In short, my name is Kristie Pennington. I am a 37 year old stay at home mom, wife, and aspiring screenwriter (aspiring means I don’t get paid…..yet). I have been married for eleven years and have two children. In April of 2008 I weighed 252 pounds and wore a size 22 pants. I was sick of feeling like a slug and decided to take control of my life. I have always enjoyed exercising, but have never been athletic. I never competed in anything other than acting competitions in high school until I ran my first 5k race in May. I am currently 203 pounds and wear a size 12/14 and attempting to reach my goal weight. I don’t know what that weight is yet, but I will know when I get there. I want to show people that if I can do it, anyone can. We all have an athlete within, you just have to find something you enjoy. As of today, January 18, 2011, I have run three 5k’s, one half-marathon, one sprint triathlon, and I am currently training for a full marathon in April. In the past eighteen months, I have run/walked 269.15 miles with a six month hiatus from a running foot injury.
The Long Story:
I have struggled with my weight and have been an emotional eater since I was a child. I didn’t like to let people see me cry when I was growing up and began turning to food for a variety of emotions. I would eat out of boredom, I would eat for comfort, out of loneliness, sadness, celebrations, rewarding myself, you name an emotion and I can give you a food that I have eaten to feed it.
I was not a popular kid and that is putting it mildly. I wasn’t a complete reject, but I was told on many, many occassions that I was weird and I never had confidence in my appearance. I was tall with really big boobs in junior high and high school, so I always wore clothes to hide myself. I have always had a good sense of humor and can find something funny in just about any situation. I learned early on that making other people laugh was something that I truly enjoyed. It made me feel really good. When someone I cared about was sad or having a hard time, I would always find the funny thing and make them laugh. I always threw in some impersonations with wacky voices and I was very animated.
Comedy coping skills lead me down the path of performing stand up comedy and comedy writing. That path also lead me to a very unhealthy lifestyle. Working a regular full time job and then driving for hours to perform on stage for five minutes and then back home only to get up early and go back to work the next day was exhausting. Eating is also a way of staying awake. I weighed 230 pounds in the early ’90′s. I lost eighty pounds once I quit stand up and maintained that weight for a few years.
In 1999 I met Noel, the man I married. I had a baby in 2000 and moved to CA from TX when my daughter was only six weeks old. I didn’t know anyone in CA and I was spending my days as a stay at home mom to a baby with colic. It was a very miserable time of my life. I packed on weight at a rapid speed. I haven’t checked, but I’ll bet I could have broken the record for fattening my ass up in the least amount of time. I would try to take walks with my baby in the stroller or baby B’jorn, but she just cried the whole time. I ate every meal out while we stayed in corporate housing because I have a severephobia of germs. I didn’t want to cook or eat off of the dishes that had been used by others.
A few years later, I joined Weight Watchers and lost thirty pounds by my thirtieth birthday. I quickly went back to my old ways and began to gain weight. I got pregnant with my second child and was able to only gain twenty-four pounds during the pregnancy. I’m so grateful to have had severe heartburn during those nine months.
Over the next few years, I had steadily began to gain weight and gained a whopping forty pounds when we moved to TN. I gained that weight within seven months. I feel ashamed as I am writing this thinking about the person I used to be. Every time I move I become Low Self Esteem Kristie. The Kristie I was in high school. I get lonely and turn to food.
I never had a problem exercising. I love to exercise. I just had a problem eating less. I eat very healthy foods 90% of the time. I just eat too much of whatever I have.
I come from an overweight family. My paternal grandmother used to be overweight, my mom is overweight, my sisters, my brother, aunts and uncles, cousins. I think you get the picture. We all love to eat. That is the reason.
Both of my sisters had type 2 diabetes and I am so fortunate that I have not had to deal with that. My sister, Brandi died three years ago due to a heart attack at the age of twenty-nine. She was my dearest, closest, and best friend in this world. I absolutely adored her and loved being with her. She has two beautfiul little girls just like I do. It was just another thing that bonded us closer together.
I didn’t want to go down that same road. Heart disease runs in my family and I know that my risks are higher being overweight. I joined Weight Watchers in 2008. I began working out more. I decided to train for a marathon and began running.
Now I write this blog in hopes that I can inspire and encourage others to live a healthier lifestyle. Before and present photos can be seen below:
I’m in the middle I’m on the far left
