Hi! My name is Lauren. I am a 26 year old woman who comes from a great home. I was really lucky to be raised by both my parents. My story started when I was about 13, that's when I started putting on weight and of course with that comes the negative self-talk. My parents took me to my pediatrician and she just told us that I was "sneak eating." Of course that was not true. By the time I was 16 I was told I was essentially allergic to carbohydrates. The doctor quickly put me on a "no carbohydrate diet." All the while my parents and I were thinking we were doing the best thing for my health.
Three years later my life dramatically changed when after a horrible car accident the doctors found a brain tumor. The brain tumor was sitting right on my pituitary and the doctors said that was the cause of all of my weight gain. Wasn't I relived to hear that it wasn't my fault and now there was a reason that I was working so hard to lose weight, but having no success.
In November of 2003 I had two brain surgeries to remove the tumor. The surgeries were successful, however I was put on steroids. The steroids only made my weight issues balloon and before I knew it I was 230 pounds. I spend a year on the steroids (because the doctors told me I had to be) trying to loose weight. It is very tiring trying to do something over and over again with not even the slightest bit of a result to show for it. In fact, the numbers were actually going in the other direction. I eventually just gave up. After a trip to the mayo clinic prompted by my parents I was taken off the steroids. Even after being taken off the steroids weight was hard to loose and I had lost interest in eating healthy and exercising. Spending so much energy on it before with no result had burned me out.
I know God had many reasons for me to join Mosaic. I am just so grateful that one of them was so that I could meet Fawn. It has only been a few weeks, but I can already feel my mindset, and my body changing.
