WHO: Jen Fischer
AGE: 26
CITY: Mississauga, Ont.
By The Numbers: 250 pounds at my heaviest, and currently 160, total weight loss 90 pounds
The Weight Gain: I can only remember being overweight. It seemed normal to me. My parents divorced when I was nine and I sought comfort in food. My mom was confused; it was the '90s and divorce was just beginning to become popular. She, like many others, wanted to fill the void of my father with whatever I needed and I, like so many children today, thrived on what felt and tasted good.
As all things have their price and I gained significant amounts of weight. My face and body were bloated and I remember being asked in elementary school what those funny looking stripes were (it turns out they were stretchmarks and not as hilarious as they had seemed). I had trouble keeping up with the other children and this isolation just pushed me further into my addiction.
The Final Straw: I was teased, but not any more than most and definitely less than some. I had friends and a social life. I lied about my size when I shopped, not wanting to tell people that I could only find my size 22 at the “fat people” store. When shopping for my prom dress it was not the idyllic experience that most of the girls I knew had, but a nightmare found in the bottom of a pile of dresses on the change room floor that just simply wouldn't fit.
The final straw came in second year of university when I weighed myself for the first time in five years. I vaguely knew that I had gained some weight, but I had always referred to myself as a “skinny fat person”. When the scale topped off at 250 I felt nauseous. While I knew I had to take the weight off I wasn't sure how to go about it. I had tried many different diets, from Weight Watchers to Atkins. All of them were some small form of torture, some way that I had failed and another sign of embarrassment.
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