TLC
‘My 600-lb Life’ Star Janine Began Using Diet Pills as a Child: “My Life Was Never the Same”
New episodes of My 600-lb Life have introduced fans to inspiring people! Recently, the TLC reality show featured Janine — a woman whose body issues began when she was still a child. The network teased her episode writing that her struggle with food began at “an early age.”
“I grew up in a family where I was the youngest of three and the only girl,” she explained during the episode. “So, in a lot of ways, I think my parents just didn’t know what to do with me. And what made it worse was the adoption agency told my parents that my birth mother was a large woman, therefore, I should be closely monitored so that I didn’t turn out the same way. My mother, God bless her, took that very much to heart and was waiting for me to get fat.”
Janine as a child.
As if her story wasn’t heartbreaking enough, Janine continued to explain how her mother and pediatrician began heavily monitoring her food even when she was still a preschool-aged child. “For my mom, it was like an obsession… she was constantly worried or concerned about my weight all the time,” she added. “She and the pediatrician decided about the time I was three to put me on my first diet. And when I was four the same pediatrician decided it’d be a good idea to start me on diet pills. And that really started to mess me up… My life was never the same after that.”
In a video from the episode, Janine was struggling to board the airplane to finally get the help she needed. Viewers watched completely break down while trying to walk. Even though the journey was challenging, eventually she was able to lose more than 115 pounds. “My true goal is to lose enough weight to get knee surgery, lose the scooter, and go dancing,” she admitted to Newsweek. “On the top of my bucket list is to go to Paris.” We hope Janine gets to see France one day!
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