Chantel Hobbs
Before & After
About Chantel
At about eleven years old, I began my weight battle and childhood
addiction to food. For the next several years, I watched the scale go up
after repeated “dieting” attempts and eventually gave up for the next
several years. At 21 years old, I married my high school sweetheart,
Keith.
On my wedding day in February 1993, I have the memory of walking down
the aisle as a “plus sized” bride. Six months later I became pregnant
and had a daughter named Ashley. As my weight was now over 325 pounds, I
enjoyed play dates, milkshakes and Oreo’s and being a new mommy.
Two years later, I gave birth to Kayla and for the next few years it was
much of the same. I justified my existence that I was too busy and too
far gone to do anything about my weight. As I continued to stay close to
350 pounds, I had a son we named Jake in June 1999. Shortly after he was
born, I fell apart. I was living my life as an academy award winning
actress, pretending that my weight problem didn’t exist, while inside I
felt trapped and tortured.
The thoughts that I was ugly, judged, and pathetic ran through my mind
nearly all day, every day. It hit me one night, alone in my car that I
had been treating my obesity as a disease that I had no control over. My
mother had been diagnosed with Leukemia several years prior, and I had
spent many nights praying for her to stay healthy but often feeling very
helpless. In reality, my being overweight was not at all like an
illness. It was my personal and lifelong struggle, not something that
just appeared out of nowhere.
I cried out of desperation to God that night and
said to Him that I was done fighting, and that I needed strength to
fight this war. I also realized in those moments that I had to take
personal responsibility for my struggle or I would never fix it for
good.
I went in to my house and proclaimed to my husband that I was done with
dieting, however I was going to lose weight for good and then write a
book to show others what I had found. He then made an attempt to bring
me back down to earth by saying- Do it, then talk! And I agreed and
decided to take the challenge! I woke up then next morning and began my
new life.
And from that day on, despite lots of circumstances out of my control,
many vacations, another pregnancy, relapse of my mom’s Leukemia, and
many more challenges along the way, I lost nearly 200 pounds and have
kept it off for good! I can honestly say that I no longer live in fear
of being fat again, because what I have found is that the ability to be
fit and healthy lives within me. It is not something that can be taken
away.
We fear things that we don’t expect or that we can’t foresee, we
shouldn’t fear things that we have the power to control. My life’s
passion is to see the world “ditch the diet!” for good- seven years
later, I have now run 5 marathons, I am a certified personal trainer,
spinning instructor, as well as running coach with The Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society.
I still wake up each day and thank God that I have this platform and
this voice to share the spirit and message of hope. I know there are
many of you who are like how I once was, frustrated and exhausted from
constant failure. You know that you can be living better and feeling
better.
My story can be your story or the story of someone you love. Life is
full of many trials and struggles, this doesn’t need to be one of them!
Information from Chantel's web site
