I entered adolescence only slightly plump & very self-coscienious. We moved out of the city when I was in middle school, and between 8th grade & high school I went through a transformation without even really knowing it. As a loyal reader of the teen movie mags of the day, I constantly compared myself to Annette Funicello and Sondra Dee. They seemed so perfect, and their lives so exciting. (Side note: In case you too young to know them, Sondra Dee died at about 60. Her rumored case of death, complications of anorexia nervosa, and Anette is a shut in due to multiple scierosis. Lives not so perfect after all). I went to a new school for high school. I remember walking into a full classroom and one of the boys saying for the whole class to hear, "Hey, don't worry, you can sit on my lap." In that minute my life took another turn, this time for the better. High school was a good time for me, class beauty, most popular, 2 nd alternate to Tennessee's Junior Miss. The world was my apple.

This charmed existence continued to a greater or lesser degree, as I went off to college to study acting, though seven years in New York, and through a move to LA. Still I did experience swings in my weight & I still lived in fear of losing control and becoming the fat girl I knew was inside me. If my weight went up 10 or 15 pounds, which it did more than once, I'd go on some crazy fad diet and starve it off. After all, this was the days of Twiggy and we all believed you could never be too rich or too thin. Hell, I still beleve it, in spite of myself.

I didn't give in to my destiny though until in my late 30s I said, "Wait a minute, I forgot something. Oh yeah, I wanted to have a baby.". I was separated from my husband of 15 years, and didn't want to get back together with him, so I started a search. I couldn't find Mr. Perfect on short notice, but I did find Mr. Willing. I had 2 babies in fairly quick order and came out of it with 60 to 70 pounds of extra weight.

My prophecy had been fulfilled. Now my journey toward lasting weight loss began in earnest.

More later.