Did I really look like that?

I hate seeing pictures of myself looking like a post-gum Violet Beauregarde from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but since that is exactly what I looked like for many years, there are a lot of pictures depicting that fact. It honestly makes me cringe, and I'm so embarrassed to have let myself get so far out of control.

Once, in that time of ultimate fatness, I ran into a guy that I had grown up with, but whom I had not seen in many years. It was obvious that he didn't recognize me, and I was too embarrassed to say, "Hey, remember me? Katie Noah. We grew up together." I didn't want him to know I had gotten that fat. It was better that he didn't realize that I was his childhood friend. I was so embarrassed.

I wish I knew when I was younger what I know now. I would have kept playing soccer, and I would have refrained from eating enough food to satisfy a small village on a daily basis. But I can't change the past, so I'll go ahead and let my experiences and struggles be motivation for both myself and others. Believe me, if I can do it, anyone can! I have been getting some really spectacular emails from friends who are inspired to get healthy and lose weight or start exercising because I have been willing to share what I'm going through. I LOVE hearing those stories and knowing that the hardest struggle of my life isn't turning out to be entirely negative. I would almost go so far as to say that I'm glad I went through what I did so that I can help others. But I don't know if I can be thankful for such folly. I am, however, thankful for the things God can turn that folly into.

Because I am being completely honest here, I am going to post pictures from the fattest points of my life, so people can see just how far I've come. It's incredibly embarrassing, and what I really want to do is burn all those pictures, but I think it's important to, a)remember how horrible I felt so that I never let myself get that way again, and b)show what can be done with hard work.


This was me in eighth grade. Normal, right? I thought I was fat.


I was twenty-one here. Always uncomfortable, I hid beneath pillows.


I don't even think it looks like me.


Sooo uncomfortable for sibling pictures.


This was in 2006, at the height of a stressful time.


SO gross at my sister's wedding in 2007. Right after this I started losing weight.


I know I just posted this picture in my blog about collar bones last week, but it's the most recent one where you can see how much weight I've lost.


I wore this dress to my Junior and Senior proms and my goal is to fit nicely into it again. I will achieve that goal!!