"I've been overweight my whole life. But after going through three really big losses from 2015-2016, I was struggling and used food to cope. Over the next three years, I gained over 100 pounds and was close to weighing 400 pounds.

I was doing bare minimum at everything in life. I'd go to work, come home with fast food because I didn't have it in me to cook, help the kids with their homework, and then go to bed because I was done.

My husband is amazing and has never said anything about my weight...ever. One day, very matter-of-factly, he says 'your weight is getting in the way of things' referring to our family life. I was angry because of course when people tell us things that are right about ourselves and we don't want to admit it, we tend to be angry.

Later that night, I was laying in bed and I had what I call this 'aha moment.' My moment of clarity, where I realized he's telling me this because he wants to have this long life with me. It's not because he has a problem with me. It's because he wants me here. And you know, [my family is] suffering because I'm bare minimum at everything. I'm just watching my life pass me. I'm not participating in it.

I've done every diet you can think of and was never able to stick to it. Why is that? I realized it was because I never once just made one single change at a time. And so, when I got up the next morning, I decided the first thing I was going to do is not drink any sodas that week. And so each week I added something new, which helped them then become habits that were easy for me to sustain and maintain.

HealthyWage came into play because I started to get complacent and comfortable in my journey. The weight loss was slowing down and I was starting to hit plateaus. It was positive reinforcement and motivation because I had a reward to look forward to. It pushed me harder to reach my weight loss goal because I wasn't going to waste money and I wanted to win money for new clothes that fit and Christmas gifts for my kids."