Macaroni Kid Family Fitness loves to celebrate moms and dads who have taken the leap to better health because a healthy parent is a major step towards a healthy family!
Want to share your journey with us? Send an email to jennys@macaronikid.com answering the seven questions below, include an image, and you could be our next featured parent!
What is your name and what town are you from?
My name is Kelly and I live in Wilbraham, MA. I grew up in Troy, NY.
Who makes up your family?
I've been married to my husband Derek since 2004 and we have one son, Luis, who turned 8 in June.
Briefly, tell us your struggles.
I've been on a diet since I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade. I've had some 50+lbs losses over the years but each time I gained it all back and more. I would focus on meal planning and not eating this food or that food and have great success with the scale moving only to have some major emotional event happen in my life that sent me on an up and down roller coaster with poor food choices.
What was the turning point that made you change the way you care for yourself?
Last summer I was the heaviest I had ever been. I was off on daily adventures with my son, trying not to think about our foster-to-adopt daughter who had transitioned back to her birth mom that spring. Most days, our trips included having ice cream before fatty fast food lunches. A trip that August to my brother's in Maine was my lowest moment. I crawled into my nephew's too-small-for-my-size bed at the end of a food and drink filled day to have it break! I was mortified. I actually called out to the next room, "Mom, I need help." Granted it was to help me off the floor but looking back now, a true symbol for the help I really needed.
Later that week, a Facebook friend that I've long admired throughout our Guatemalan adoption journeys shared a blog post announcing that she had come out of the "Bariatric Closet." I read her story - found here - and it spoke to me as if she had written it about my life. I emailed the link to my husband with the subject, "I'm ready."
What actions did you take to become healthier?
I called Baystate Hospital's Weight Management office in Springfield, MA, to sign up for their educational seminar so I could learn more about Bariatric Surgery. I also called my doctor to get a physical exam after not having one for four years. It was during that exam, a few months later, that she told me about a new program with an on-site therapist as they were now focused on treating the whole person, mind and body. I nodded but never expected to follow up. But they called the next day and scheduled an appointment for me. It was amazing to connect with a professional who I began to trust and talk to weekly about the struggles and feelings I was having.
I also went to a host of support groups and started meeting with my surgeon and his staff along with required psychologist and nutritionist appointments. We made changes to my daily diet. I had to eat breakfast within a half hour of waking up. I needed to give up my two-three cups-a-day coffee habit. I switched to eating my meals off of a small plate. I needed to make my meals last 20-30 minutes. I began meal planning for my family again and slowly started telling a few close family members and friends about my decision to have weight loss surgery. In fact, one newly pregnant friend ran into me at the blood lab in the hospital and gasped when she saw me there, wondering if I was alright. I told her in confidence what I was going through. I look back now and I believe God was placing these people and moments before me as I needed them. I started relying on my faith and praying about what I was going to do. I made it my full time job to change my habits and my ways and to finally start taking care of myself.
How have you implemented (or plan to) your new habits with your family?
I completed the hospital's program in mid-March and was approved by my insurance company six weeks later to have the Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy. I had the procedure on June 23. I was down 43 pounds from January to the day of surgery. I started working with a trainer at the end of April and have since lost numerous inches and we are working on my fitness goals. I've never been an active person but I realize if this is going to work forever, I need to become one. She's getting me there and teaching me about my core and has me working with resistance bands and I now own a stability ball! I hope to get off of my Sleep Apnea machine and high blood pressure medicine within the next few months.
My son has been one of my biggest cheerleaders. He swims with me, reminds me about what things I've told him about the stage of my diet and encourages me to get to Zumba and Hip Hop class. I just signed up for my first 5K - The Color Run! I'm ready to sparkle! I've dreamed about having my family move more and that's what we're doing! I'm not stopping this time.
