I looked like a grandma at 40 thanks to obesity, alcoholism & tanning beds – now I’m reverse-aging & revealing my secret
A WOMAN whose battle with psoriasis, obesity, and alcohol left her looking like a grandma has revealed how she turned back the clock.
At her heaviest, Christie Martin, 58, weighed 202 pounds, but her weight loss was not the only challenge the jewelry store owner faced.
"I have battled weight and psoriasis for most of my life, but my health took a significant turn after my partner died, leaving me a single parent," Christie said.
"I was dating a surfer and skater named Baby Paul Cullen and got pregnant during a surf trip to Santa Barbara in 2006."
At age 41, she gave birth to her daughter, Brianne.
Just two years later, her partner tragically overdosed, leaving her to navigate the challenges of raising a child on her own.
She was also an older parent, with several friends who'd already started their families.
"At first, that wasn't much of an issue, but I remember once when she was in preschool and I was volunteering in the class, one of the other little kids looked up at me and sweetly said, 'You look like a grandma'," she said.
"I almost started to cry! What I had been through, however, in the year prior probably aged me ten years.
"All the years of tanning couldn't hold a candle to one year of devastating loss when her father overdosed when she was just two years old," she said.
Most read in Lifestyle
In the late 2000s, she moved from Los Angeles back home to Northern California to rely on more support from friends.
"It didn't quite work out the way I hoped," she said.
"I found myself running my jewelry design business — which at one time was wildly popular with celebrities and magazines — running a household, and caring for a toddler completely on my own.
"This was in 2009 when our Great Recession happened, and all the stores I sold jewelry to were closing and my business suffered."
There was zero financial help from Paul because he painted houses and never put into social security.
"There were no death benefits, no social security, and not a dime for Brianne and me. So we kept having to move to something more affordable," she said.
Christie recalled living on food stamps and deciding between buying toilet paper or cereal.
"I was at a point where the fear [and] anxiety became paralyzing," she admitted.
"I literally couldn't move. I had this beautiful little girl running around and I was scared."
"My mom helped the best she could and would come for the weekend so I could get in the garage and make jewelry for a few hours at a time.
"But I was behind in bills, creditors were calling, and I couldn't order materials for one order until I got another order.
"To help me cope with the stress, my doctor put me on multiple medications," explained Martin.
"I was allergic to one of them, making my skin welt and itch. I would have to sleep with an ice pack on at night just to numb the itching."
It wasn't her only skin condition — she'd also been diagnosed with psoriasis, a chronic skin condition that affected 90% of her body, at 17.
Every time she went to the doctor, they put her on more medications.
She was looking for help everywhere — online, in churches, and single mother organizations — to very little avail.
It was about a year and a half into the "mess" when her mom was diagnosed with Stage 3B lung cancer.
Now, she had to take care of her too.
Christie lived about half an hour away from her mom, and her daughter was in preschool, so she had a few hours a couple of days a week to work.
"I had to take that time to drive to San Jose from Hollister to take my mom to chemo and radiation. I had no one to take my daughter for a day or two during this time," she said.
"I can remember three times that I had help from someone to watch Brianne so I could go tend to my mom, who lived alone."
"The chemo made her so sick I would drive there to cook soups that she could easily get to and heat up and swallow. She was burned badly from radiation, and that affected her ability to swallow food.
"It was the biggest challenge because my daughter was only four then, and I was still running my business the best I could, which was the only thing that put food on the table."
Just when she thought life couldn't get more challenging, Christie's dad with diagnosed with dementia.
"While caring for my elderly parents, raising my daughter, and managing my struggling business, I let my health deteriorate. My heaviest weight was in 2018 at 202 lbs.", she added.
The first thing she did to lose weight was get off of heavy-duty anti-depression meds, like lithium, which attributed to a substantial amount of weight gain.
She was going to the gym frequently and eating healthier and lost 32 pounds.
"Then I was at a standstill for about three or four years, fluctuating between 172 and 181 pounds.
"It wasn't until I started on semaglutide injections that I was able to lose the remaining 32 pounds easily," she said.
Today, Christie has regained her health and transformed her life.
She practices meditation and yoga and shares her journey with her fan base of over 35,000 followers on .
She shared the facelift she had done in Tijuana, Mexico to combat skin damage from psoriasis — and the tanning beds she used to combat that disease.
Her daughter is thriving, and Christie's real estate career is providing her with financial stability.
She is also pursuing a TV series project that delves into her family's history.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
It starts in the 1800s with her great-great-grandparents and their journey to build the famous Mission Ranch in Carmel, California, now owned by Clint Eastwood.
The series is a captivating blend of historical fiction, love stories, and tales of survival and resilience.
