My Bio

My friend and webmaster, Jim, asked me to put something together as a bio for this web site so people would know a little more about me, so here goes.

First I’m an RFP (recovering fat person). I can’t think about myself any other way. When I dream I still see me overweight. My most frequent dream is that I am in a grocery store, naked, and I am standing in an aisle by myself trying to cover up my important parts and terrified someone will come around the corner and see me.

I’m not sure if that tells you anything about me or not, but that’s the personal kind of thought I hope to always share on my blog.

As far as a bio… how do I do that? I’ve been an entertainer for most of my life so I’ve written many bios listing my credits and puffed up my accomplishments, but never one as it relates my life to my weight. Is there such a thing as a ‘fat’ bio?

I came out fat and stayed fat for fifty years. Alright, that may be too short…

How about this..

I was born in Mississippi and lived there all my life until May of 2002 when we moved to the Los Angeles area. My husband, Neil, and I watched the Twin Towers come down on 9/11 and that day affected us in ways I cannot describe. We had always been in the “small time” entertainment business, so about a week after 9/11 we decided to pack up and move to Hollywood. We figured it’s now or never. The people in those towers had dreams and now they can never realize them. We simply had no excuse for not trying to realize ours.

I met Neil because his band was looking for a female singer. I sang for a friend of his and then Neil himself and got the job, although I wouldn’t call it a real job, it paid virtually nothing. But I met Neil, so that was the payoff. We married in 1976 and he became step father to Eddie, my six year old son. We soon split from the group and ended up playing lounges. If you’ve ever been to a Ramada Inn and seen a couple singing, that was us for years. And yes, I did hear comments about my weight from the audience. I don’t know why men especially think that it’s acceptable to insult someone just because they can. When you’re the entertainment, you can’t make waves or you might lose the job. So when someone made a remark, I just pretended I didn’t hear it. Those are things you store away and when you’re feeling a touch down they creep in your head to seal the ‘down in the dumps’ deal.

Neil and I gravitated to live theater about 1988 and just had a blast getting to know and falling in love with that world. My first part was as Annie Oakley in “Annie Get Your Gun”. I auditioned at about 150 pounds so don’t know how I got the part except I sang my ass off (literally) because by the time we hit the stage I weighed 135 and looked more like Annie Oakley should look. But, of course, that didn’t last long. It never did.

By the time we moved to California I had been up to 185 and down to 135 and back up to 150 and everything in-between. I was a yoyo dieter killing myself.

July of 2006 something happened that changed my life. I went to a barbecue and saw two girlfriends who had lost a lot of weight. And they were just like me, meaning they like to drink beer and eat chips and dip. I joined Weight Watchers two days later. One year later I weighed 125.

And that’s where my story with you begins. I had lost weight many times but NEVER kept it off. That is my new mission…to give people a leg up in the weight gain, loss and maintenance struggle. In the year it took me to lose weight I discovered something that astonished me. I will never think about food like a thin person does. I stupidly thought that when I lost weight I would quit being so obsessed with eating all the time (and I mean eating and NOT food because I would eat anything). My body changed, not my DNA so the battle continues.

Having realized that I would always have these eating demons (I call mine Fat Kitty) I developed recipes that I can overeat and not gain weight. If you don’t understand the concept of letting yourself overeat, let me explain. I’m going to have moments when I want to stuff food in my mouth and I can promise myself the sun and the moon that I won’t, but it will make no difference - I’m going to eat. I had to forgive myself, accept that this is something that I will do and find a way to do it. That is how Kitty’s Eat Great Lose Weight was born. I eat food that is as low in fat, calories and sugar as I can possibly make it, so that when I do have those ‘eating’ moments, I can eat and not gain. I guess if I were to compare it to something it would be like methadone for a heroin addict. I am addicted to food. I accept that now. There’s actually a peace that comes with that because now I don’t fight with myself so much and I don’t make myself feel bad about something that I know I’m going to do.

There are things we are all going to do. Eating is one for me.

So here I am, Kitty Stallings, RFP. Welcome to my world!