyfriend said I was hotter because I was ‘so much smaller now.’ People would give me continuous complements like, ‘You’re so thin. You look amazing!’ I was actually miserable.’
“These pictures are taken about 10 months apart. On the left, I weigh about 140 pounds. On the right, just under 122. Peers I saw on campus or at bars would point out, as if it was the best complement one could give, how tiny I had suddenly become.”
‘Tell the truth. When you were dating your wife, and she got so comfortable that she started to pack on the pounds, you noticed.’
“You noticed when she started to lose her desire for hanky panky. We don’t need you to lie or pretend that our current reality is different than it is. We just want to be noticed.”
‘He had a stranger over at my house where my kids sleep. My entire 10-year marriage was a lie. I left him without a car and without a plan.’: 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. I am still working through those emotions. That moment was a severe wake-up call that 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 rose as normal and glanced at the clock. ‘Let me wake her and change her diaper.’ I drop to my knees. 911 operator: ‘Whats your emergency?’ I scream, ‘My baby’s not breathing!’
“I desperately breathe air into my child. Medics rush in. Suddenly, I hear voices, machines. I’m listening for that cry I know. Everything pauses. They wrap her in a soft white blanket, slowly walking towards me as if presenting a gift. I push back, pleading with tears. I beg the doctors to try just a little longer.”
‘I was over 400 pounds. I felt like a failure as a woman and wife. I lost jobs because I didn’t ‘look’ the part. When I’d walk my dog, people would scream things at me out their car window.’
“I had crazy mood swings and extreme fatigue. Yet, I ate super clean and worked out every day. I couldn’t lose a pound and would yawn through my workouts. I knew something else was wrong.”
