Obesity is something that I have struggled with for as long as I can remember. There was never a time in my life that I can recall that I wasn't aware that I was overweight, bigger than other kids that were my age.
Drinking Slim Fast at 9, being told that my blood pressure was elevated at 10. I've never had a break from it. During middle and high school I slowly crept up from a size 10 to a size 24 due to a lot of emotional eating and just not taking care of myself.
When you're young you don't really think about those kind of things and how they can affect you. When I was 18 and left home for school, I ended up meeting the guy that would later become my husband and I not only put on the Freshman 15, but that additional weight that comes on when you're in love and comfortable.
I was around 285 at that point, but over the next few years between yo-yo dieting, using using every diet pill I saw a commercial for, and starving myself for days at a time just to end up binging on anything I could get my hands on, I was 340 pounds by the time I got married in 2006.
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The year after I began having extremely long menstrual cycles where I would be on for weeks at a time and I knew that my weight wasn't helping. I read that eliminating meat products might help balance my hormones, so I did that and lost about 45 pounds. But I ended up getting comfortable again and gained everything back plus more.
By 2010 I was 370 pounds and taking steps to get approved for gastric bypass when I found out I was pregnant. So I put those plans on hold, only to lose the pregnancy about two months later. About two months after that, I lost my job. So there I was, no insurance and still morbidly obese.
That was when I knew that I really had to lean on God and know that everything would turn around if I just kept going. I started the process of losing weight again, and found out that I was pregnant-and ended up having a beautiful baby boy in February 2012. I was around 357 pounds when I delivered.
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The next year was consumed with being a mom and not really taking care of me, so in 2013 I said to myself that I would put more effort into my eating and exercise. I lost about 30 pounds..and got pregnant again! I gave birth to my gorgeous daughter in February 2014, and when I looked at her while I was still in the hospital, I knew that I had to really make a change because I would be the example she'd follow in terms of health and body image. I was an overweight little girl and I didn't want her to fall into the same cycle.
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I was around 360 when I delivered, and when I went back for a 1 week check up for my blood pressure, I had lost over 25 pounds. I knew that it was fluid loss, but seeing that number at the time - 322, was enough incentive for me to get going when I got the all clear to exercise.
Six weeks postpartum I was 318, and I began tracking my food on My Fitness Pal and documenting my fitness journey on Instagram on the same day- March 25, 2014. Here we are, 1 year later and I'm down 170 pounds from when my daughter was born and 200 pounds down from my highest weight. I've gone from a snug size 26 to a size 12 in pants, and a 4x to a Medium in shirts. I started off slowly, using Walk Away the Pounds DVDs or putting the kids in the double stroller and walking them around the neighborhood. I then began doing T25, and went through an entire cycle. After that, I focused more on pushing myself past my comfort zone and started weight training and running with my sister twice a week.
When I started, I could only run for 2 minutes at a time - and that was good for me because I was never a runner. But now, I can run for 2 miles nonstop, I'm building muscle and truly finding out what my body is capable of. In terms of eating, because I have two small kids I don't have a lot of time to prepare meals. I stick with things that are quick but still as healthy as possible. Lean protein like fish, egg whites and poultry have been my best friends, along with green veggies.
When I started I would eat starches like rice, pasta, bread and potatoes but as I tuned more into my body I realized that I didn't like how my body reacted after I ate them, so I have gradually phased them out. I eat every 2.5 to 3 hours and try to drink at least a gallon of water each day.
I just love the fact that I don't feel like my body is a prison anymore. For the first time in my adult life I really feel like I'm free and discovering the me that I was always meant to be.
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