Growing up in a “Big” Family

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January 29, 2013 by 43andfatfree and RobertRoyston.net

I was born in Redwood City California in 1970 and I have an older sister by three years. My Mother is 100% Italian and my Father 100% Irish. I tell you this to give you a hint that my family likes to eat LOL! My parents divorced when I was very young, my father pretty quickly was gone from my life and soon food became a real source of comfort, both for me, my Mom and Sis. I will tell you, and I hope they don’t mind, that at one point and time my Mom and my Sis were both over 400lbs. I also have Aunts, Uncles and Cousins who have all been very heavy in the plus 300 lbs range. So growing up it seemed that my home life always had a cloud of “Weight Loss” over it. My Mom would cook something from Weight Watchers and after the dinner was over would ask “Did you like it?” we would say “Yeah Ma” and with a big smile on her face she would say “Its fat free!!!’ We always knew that was coming but we let her have that moment every time.

I can proudly say both my Mom and my Sister are now under 200lbs and looking great! My mother lost most of her weight, 200lbs, years ago on Weight Watchers. She has since done other diets and then settled with the lap band surgery. She has always been an inspiration to me, and nobody cooks Weight Watcher dinners better then my Mom! My Sis had Gastric bypass I guess more then 5yrs ago now. She lost 200lbs and then started to gain a little back. Now she is like a machine, working out 5 days a week and eating good foods, and she is in the 170’s and still dropping GO SISSY! Wow she amazes me. She is also the person who kick started my most recent weight loss! Which is a switch for my family to encourage me to lose weight.

For me the journey was a little easier at first, due to the fact that I played so many sports. Martial Arts, Football, Track and field, Wrestling, and of course Dance. So even though I was chubby I was never really fat. But boy could I put on weight fast even as a kid. So after high school all the sports were gone except Dance and I was slowing down on the Martial Arts. But of course… I was eating the same amounts! Then Bam “I’m Fat” at 5’8” and 24years old I had a 38inch waist.  The funny thing is my family would say I was never really “Fat” just “Big”, You see to say I was fat would be to say they were fat, that we all were fat, and that’s a hard thing to say out loud even when you can see it to be true in the mirror.  Now we all support each other and give ideas on what to try cooking or what the newest workout thing we are trying is and we are all in the best shapes of our adult lives! If my sister hadn’t kicked into high gear and shared her tools with me, like the “Lose It” app, I’m not sure I would be where I am today weight wise. Thanks Sis… more Weight history later