My love affair with food started when I was just a little girl. I loved strange and wonderful things like saurkraut, spinach and yams. Not typical favourites of youngsters. As I grew into adolescence, my taste turned to things like chocolate, cheezies and ice cream. As a highschool student, I weighed less than 100 pounds and was extremely self concious about my weight. My obsession with food escalated and I began to eat high fat and high sugar foods all day long, hoping to gain a few pounds. Unfortunately for me, I had a very fast metabolism and couldn't seem to put on weight.
My first experience with fast food came in grade 11. My school had a "MacDonald Cheeseburger Day". I bought one and was immediately hooked. I started to skip school to drive to the next town to get my fix. I was still thin, but I started to develop cellulite.
Fast food, pizza, chinese takeout. These became staples in my diet after highschool. One or two homecooked meals a week was about all I had time for. Life was fast and furious, and so was my diet.
As I grew older, got married and had children my eating habits changed. I was responsible for making sure my little ones had nutritious meals, so I started to cook more often. However, all I knew were meat and potato meals. That's what I was raised on and that's what I raised my kids on.
My kids grew older and got involved in sports. My two boys played hockey and my daughter became a competitive figure skater. Life became more fast and furious. I had to feed my little athletes healthier foods, so I learned about fueling your body with healthier choices. We spent seven days a week at the skating rink. I was extremely organized and fast food was out of the question.
Fast forward seven years and my little darlings had retired from their sports. I suddenly had all this extra time on my hands and I got lazy. I decided it was more fun to stay home and order in. We watched more T.V., rented more movies and ate more junk food. Looking back on it now I realize that my life was spinning out of control.
I started to gain weight. Slowly at first, then more rapidly as I became more and more reclusive. In the next five years I would gain 50 pounds! I was bigger than I was at full term with all three of my pregnancies. I kept eating and gaining, gaining and eating. My depression was keeping me at home. I didn't want people to see me. I didn't even want to see myself. Shopping became a foray into darkness. I avoided it at all costs!
I resigned myself to living with this extra weight as I lost all hope of being thin again. Life was what it was. I was a food lover!
