Let me tell you who I am.

I am a survivor, a teenage mother, a welfare recipient, and a woman.

I am a teacher, life coach, minister, lawyer, and author.

I've had my share of breakups, breakdowns, and breakthroughs.

I did my work and put my life back together piece by piece. I am I Yonla Van Zand,

and I am here to help you do your work. We are in Los Angeles, California. They call it the

city of angels. This is a story about being weighted down.

What weighs you down can also keep you stuck?

And that's the story we're doing today.

I received a letter from a woman named Prischel.

She and her sister, Sandra, are desperate to find some help for their friend Bonnie.

When I first became friends with Bonnie, we went out a lot.

We go to her boyfriend's house for barbecues and went to social clubs.

We had a ball.

When Bonnie's mother passed away, it was the worst depression I had ever seen.

We just assumed that she was going through a

period in her life of grief. Finally, one day she just told me, she say, Priselle, I'm not the

woman that I used to be. Bonnie last stepped onto a scale five years ago. She weighed 550 pounds.

Bonnie says she hasn't left her house in seven years, and for the past five years,

she has been stuck in her bed, unable to even stand up to take care of her basic needs.

Everything from eating, sleeping, washing, and using the bathroom takes place on her bed.

Her and her mother was very, very close.

...