"All of my adult life since giving birth to my son 13 years ago, I have been overweight. At my heaviest, standing 5'4, I weighed 303 lbs. Since I have a strong family history of diabetes and heart disease, and I was on medicine for high blood pressure, I decided that I needed to change my life around before I turned 30. I started to diet and exercise and joined the YMCA in 2007. I go to the Y every morning before work and participate in Amber's 6am aerobics classes 3 days a week. Amber welcomes and works with everyone on all workout levels, and she as well as all the class members, inspires and motivates. I have lost 104 lbs. and went from size 26-28 to size 14-16 and my doctor allowed me to discontinue the blood pressure medicine.