About Me

Hello friends and future friends! My name is Katie. I am 31 years old and live in the heart of the Midwest. My husband and I own 40 acres outside of Kansas City, Missouri, where we operate Little Z Farm.  Our land is our love, but we both have careers in sports broadcasting. I share more about that in some of my blog posts.

I've battled obesity my entire life. In 2012, I started a journey to losing weight. I lost almost 180 pounds in two years. Then anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and lethargy got the best of me. I gained an enormous amount of weight back in the three years following. I am a work in progress and the journey continues. Here is my story...

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January 5th, 2012 was probably the most important day of my life. I woke up that morning and decided that I wanted to live. 

For years, life had become very much a monotonous cycle that I didn't really think much about. I was never suicidal, but the truth is I didn't care much about living or dying. This really seems absurd when I look back. I've always had good friends, a supportive family, hundreds of opportunities. I believed in God, but I didn't think that all this really mattered. I didn't believe you could find purpose in the day-to-day, create a life here on earth, or find any sort of happiness. 

Then all of a sudden, things changed.

I looked in the mirror and realized the person I saw did not match the person on the inside. All those desires, that for years, I had pushed to the back of my mind came up and slapped me in the face.  I wanted to travel, try new things, fall in love, meet new people, and actually live. I was embarrassed of myself. I was embarrassed by the way I looked. I was embarrassed by my apathy. I was also consumed by fear. With my quarter-of-a-century birthday looming, I set out to win my war against obesity. It's been a whirlwind, but one I'll never forget.

I hit the obesity mark in Kindergarten.

My whole dad's side of the family fought the weight battle. My destiny was clear. 

Me, my dad, younger sister. Summer, 2002.

But in 5th grade, my dad started training for a marathon. He lost over 200 pounds and ran a full marathon at over 300 pounds. On his journey, he took me with him. We walked together every night and made healthy food choices. My mom joined in and encouraged me to make healthy decisions. With my dad by my side, it wasn't hard. It wasn't work. It was fun, and before I knew it I had lost 50 pounds and become one of the most athletic and fit kids at my school. 

Christmas, 1999.

But life got hectic and stressful. The walks became few and far between. I turned to my best friend, food in my times of despair. Then I turned to it during times of happiness, anxiety, fear, and any other emotion imaginable. I went from active and healthy to lethargic and depressed in just a little over a year.

8th grade, 2001.

I got really involved in high school, made great friends, and forced myself to be outgoing to hide my insecurities. I avoided a lot of the cruelty this way. My 8th grade square dance partner called me "Jelly Rolls" to my face and I encountered the occasional rude and tasteless comment, but for the most part, I stayed away from it all. I missed out on a lot being overweight. It stopped me from taking risks. Boys weren't interested in me. I didn't participate in sports. I couldn't be active like I wanted to. I tried to make the best of it.

Summer, 2004.

My mom died the summer of 2003. Everything got worse from there. That's when I stopped caring for the most part, and more weight came. 

The last time I weighed myself in high-school, I was 285 pounds. I hated myself, but pretended like I didn't. 

College was awesome and awful. I got involved with the campus TV station and tried to ignore all those parts of life that made me miserable. I had a successful college career, but I was incredibly apathetic. I told myself that this was just the way things had to be. I convinced myself that fat, ugly, and miserable was my future and that I would have to try and make the best of what I had and enjoy the moments that I could. 

I graduated college and discovered that unemployment seemed easier than facing the embarrassment of job interviews. I started at Target, and seemed content there because it was easier. At my heaviest I clocked in at 368 pounds. My home scale was only accurate up to 350 pounds so maybe I weighed less, but maybe I weighed more. I'll never know. I ended up getting a great job working for my dad's production company and formed my own production company with one of my best friends from college, Eric. It seemed like I suddenly had everything going for me. I began production on a documentary and really found a place within my dad's company. I had all this opportunity, but I was still holding myself back. 

My friend Kayla decided to change her lifestyle and encouraged me to do the same. I felt "blah" about all of it, knowing I would fail just like always. Then that morning came and everything changed. 

November, 2011. My heaviest, 368 pounds.

That person wasn't me and I could no longer stand for it. So with Kayla by my side and the encouragement of my dad, siblings, and Eric I started the journey through this past year. I started small. I was eating over 6000 calories a day. For the first month I cut that in half. I lost 30 pounds. The first time I went down to the track, I had every intention of walking a mile. I made it around the track once and had to leave. Slowly but surely things got easier, and before I knew it, eating healthy and working out had become the norm. I went from walks to jogs. It was more of a shuffle, but I did it.

Life became an adventure. I started waking up every day, excited about the possibilities. Work became fun. I started developing better relationships with colleagues and my students. Eric and I conquered our documentary and at our premiere, I had lost over 100 pounds. It was the best day of my life. So much had come together in such a short time. 

I had a ton of mini victories that year. I'll never forget those moments. But things would begin to change soon after.

After my first real jog. A whole quarter mile!
Spring, 2012.

Eric and I at the premiere of our documentary.

Annual Christmas party. Down 160 pounds!

185 pound squat. Mini victories. :)

Eric and I fell in love, after a decade of friendship. It.was.amazing. I took a promotion at work, and soon let the stress of everything take over my life. Eric and I bought our house in 2015, on 40 beautiful acres. But my job and my commitment to self-doubt and self-loathing, outweighed everything, despite Eric's best efforts. By our wedding in November of 2017, I had gained almost 100 pounds back. In April of this past year, I weighed in at 309 pounds. I can't explain to you the defeat, embarrassment, anger, and sadness. But somewhere deep inside, I knew I could do better for myself. So I started over, and slowly, but surely, I'm finding balance in all aspects of my life. This isn't easy, but I CAN DO HARD THINGS. And so can you. Join me on my journey?