I was a normal size child until I was in 3rd grade. That's when I started packing on the pounds. I never liked physical activity, and I think eating was my way of dealing with a lot of junk that was going on around me. Speaking of junk, there was plenty of junk food at my house. We didn't have money for going out to dinner often, but we did have cookies and frosted cereal. When I scraped my knee, my mom shoved a cookie in my mouth and suddenly things were better.

By 9th grade I weighed 180 lbs. My little friends were starting to date, and no boys were interested in me. I started dieting and exercising and got down to 150 by 11th grade. It's the only time in my life I really felt beautiful. When I started college my weight had crept back up to about 170 and when I graduated I was well into the 200's.

At age 24, and after a series of dud boyfriends, I weighed 285 and I was sure I would never find anyone to love me at that size. Then I met my husband. He's always been attracted to athletic women, and yet he fell in love with me anyway. And he honestly thinks I beautiful no matter what size I am. Good thing too, because at 28 I weighed 310. That was after the birth of our first son. I was diagnosed as hypothyroid, and I thought when I got on my thyroid hormone the weight would naturally start shedding. It didn't. I went on atkins for a little while, and lost 30 lbs, but my obgyn told me if I wanted to start trying for another child I had to go off it. 2 kids later I'm finally ready to start back on it.