(Mother-Julianne, Big Sister-Bonnie & Baby Sister-AnnaLee)

Anna's Story, by Bonnie Pfiester (and big sister) of Longevity

In a world full of video games and online entertainment, there is no wonder childhood obesity is such an issue these days. In addition to a decrease in activity, kids’ diets look as though they came from a vending machine instead of the kitchen. Often times, a child’s weight can seem to just sneak up on the family. Then all the sudden they look at their child and realize they are facing a very serious issue.

Although I have no children, I had a unique parenting experience. My youngest sister, Anna, was 13 years old and weighed a tremendous 200 pounds. Everyone hoped she would grow out of it, including me. Finally, the issue raised its ugly head and my mom called for help. She asked me if we would take Anna for a month over summer break to help her lose weight. We agreed.

My sister was a very grumpy, spoiled little girl. She will be the first to admit she wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around. Although I loved Anna, I knew this would be a challenge. We immediately set her up with a personal trainer and introduced her to aerobics classes. She absolutely fell in love with Step Aerobics and thought her trainer hung the moon. It didn’t take long before she physically began to feel better.

My job was to help her make better food choices. I had her keep a food journal for a few weeks to help her see how things add up. That was a big eye opener for her. The grocery store, restaurants and kitchen became my classroom. At the first taste of success, Anna was hungry for more. Suddenly chocolate didn’t taste as good as it once did – especially after learning how hard she would have to work to erase the mistake. She was now hungry for being skinny.

The weight began to fall off. She lost 20lbs over a few weeks and decided she wanted to lengthen her stay. Before we knew it, we were moving her in and enrolling her in our local school system. The way she looked, and felt, was powerful enough for her to leave her parents, school, church and all her friends.