My Story

I believe that we can learn each other.  Everyone’s experiences are what make them who they are today.  Although “My Story” is not a rags to riches story or that exciting, it is my life and this is how I arrived to where I am today.  

1951 – 1969

 

 

 

My parents were married in 1946.  My father had two children from a previous marriage having their mother die from cancer when they were 6 and 8 years old.  My father then married my mother and my older sister was born 3 ½ years before me.  As my older brother always says, “this is my baby sister”.  So I was the youngest of 4 children.

 

I was an extremely shy child and as such did not have many friends growing up.  My mother was the “rock” of my family.  She took her role as mother and wife very seriously and gave everything she had to our family.  My father was a local businessman and that I believe was the start of my enthusiasm for the world of business.

 

I spent my entire years of schooling at the public school that was one block from my home.  There are pluses and minuses being from a small community.  One of them being knowing most people that lived in the town.  For me the big minus being that as much as I knew about them, they knew about me.  But overall the biggest minus for me was the lack of progressive thinkers.  I just never felt like I fit in with most of the people in this town but because I was young and impressionable, I always considered that to be that there was something wrong with me.  But overall, it was a good place to live because of the freedom I had and the extended family I had that cared for me.

 

I look back on my school years as a period of tremendous growth.  Although I remained quite shy throughout my school years, I grew and experienced life in a safe, friendly environment.  It was by no means a 100% happy time of my life and often was quite traumatic for me but a necessary growth process for me.  I often wonder what it would be like to return to those years with the confidence and experience I have now but of course the confidence would not exist without the experiences I had over the years.   

My Parent’s Influence   

During this period of time for me, my parents were my “rock”, my foundation.  As mentioned I was shy and very unsure of myself.  I always counted on them to give me the stability that I so desperately needed.  Financially speaking, our family struggled.  When I was 6 months old, my father was in a car accident and broke his neck and was unable to work for over 6 months before they finally figured out he needed surgery to correct the situation.  About that same time, my older sister was diagnosed with polio.  So it was a difficult time for our family.

 

As I grew, all energy was put into my father’s business.  When I was in grade school, my mother started working with my father handling customers and all the bookkeeping.  For me, what this meant was a lonely life.  When my parents were home, they were talking about work most of the time and no one had time to listen to me.  So I learned that my wants and needs were not important.  I can’t say that I wasn’t loved because I was but they loved me in their own way. 

 

Overall I perceived a very confusing working lifestyle from monitoring my parents.  Work hard and you will be successful but my mother also told me that “all work and no play make Jack a very dull boy”.  I didn’t see that my parents experienced joy at what they did.  But they were very loyal and honest and treated their customers with care.

 

During this period of time, I wasn’t what you would call an athletic child.  There were few opportunities for girls to play sports and I wasn’t very agile.  Consequently, being the only child at home, I had no one to play with and so my sedentary lifestyle began.  My older sister always made comments to me about me being overweight and clumsy so I lacked any good feelings about myself whatsoever.  Thus began my life long struggle with my weight. 

1969 – 1975

 

I left high school not knowing what I wanted to do and I had no choice and therefore left for college which was about 130 miles from my home.  I had no idea what I wanted to do and so, like most females at that time, I chose teaching as a career.  I hated college and had no interest in being a teacher.

 

During this time as I call it, dark period of my life, I was emotionally drained.  I had no idea what I was good at….I did not have close friends as I didn’t know how to reach out to other people and therefore I remained pretty much a loner.  During this time, food became my friend.  I wasn’t a binge eater but food tasted so good to me and always made me feel comforted.

 

I stumbled through the first couple of years and then decided I enjoyed business courses so much more and therefore changed my career choice to be a Legal Secretary.  Had I known that I enjoyed business as much as I did later on in life, I certainly would have selected business instead of teaching as I was attending one of the best Business Colleges in the country.  Oh…hind sight. 

