Geez Louise! Where do I start? Well shit, this is pretty damn embarrassing. But so goes life, here you have it. As you can see by the pictures below I used to be VERY large. I was 400lbs at my heaviest. I was told as a child that I had the metabolism of a turtle and would have to eat healthier and work out 3x as hard as the average person to maintain a healthy weight. I cannot tell you how many doctors I saw, how many tests they ran, how many diets I tried – none of it mattered, I just couldn’t get the weight off. Somewhere along the way, between doctors telling me I was destined to be fat, and trying more diets than I care to admit I guess it made me not care – so for 26 years I was fat. I HATED it – every second of it. Life was freaking hard. If I had to walk up a flight of stairs I was winded for 10 minutes. I couldn’t walk for more than 10 minutes without my back hurting like hell. I could barely tie my own shoes. I am sure you get the point, it sucked.
Well, after 26 years of carrying 400lbs around I finally got sick of it. Sick and tired of being fat and well, sick and tired of being sick and tired. So after a very lengthy conversation with my friend over coffee I decided to start going to the gym and eating healthy. I decided to ditch the excuses – facts are we all have them. Don’t have enough time – don’t have the money for a gym membership – don’t know what to do if you go to the gym – to embarrassed to go to the gym – don’t know what to eat – healthy food is too expensive. You name the excuse and I’ve either used it or heard it. But that is exactly what they are – EXCUSES. None of them are legitimate reasons. The only real reason is that you don’t want it bad enough to follow through. So I ditched the excuses and got my ass to the gym 6 days a week. I ditched the excuses, the soda, the fast food, the processed food and ate HEALTHY.
Was it hard? Yes and no. At first it was all hard. It was hard to walk through the door at the gym, I felt like I was being judged. It was hard to walk on the treadmill, after 10 minutes I was dripping sweat and out of breath. It was hard to ride the exercise bike, it hurt my knees. It was hard to eat healthy because it didn’t taste as good, because it didn’t come prepackaged – because I had to cook it. But I kept going. Honestly, it was only hard for the first couple of weeks. After the first couple of weeks and the initial shock was over I started to enjoy going to the gym and I started to enjoy eating healthy. After that first couple of weeks it was easy. It was a routine. It was a mindset. It still is and I love it. I live for it. I never thought it would have been as easy as it was, otherwise well… I would have lost the weight way before.
In the top picture I was just over 400 lbs. The middle picture on the bottom row (with my cute Grammy in the orange visor) was taken exactly a year after I started my journey at the gym. In that year I lost 225 lbs. I went from a size 30 to a size 6. I did it all on my own. No surgery, no miracle diet, no miracle pill, no bullshit. Just hard work, healthy eating and exercise.
Is it healthy to lose 225 lbs in a year? NO. NO. NO. NO and NO AGAIN. I am stubborn. I was not under a doctors supervision and at the end of the day I lost the weight too fast. So what happens when you lose 225 lbs in a year? Here ya go, the ugly truth…
I had no muscle. I looked frail, and felt exhausted all the time. I lost half of my hair. Yep. It came out in clumps. I cried. I didn’t have a menstrual cycle for 3 years (okay that isn’t SO bad). Well actually it is. It is not good for your body at all. I had constant mood swings. I had constant migraines. My stomach always hurt. I had major GI problems. I always had heart burn. The list goes on and on. When you lose that much weight that fast your body goes into shock, it doesn’t know what the hell you are doing or why you are doing it. Which is why it is important to lose the weight safely, under some form of guidance (doctor, personal trainer, nutritionist, etc.). Any of these individuals should be able to guide you in the right direction – what to eat, how much to eat, basically what your body needs in order to lose the weight in a healthy fashion. I didn’t do any of that, I did it my way and my body suffered because of it.
After the initial weight loss, it took me well over a year before my body balanced out. I had to learn how to eat right for my body. I had to learn how much protein I needed to consume, how much fat and carbs I needed to consume, blah, blah, blah – you get my point.
What happens after you lose over 200lbs? You are left with a bunch of excess skin. I cannot even begin to tell you how much skin I was stuck with. If you look at some of the pictures of me you can see where it looks like I still have a gut – yeah that is skin. If you see pictures of me wearing shorts you see the skin hanging out under my shorts. It is awesome. NOT. In my opinion that is one of the only true ugly parts about massive weight loss. One of the parts about weight loss that usually gets overlooked. Well, it is definitely there. It is there and let me tell you, it does not just magically disappear. God knows I tried. I tried every exercise in the book. I tried every miracle skin tightening cream. I tried laser treatments. I tried everything and none of it worked. Your skin can only bounce back so much.
This is where you will need a good Plastic Surgeon. Luckily for me, I found one :). If you find yourself in the same boat (skin boat hahaha) that I found myself in I highly recommend you give Dr. Klainer a call. He did my tummy tuck back in October and all I can really say is wow. This guy is something else. He is awesome. You can check out his website and get his info here: Carolinas Center for Plastic Surgery
I could go on all day about losing weight, getting in shape and all of that fun stuff but I’m not going to. Why not? Because deciding to do something is a choice you and you alone have to make. If you have questions, ask. If you want to know more information, ask. Basically ask and you shall receive. On that note I will leave you with this “If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse.”
Make this important to you. Ditch the excuse and become your own success story.
Knockout Fighting & Fitness 