What is your name and what town are you from?
Martha McGinnis from Dunwoody, Georgia.
Who makes up your family?
My husband, Earl, two cats, Dickens & Karma, and two grown daughters, Amelia & Molly.
Tell us about your struggles.
I went on my first diet at 13 and it triggered an obsession with food and my weight that ruined high school and college. I ended up regaining what I'd lost, plus another 60 pounds, even though I tried all kinds of exercise and diets along the way. I was in complete despair by age 20 and thinking of suicide.
What was the turning point that made you change the way you care for yourself?
I finally realized that the fat wasn't making me miserable, the misery was making me fat, and that it had all started with that first diet. I quit dieting, and gradually developed the habits, mindset and skills needed to reach a normal weight and stay there. I've been at what I call a "happy weight" for more than 30 years now, gained normally through two pregnancies, and lost the weight after -- without dieting.
How have you implemented your new habits with your family?
Our children adopt the attitudes and beliefs we model, so I have always been super careful not to judge or criticize our daughters' weight or their bodies -- anyone's weight or body, for that matter -- and not to criticize my own. I encourage them to listen to internal signals of hunger and fullness and to eat real food that their bodies can handle. Today I help others make peace with food and reach a happy weight they can sustain.
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Martha and her granddad*We want to hear from you!*
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