Why We Started
On November 16th, 2025, my sister passed away on the way to the hospital in the back of an ambulance. In an instant, she was gone. And our family has not been the same since. Her name was Miriam, but I called her ML.
It was no secret that ML was overweight. She never hid from it — she just never had the support she truly needed. I'm her eldest brother, and I'm a trainer, so I brought her to the gym to work out alongside me. She pushed through it, but her feet and her back ached from being on them. After that day she never came back to the gym. Still, every time I saw her, she'd smile and tell me, "I'll be back." She meant it. She just needed someone in it with her.
Eventually, ML decided to have weight loss surgery. I didn't discourage her, and after the surgery I assured her that if she needed me, I would be here at her call. She said, "Okay, thank you! I love you. I'll keep in touch." I called about a week later and we talked briefly — she was home. She said she got dizzy when she got up. I stored the info away and told her, "If you need me, call me." That was the last time I heard my sister's voice. I didn't know she had been in the hospital for a few days with complications. The next time I heard her name was the day of her death — an incoming phone call from a cousin.
And she's not the only one. A dear friend of ours went through a different procedure to lose weight. Today she's facing severe complications, she's gained back half of what she lost, and she's been trying to keep all of it to herself. We can't keep letting the people we love carry these battles on their own.
Weight With Me exists so no one ever has to face that journey alone again. We build a circle of support around the person who's ready to change, and for 30 days everyone moves with them — eating cleaner, showing up, carrying the weight together so no one has to carry it by themselves.
It was never about perfection or competition. It's about presence. About a community that says, "Your fight is our fight." If ML had a circle like this — people who showed up and refused to let her go it alone — maybe she would have walked back into that gym. Maybe she'd still be here.
In loving memory of Miriam — my "ML" · November 16th, 2025. This is for her, and for everyone who felt they had to do it alone.