 

I did enjoy most of my classes in the Legal Secretary program but stumbled when it came to shorthand.  In high school, my mother wouldn’t let me take courses in that area because I was “going to college” and wouldn’t need courses like that.  Coming to college without the basic knowledge of shorthand really put me behind and I was never able to catch up in that area.  I loved working as an intern and knew that I wanted to be in the business world. 

1975 – 1989

 

Time came for me to enter the working world.  No money…I have to work to survive.  I then moved to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in Minnesota.  A large city compared to where I had spent my early days.  I was lost.  I knew how to get around town….not that kind of lost….but I had no friends and since all my money went toward food, rent and paying off bills was unable to socialize very much.  One thing I did know, I loved working in the business world.  I continued my friendship with food.  I was single and no one to answer to so I therefore continue my close relationship with food. 

 

I worked at this J-O-B for 13 years.  I worked myself up from being a billing clerk to Assistant to the Sales Manager and also Credit Manager.  During these years, I went through many struggles but also made many good friends.  These years were a time of personal growth for me.  I learned how to overcome being flooded out of my apartment to buying my first car to buying my first home.  I continued my close relationship with my best friend, food.  I learned how to white knuckle it to keep my weight in check as best I could. 

 

Throughout the 13 years I worked at this wholesale company, I always kept my eyes open for other J-O-B opportunities.  I finally made the decision that I had done everything I could at this company and had hit the “ceiling” so to speak.  I found another J-O-B a little closer to where I lived and started something new.  This was a time of great change for me.  Little did I know when I decided to make the move exactly how much my life would change.  It wasn’t the J-O-B as much as the people I worked and made friends with.  One of my warehouse friends knew of a guy that lived in Phoenix, AZ and was single and not dating anyone at the time.  She made arrangements for him to write to me….a sort of pen pal.  We started corresponding back and forth for a few months before we had our “first” date.  And you guessed it…..we were married the following year.  Of course that means he moved back to Minnesota…. he was raised in Minnesota and most of his family lives there as well.  Kind of sounds like a fairy tale….but it’s a true story.  We have now been married 19 “wonderful” years as my husband would say.

 

My husband always told me what a great body I had….but I never believed him.  I always felt that I was overweight….having been told that by family members throughout my earlier years.  Having my husband around saying all these nice things to me was a treat.  My family was not one that said good things to you….they always concentrated on the things you did wrong.  It was such a joy to finally experience what unconditional love was all about and it felt good.

1989 – 2009 

 

Early on in our marriage I started having health problems.  I would go to the doctor and he would give me medicine to settle my stomach problems but it never worked.  I have since learned that many medical doctors only treat symptoms and do not look for the cause of a problem.  I eventually learned of a Kinesiology Doctor and made an appointment to see her.  On my first visit, she told me that I had intolerance to gluten…..so started my education on living with a food allergy.  I spent the next years seeing this Doctor on a regular basis and paying out thousands of dollars because insurance doesn’t pay for this type of help.  After a time, I was still having a lot of problems and found out that I also had intolerance to dairy.  Great!  Another thing added to the list. 

 

I was so frustrated at this point that I would do anything to feel better.  So I started my regimen of changing my diet and eat only those things that my body could digest.  During this time, my weight blossomed.  My body was not functioning properly and my body retained and could not rid itself of what my body found to be toxic. 

 

It took years for my body to heal.  During this healing process, I ended up having my gall bladder removed as it had become toxic to my body as well.  My liver was compromised and so spent the next years supporting my liver so my body would function properly.  It was a difficult time for me but I worked through it and finally my body began to digest food properly once again.

 

The one thing I could not get under control and that was my weight.  I tried everybody’s diet….from Aitkin’s For Life, Kevin Trudeau’s The Weight Loss Cure, Dr. Oz’s YOU, on a Diet, Bob Greene’s Get With The Program….you name it…I tried it.  Nothing seemed to work.  I already ate very balanced meals as I couldn’t eat breads, cakes, donuts (anything made with flour).  My meals consisted of the staples, meat, potatoes, fruits, vegetables.  I was frustrated to say the least.    At least I felt better once my food allergies were under control and I considered that a big plus.  I would look at others losing weight and saying, sure, I could lose weight like that too if all I had to do was cut out all the snack foods they were eating.  I finally resigned myself that this is the way it was going to be.   

