Café Spanglish
Summer 2015
Obesity Almost Cost her, Her Life!!!
by Angel Farley
“…I became VERY overweight when I had my
daughter at the age of 15..”
My health and fitness journey began when I was 21
years old. Although I struggled with my weight my
entire life, I became very overweight in high school
when I had my daughter, Autumn, at the age of
only 15. I carried myself through school, but never
seemed to find the ability to be truly happy with who
I was. I was uncomfortable and unhappy with being
me, but it didn’t really hit me until I had my second
child. My son, Cam’Ron, came by way of an abusive
relationship,
one that nearly
cost me my life.
Here I was 20
years old and
a single mother
to now two
children. During
those times
life was very
difficult. I come
from a very
poor family, and
had no help
from either of
my children’s
fathers, so the financial burden of two children fell
entirely to me.
“….and ate away my emotions from a drive
through window”.
Absorbed in “just trying to make it” I let myself
continue to gain weight even after that second
pregnancy. I was oblivious to the fact that for years
I had buried the pain I experienced inside and ate
away my emotions from a drive through window.
One day, I took my kids to the park, my little girl who
was 5 yrs.old then, ran up to me and pulled at my
hand asking me to play tag. She ran off laughing and
I started after her... I only made it a few strides before
I fell to my knees. Weighing in at 267 lbs, I was so
unhealthy and out of shape that I couldn’t even play
12
tag with my little girl. She ran back to me, tugged on
my shirt, asking why mommy wouldn’t play with her.
It was in that moment, on my knees, sobbing on the
ground that I decided to take my life back. I decided
that I had to do something to change the way I was
living. I was all those kids had... If I continued to
sabotage myself like this, I would have surely died
before ever giving them the life that they deserved.
And so began my journey!
I Developed Eating Disorders!
I tried all these things that promised to make me
skinny quick! I cycled through shakes, wraps,
lotions, pills, patches, you name it- I was on it. Even
did adipex and b-12 injections! Still, I was fat and
miserable. And it seemed the more of those things I
tried, the more personally I took each failure.Pretty
soon I developed two eating disorders that cycled
with each other- sometimes I would just avoid putting
anything into my mouth because I thought- if I don’t
eat I have to lose weight... Other times I became so
starving hungry that I would binge eat and feel so
guilty afterwards that I’d go throw it all up! Was this
what I was intended for? Trading my habit of eating
away my emotions and being obese and depressed,
to hovering over a toilet crying because I felt guilty for
eating food? One day I was in my normal routine of
diet pills and avoiding food that I apparently took the