Seemingly overnight, my once trim and petite figure started ballooning.

I could not get away with eating whatever I wanted, unless I wanted to carry that around on my body forever!

I used to just burn everything off without a second thought, but now it seemed my body could no longer keep up.

My metabolism was not firing on all cylinders any more.

I could feel that my health was going backwards. I had such low energy during the day. And was falling asleep in front of the TV in the early evening.

That's not who I am!

So, I would go to bed earlier at night, in the hope that it would give me better energy the next day.

But it didn't work.

Some nights I’d even sleep 10 HOURS, and still be dragging my butt the next day!

I knew it was bad. But even then I didn’t realize just how BAD it had gotten.

One day I bumped into my daughter's friend from high school. But she didn't recognize me at first.

I had to tell her who I was. And then before she could stop herself, she said something that hurt deeply. "Wow Mrs B. I didn't recognize you. You were so much smaller back then."

Wow, that was a real eye-opener.

I've never owned a scale. I've never needed it as I always kept my shape. However I knew it was time to find out where I was at. So I went out and bought one for the first time ever.

I got it home, put the battery in (it was one of those fancy digital ones), And stepped on.

I couldn't believe my eyes! 209!

Wow, that moment hit me like a hammer.

I went over to the bathroom mirror, and forced myself to take a good long look.

And I mean REALLY look.

It was then that I realized that something had to change. I was tired, puffy, and bulging out all over the place. I was a mess.

I thought about that experience the rest of the day.

I started thinking about how it was not only affecting me, but also my daughter.

You see, for a long time I had only been thinking about ME.

But what about my girl? Was I even going to be there for her?

That evening as I was getting ready for bed, I made a decision.