Hey all, my name is Bailey. I am married and we have 2 beautiful kids, 8 and 6. I teach high school level students with special needs and I am also a Zumba instructor.
I have struggled with my weight since about the 4th grade. I remember binging in elementary school, middle school, and high school. I never seemed to get full and feel like I had had enough. I hid food in my room. I also waited until my mom was asleep to go to the kitchen and get food. I never ate in front of people like I did by myself because I was so ashamed. My weight got increasingly out of control until high school when I weighed 300lbs. I got fed up with being huge and ate a seriously low amount of calories and over-exercised my way down to 199lbs. I secluded myself from others so nobody knew how little I was eating or how much I was working out. Everybody was so proud and told me I looked great so I saw nothing wrong with my habits.
I met my husband shortly after my weight loss. The more I spent time with him, the more I would have to eat or he would know something was up. So the weight came back on slowly but surely. By the time we were married I was back up to 280lbs. A few more years and 2 kids later, I was at 350lbs. I remember coming home from work knowing that nobody was there and binging on a bag of family size chips and a gallon of ice cream regularly.
A few years ago, I got really sick and had to have serious surgery to have 2 1/2 feet of colon removed. It was a terrible recovery and it slapped me in the face that I needed to get healthy or I wasn't going to see my kids grow up. So over the past 2 1/2 years, I have lost 90lbs. I got down to 249lbs through healthy eating and a lot of exercising but I have gained some back. I am currently at about 275. I tend to get going on a good eating routine and lose some weight and feel better, then I slip and have binging episodes, and I gain back what I lost plus some. I have really gone nowhere in the last year because I keep gaining and losing the same weight.
I know that if I can get over my binging tendencies and develop a healthy relationship with food, I can reach my health and fitness goals once and for all. This all or nothing behavior of mine is not working. Often I am too restrictive on myself, which in turn causes me to binge on everything that I've kept from myself. I just want to be healthy and happy. I could really use some support from people who understand this daily struggle.
Please feel free to friend me
Bailey