Good for her, inspiring for others

177 pounds lighter, yo-yo dieter reaches goal weight

Kia Horton was thin as a little girl. "Like fit your fingers around (my) ankles skinny," she recalls. But at 5, she says, she became a victim of sexual abuse, triggering more than a decade of poor eating habits. By the time she started eighth grade, she was borderline obese.

At 15, Horton weighed almost 200 pounds. Her father allowed her to sign up for a diet meal delivery service. She lost 30 pounds on the program, but she says, "I hated the food, and the program was not sustainable because eating their food was the only key to success."

She gained back the 30 pounds and then some. By the time she graduated college, she weighed 260 pounds.

"I immediately joined a gym and hired a personal trainer," Horton says. "This also proved to be futile because I was not ready to change my eating habits." She lost no weight working out with the trainer. "I quit!" she remembers thinking.

Her bad eating habits continued, and in 2006, at 31, the Chicagoan topped out at her heaviest weight of 319 pounds. Horton is 5 feet 4 inches; her body mass index at the time was 54.8, which is considered morbidly obese.

177 lbs lighter, after starting to truly work on things when someone made an off-hand comment about her having a pretty face and losing weight, she has this advice:

"The best advice I can give to people is to face their whole life down," she says. Horton says she believes weight gain is a symptom of other issues. "You can't take control over just one aspect of your life; you have to take control over everything. Once you do that, then your journey can begin."

I so need to get my act together regarding my health and weight. These sorts of stories remind me that it isn't futile.