Tracey Sekula, 44, was inspired to lose weight after an embarrassing incident. She was out shopping for clothes one day in spring 2007 when a little boy looked at her and then turned to his mother and said, "Look, Mommy, the stork brought a baby to her belly like you."
His pregnant mother asked Sekula how far along she was. "I'm not pregnant," Sekula said.
Afterward, Sekula called her doctor and told him she needed help. She weighed 265 pounds, and her cholesterol was 366. "He told me I was one step away from having a heart attack."
She stopped drinking six cans of regular soda a day, cut down on her portions, started walking regularly and eventually lost 100 pounds. At 5 feet tall, she now weighs 165 pounds.
She is one of the readers who volunteered to share her story as part of this year's USA TODAY Weight-Loss Challenge. This is the final week of the series.
Sekula, who is single and does promotional and marketing work, realizes now that she was an emotional eater. "I found I was stress-eating a lot and eating out of boredom, not really when I was hungry."
She used food to console herself when her beloved brother died. "Food became my best friend. Food was how I grieved. It was comfort."
She kept a journal to track her emotions and a food diary with the goal of limiting her calories to below 1,800 a day. After she lost 50 pounds, she joined Weight Watchers.
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