Mamavation Mom Finalist: Meet Andrea

     Campaign 11 voting has begun!  There were 11 amazing applicants, now there are 5 wonderful finalists.  Each woman has a story, each applied for her own reasons, and each of them deserve our support.  Here is Andrea's story.

My name is Andrea Emilien and I want to be a Mamavation Mom.

"What is a Mamavation Mom?" you ask?  It's a 7-week online boot camp where two Mom's lives are put on public display.  They learn basic and essential skills from professionals while sharing their struggles and tribulations with the Mamavation community.  The goal is to start the path to healthy living so they can then in turn pass along the information they learn to their families and stop the obesity trend.  

My story is like millions of other women's.  I love food.  Love it so much that I ate myself to 266 lbs.  I cared so little about myself that I decided I wasn't worth the effort to be healthy.  

How'd I get to that point?

It started when I was younger, in elementary school.  My parents divorced and we lived with my Dad.  He worked at a business that required him to move to be able to move up in it.  So we moved.  And we moved a lot.  At first I was fine....made friends with no issue.  Until I was in 7th grade and we moved to a town in Ohio.  We'd moved from a place that I had tons of friends and my best friend lived next door.  I was devastated to leave those people and I had a hard time  at the new school.  I didn't make any new friends, the school was so big and I would get lost all of the time.  I didn't feel like I could turn to anyone.  So I turned to food.  I can clearly remember so desperately not wanting to go to school one day that I opened up the pantry, took out the box of Suzie Q's and ate.  I didn't eat one or two...I ate the whole box!  I made myself so sick that I called my Dad and told him I couldn't go to school.  It worked!  I got to stay home and I didn't have to deal with the kids at school.  So I did it again...and again...and again...I did it so much that the school called my Dad and told him that I was in trouble of failing.  Food was my comfort, my best friend and I knew that I could count on it to always be there for me.  This was my first binge eating episode.

Unfortunately, it didn't stop after we moved from Ohio.  I continued, and continue, to binge eat.  All through high school, I wouldn't eat all day and then come home and eat whatever I could get my hands on.  When I got a job and a car, I would drive through 2 or 3 different places, find the darkest place I could and eat 2 or 3 meals.  I worked in a snack bar and would eat all of the greasy, fattening food and was happy about it.  I ballooned from 135-140lbs in high school to 200 lbs.  

Then I met my soulmate.  And I had babies.  And I stopped thinking about myself at all.  It was always about what the kids needed or what my husband needed.  I was never on my radar.  How could I be?  I worked full time, for a while I was a full time student and I had kids and a husband who needed me.  I didn't have time for myself.  And because of that attitude, I am now in the position I am in.  Obese, depressed and desperate.

I joined Mamavation because I needed support.  I needed the support of ladies who have been there, or are there, and knew what I was going through.  And I want to be a Mamavation Mom because I need to have the professional help and the accountability that the Mamavation Moms are awarded with.  In turn, I hope that my story and my trials and tribulations can help another Mom in need - someone who is in the same spot I was in when I found the Sistas.  I hope that I am able to inspire that Mom who is about to binge to stop, think about what they are doing and to put the food down.

The support I have already gotten has been tremendous and has more than once reduced me to tears but I need votes to realize this dream of mine.   Please watch my video, think about my story and vote for me.  Vote for @AndreaEmilien for Mamavation Mom
Vote for @AndreaEmilien for Mamavation Mom
Twitter:  @AndreaEmilien
Tales of an Overstuffed Princess
andrea.r.emilien@gmail.com
Facebook - Andrea Emilien