My name is Melanie Landano, I am 37 years old, and live in Staten Island NY.  This is how my life changed—literally; it was just one big roller coaster ride.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY by my mother, Janet, with my brother and sister.  My mother was a single mom and decided to go back to college when Anthony, my youngest brother started kindergarten.  So it was up to my sister and me to lead the household by doing the cooking, the cleaning, and all that other “fun stuff”. We would mainly cook meats, pastas, and plenty of bread—always a starch, and always a vegetable. There was never a night where we didn’t eat a full meal!

At that point of my life, I didn’t think I was overweight at all. I always said to myself, I am “big boned” or “my whole family is this size”. I was a total tomboy - I played basketball starting at 10 years old and played all through high school. I was captain of the softball team, played stickball in the driveway with my brother, and to even think about a skirt, well that never crossed my mind.

When I was 13, I started my first job working in a small amusement park in Brooklyn, New York.  There you were always around the smell of fresh popcorn, cotton candy, French fries, and all that other fun amusement park food. We were trained to eat our mistakes, and believe me, I at my way through 13 years!! Again, because I was around all of this amazing fun food, I thought it was ok to eat it!!

After my amusement park venture, I was on my way to bigger and better things.  It was time for me to travel Europe, or let’s say eat my way through Europe.  I spent my last semester of college in Italy, absorbing the lovely scenery and art, and oh yeah, don’t forget…. the wine, cheese, and bread.  I remember the conversations I would have with my mother telling her how much I would eat while living there. She said indulge, you only live once. 

While I was in Italy, my father passed away unexpectantly of a heart attack. That took a toll on my life, and on my health.  I would never imagine anyone in my family would die, especially of a heart attack.  It was hard on my family, and we tried to cope with it by eating and drinking. Well at least I did, I think I gained about 20 lbs while in Italy.

You could say I am a venturer, I started working at 13, ran off to Italy for 9 months by myself, and then I was ready to move on to Disney World for my next stop. I landed this unbelievable, amazing job in Disney, where again I lived by myself, and fed myself. At this point I was reaching about 220lbs, but who cared? I was in the most magical place on earth, with lots of fast food, and again, that FUN amusement park food. Funnel cakes at the American Adventure in EPCOT, Beavertails at the Canadian Pavilion, and oh yeah drinking around the world on my days off!! I didn’t take care of myself, my health was diminishing, but, I just kept going….my life was an amusement park. 

It wasn’t until one day at Disney that it all caught up to me.  I was working onstage, it was about 95degrees outside, and I felt like I was going to drop.  I blacked out, became weak, and ran into the restroom, not knowing what to do. I reached rock bottom and it was time for a change.  I went to the doctor the next day, after a series of testing, he told me I was extremely overweight, dehydrated, and that I needed to change my lifestyle or else it would worsen. When I stepped on the scale I was a whopping 235lbs!!  How could this happen?

>> next >>