WHO: Patricia Church, retired retail customer service representative
AGE: 61
CITY: Scarborough, Ont.
By The Numbers: 331 at my heaviest, and currently 163, total weight loss of 168 pounds
The Weight Gain: My weight was normal to slightly heavy growing up. I was active in softball, volleyball and basketball in elementary school, but then not so much in high school.
I started to gain weight after the birth of my third child in 1975. I was 207 pounds when my son was born, and the pounds just sort of crept up. I tried counting calories and dieting, but it was not too successful.
The Final Straw: I remember walking down the street one day and a man was walking towards me. Being a friendly person, I smiled, and he said, "How did you ever get so fat?" It made me upset, but his comments didn't stop me from continuing to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I was hungry.
The tipping point for me was in December 2011, when I was at my grandson's hockey game and another "hockey Gramma" came up to me and said, "Trish, I've watched you struggle for the past couple of years. You're short of breath, need to sit down after walking only a few steps, and I wish you would see my doctor ... he helped me lose 75 pounds" Jo was a few years older than me, and I thought if she could do it, I could do it. I had high blood pressure, acid reflux, sleep apnea, bad back and knees, and thought maybe this doctor could help.
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