I have memories of being overweight dating back to when I was in the first grade. My parents weren’t pleased and took me to a doctor, who put me on a very strict diet. Even though I tried to follow it, I learned that “cheating” on my food plan was a way to subtly rebel against my parents’ constant abuse. This led to them locking food in cabinets, telling people I had a disease—which seemed to leave them feeling less embarrassed, and my continuing to gain more and more weight as I grew older.

Finally, in college, I was still very large, although no longer living at home. Even as my parents’ abuse continued from afar, I also abused myself through overeating. I carried a lot of mental weight that expressed itself in physical weight—to the point that I was topping the scales at over 450 pounds.

Despite feeling worthless and like I didn’t matter, I did try to lose weight. Or at least I talked about losing weight—to virtually anyone who would........

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