Becky's Story
Transformation Review
Privacy Disclaimer: The lady who is featured in this New Me Transformation wished to be “anonymous.” To respect her privacy, we are calling her “Becky.” I am sharing this story with her permission. She has reviewed it to confirm its accuracy. Additionally, Becky never took or kept pictures of herself at her highest weight. Though we don’t have many pictures, you won’t want to miss Becky’s story! It's truly an inspiration.
A Kansas City Cinderella
“Will you please help us?”
It was a call for help from Becky’s mom in Kansas City. She was calling her dad in Wichita, Kansas, with the slightest hope that he would send them some provision. Becky and her mom were homeless, penniless, and hungry, but no help would come. Anything her dad provided would go to Becky’s half-sisters and his new wife, Becky’s aunt, her mother’s younger sister. Yes, that’s right. Becky’s dad left her mom and married her mother’s younger sister.
The betrayal of both sister and husband resulted in Becky’s mom suffering a mental breakdown. Threatening her own life, Becky’s dad had her admitted to a mental institution. During this time, Becky was passed between her grandmother and her aunt. When released, Becky’s mom knew she had to leave Wichita. She took her only two possessions, a car, and her little girl, Becky, and drove to Kansas City.
At the Dairy Queen on 47th and Troost, Becky listened to her mother pleading with her dad over the phone for help. All she wanted was some money for food, but the answer that day was simply no. Becky remembers this phone call as a life-changing moment, and as young as she was, she vowed to change their situation.
Hard times and challenges were all she knew. Living in a car or wherever a shop owner would let them spend the night, Becky helped her mom do whatever they could to live. She remembers her mother knocking on doors asking to clean houses. Becky’s dream to change their situation grew even more prominent during the house cleaning days. Stepping out of her car into beautiful homes, she was amazed that people had their own bedrooms, and Becky would dream, “I will have a bed someday and my own bedroom. Someday, I will have a house.” She didn’t just dream; she worked, and indeed, bought her first house at age seventeen.
Becky is now fifty-seven years old. She lives with her son in a large, beautifully landscaped home in Overland Park, Kansas, with a pool and five dogs. She runs three businesses, and her days start at 5:00 am. Two of her companies require 24/7 availability. If an employee doesn’t show up, guess who gets to cover? Becky is known to be working any hour of the day or night.
On top of running multiple businesses, providing for her son, and trying to sleep a few hours here and there, Becky is known to help helpless people in the city. One of her many stories is about a couple who were in trouble so deep their pictures were posted around town as “wanted.” Because of Becky, they are now clear with the law, drug-free, running a small legal business, buying their first home, and just taking their first beach vacation. Becky will say that not everyone she helps has that story, but with her growing success, she still remembers being helpless and can’t resist helping others who are the same.
There isn’t enough room in this short story to tell all the things Becky has overcome. She knows what it’s like to be homeless, hungry, going to and coming from school living in a car, working hard at a young age, and trying to figure out why she and her mom weren’t like everyone else.
Becky never had a weight problem growing up. She says, “I used to be as skinny as a stick!”
As the years passed and convenient eating became part of her busy schedule, she slowly put on weight. The possibility of being called to work in the middle of the night often meant eating any hour of the day or night. A routine eating schedule didn’t exist for Becky, and she eventually found herself at 5’8”, weighing 240 pounds, with blood sugar levels hitting the 400’s. Her blood sugar got so high she was manifesting symptoms of an infection which turned out to be directly related to elevated sugar levels. Convenient eating and long, crazy hours had put her in a very unhealthy situation. A concerned friend suggested to her that she should call me. That was in May of 2016.
On September 22, 2021, I called Becky at 8:00 pm as her day was just winding down. I wanted to make sure she was okay with what I was sharing in her story and to make sure I was getting the story correct.
To make a long New Me story short, Becky is now a pro at maintaining her New Me happy weight at 157-158, and her blood sugar stays around 100-105. While active, her results are largely diet-based. As busy as she is, she manages to turn her New Me Template into pictures fit for Pinterest. Becky and I still stay in touch, and she always volunteers her morning weight whenever we connect. She always has a positive outlook, and “hard” doesn’t slow her down.
It makes us both happy to know that finding her New Me has in many ways made her life easier. She no longer has to worry about her blood sugar levels hitting 400, nor the extra weight being a potential health risk. I asked Becky what the most significant thing for her was in keeping her New Me weight, she answered without hesitation, “It has a lot to do with cooking my own food and eating at home.”
Lastly, what does Becky want to say to anyone who wants to achieve a healthy weight and keep it?
“If I can do it, YOU can do it too.”
Becky’s Before and After
A sample of Becky’s delicious cooking in her New Me style.