 

During this time, I worked for the Sheriff’s Office and County Attorney’s Office in the county where I resided.  The work was boring to me and the people were so competitive it was a very difficult working environment.  On top of that, my boss was very abusive. 

 

My husband and I finally decided that it was time for me to work from home and so I quit the J-O-B circuit and started an off-site secretarial service business called The Word Shoppe.  I joined the local Chamber of Commerce and chaired the newly formed Ambassador’s Committee.  We went around the community and welcomed new businesses.  It was fun and enjoyed meeting all the people.  I was a regular member of the Sunrise Network Breakfast meetings and loved networking with other businesses in the area. 

 

I loved being at home as it was easier to control my diet.  I continued working on my health but slowly the weight continued to increase.

 

About this time, I received a telephone call that my father had passed away.  He had been in the nursing home for 5 years with Alzheimer’s Disease but it was very sudden and a big loss for me.  I had always spent a lot of time with my dad and was very close to him.  This was a big change for me.  My mom had been such a good caregiver to him and I knew this would be a big loss for her as well. 

 

Over the next year, it was becoming obvious that my mom was also having her problems with dementia.  Her short-term memory was fading and now I was very concerned about her well being.  My husband and I then decided it was time for us to move back to my home town so we could care for her.  The good thing being, we could work from anywhere with our business so we made the move.  The day before we moved there just happened to be a big ice and snow storm and so the move was not pleasant. 

 

My secretarial business continued to provide some income even being in a remote area but not enough to keep things going.  My husband and I continued to look for that business where we could make enough money to retire and fix up the house and other things that needed to be done.  It wasn’t long before it became apparent that we needed a steady income and so he ended up looking for another job and found one several miles from home.  This became a very big blessing for us. 

 

During this time of change in my life, my weight continued to climb.  I would forget about it but the clothes became tighter and tighter and finally I couldn’t ignore it.  I continued on my search for that one diet or weight loss program that would help me.  I bought exercise CD’s, an Air Climber, an AB lounge, a treadmill, weights, exercise balls….this and that and still saw no improvement.

 

Since I had been online for several years, I was on so many email lists.  The one email I always read every day was the email from Bob Proctor.  I had purchased one of his courses and was very impressed with his teaching.  Bob was the first one to explain to me how the mind works.  I had never heard this information before.  I tried implementing many of his philosophies into my life.  I loved learning about how we create our own life, our own realities. 

 

One day Bob sent me an email with information on a new program he was implementing called “The Science of Perfect Weight”.  Now, this was something I wanted to learn more about.  Perfect Weight….I had never heard of such a thing.  I purchased the book and the course material and devoured the material.  I now knew what I had been doing wrong for so many years.  I never put the image that I wanted to be into my mind.  I started saying, I’m feeling great at my Perfect Weight.  I then added the weight that I wanted to be.  I followed the food guidelines and for the first time in years, I started losing weight.  But Bob will say, you don’t lose weight, you release it.  As of this writing, I have released 20 pounds.  I am so excited that for the first time in my life I actually have released weight.  I feel so much better. 

 

I loved the program so much that I decided to sign up to become a Life Success Perfect Weight coach.  I spent one week in Florida in training and now have become certified.  I love being at my Perfect Weight and I love helping others to find their Perfect Weight.  It’s the best job I’ve ever…..I just love being at my Perfect Weight but more than that, I love teaching how everyone can easily be at their Perfect Weight.

 

This is the end of the story so far but the future is bright and I love getting up each morning knowing that my struggles with my weight have not been in vain.  I can now teach from experience and help others to find their Perfect Weight just like I did.