Cathy weighs in... on weight.

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THE MIRROR?

My walk... my weight and do not judge a book by its cover....

When I was a little girl (6 years old) my mother took me to a weight doctor. She was worried about my weight because as a child she was heavier, and was teased and didn't want that to happen to me. I learned then, I was different, not as "good as" other kids.

When other kids got birthday cakes on their birthday, I got fruit cocktail with a candle. When my sister went to school with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I got bologna roll ups with cottage cheese inside. It became a self fulfilling prophesy.

And as it goes, you become what you see in your mind. I was the "fat" girl, and for most of my life my weight matched the title. When my Mother died, I did two things, I quit cigarettes and I quit eating. I lost an incredible amount of weight (about 70 pounds).

I cut corners to lose it in unhealthy ways.

By the time I started dating my husband I weighed 108, wearing a size 2.

I got married wearing a size 10, was happy and lived life. I drank wine and ate bread and stopped thinking about my weight. By the time of my first pregnancy I weighed 160lbs. I lost most of that weight before pregnancy #2, then my weight kept piling on.

When I joined Weight Watchers in 1988 I weighed 195.

I lost a lot of weight (60 lbs.) I became a weight watcher leader. I struggled to maintain a healthy weight for 5 years. For the most part I succeeded, but when weight would come on, I sometimes would simply feel like the "fat" kid again. Instead of one cookie, it would be the whole package. Instead of one candy it was a pound.

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer I weighed 199.

It has been 14 years since I weighed that weight. Last week I weighed less.

Something really different has happened to me, different than any other time in my life.

I was so busy thinking of reasons why I couldn't live as long or as well as others, I had come to believe this poisoned thinking. It was a self fulfilling prophesy.

It was right about the time I was told I was a diabetic, that my arteries were compromised, and around the time I saw someone I love following some destructive behavior, that I turned the mirror on my self and asked why. It was around this time that I saw yet another ad for the 3 day walk for Susan G Komen. It became the time that I said to myself, "I am going to live a long life, and I will live it well!" As then, as a matter of course, I have been walking, losing weight. The reason you see is not to make other people happy, and weight loss is not the goal, its a by product. I truly feel, a page has been turned.

Don't judge a book by it's cover. We all have different paths that we follow to discover ourselves. In light of that, and before you DONATE , take a look at this fantastic VIDEO and ask yourself, what have you denied yourself because you or someone you know has told you - you aren't cut out for it. In the end the only one who can change that is YOU!