Kate Parker took a nasty fall when she was a little girl, and though she nor her doctors realized it at the time, the tumble caused scar tissue to form in her brain as she recovered. For years, Parker seemed to be recovering fine.
Then, after she turned 18, Parker began to suffer from seizures. And she never had any warning before they came.
When Parker was at her worst, she endured about 20 grand mal seizures, seizures where she lost consciousness and muscle control, each day.
There was little she could do with her life. Driving was impossible, and she was constantly nauseous, so the only foods she ever felt up to eating were boxed macaroni and cheese or microwavable mashed potatoes. They were comfort foods – and the only foods she could prepare and eat between her episodes.
Because of her eating habits, Parker’s weight continuously climbed. When she became pregnant in 2003, her weight only increased even more until it was almost 300 pounds.
Not once during this entire process did Parker ever consider her weight to be a problem – until her son turned three, and she realized she couldn’t keep up with him when he began to run around.
That was the moment she knew: something had to change.
Parker declared to her husband, "I'm going to lose weight. I don't know how, but I'm going to do it."
Parker’s husband bought his wife a treadmill – an item that finally brought Parker some relief that she wouldn’t have to fear getting a seizure at the gym or just while walking outside.
At home, Parker could walk on the treadmill until she felt a seizure coming on. “A bubble would start rising up the back of my neck, followed by shaky chills,” she described. Once those symptoms hit, she would retreat to her bed until she felt well again – and then returned to the treadmill to finish her workout.
The treadmill wasn’t the only change Parker introduced to her life.
She quit eating her unhealthy boxed meals and aimed to cook with healthy foods, swapping out unhealthy fats and flavors for herbs and whole ingredients.
Within five years, Parker lost 90 pounds – even as her seizure episodes continued to get worse.
For years, Parker knew that she could have her scar tissue removed to end her seizure episodes, but worried that it would cause even greater loss.
“It was incredibly risky, but after a lot of thinking and prayer, I found the peace I needed to go through with the surgery,” Parker recalled. “My prayers were answered, and now I'm completely seizure-free.”
Now, in 2016, Parker is happy to report that she’s lost over 150 pounds since she started her weight loss journey and couldn’t be happier to support and encourage others who are going through the same process themselves.
