Weight Loss Story

This is our weight loss story.

On January 6, 2011, my husband and I decided that we should lose some weight. Why you might ask? Well you see we were extremely obese and just fat. Plus, for the first time I was actually happy with everything in my life besides my weight and we both needed to be happy about that. It’s amazing how people will look at you when you’re fat and we just didn’t want to be those people anymore.

January 2011

It wasn’t really just about losing weight; it was about changing our lifestyle and our relationship with food. It was very hard in the beginning but I was completely determined to make it through. I remember the first day I took my husband to the gym with me, he was a little afraid. People do look at you funny when you’re fat, but people must remember…they won’t look at you funny if you’re fat at the gym. Those people who see you every day and watch transform become your friends and a huge support system for you. So if you need to lose the weight, going to the gym is not the place where you should have fear. And most of the time, it’s just in your mind.

April 2011

My biggest problem was the adjustment to my social agenda. Food is always a huge part of the hanging out with friends and entertaining. I think it was harder for the people in my life to realize that the friends that once ate anything whenever they wanted just didn’t do that anymore. We educated ourselves about food and learned what we should, could and won’t eat. And yes, that cut out a lot of restaurants and the way I cooked our food. Fast food was pretty much out of the picture and so was red meat. (We still have beef from time to time, especially when I’m suffering from iron issues.) But we do a lot of chicken and a lot of fish. I was always told that should stay away from potatoes and such but I would rather work out than not eat potatoes. No, I don’t eat fries fried in grease, but baked of course…and it’s really all about portion control. Did you know that when you go to restaurant the portion size is for 2 people and not one? Those are just things that people need to pay attention too so you know how much you’re eating. Fat grams, sodium, sugars…all those things are just as important as calories.

And yes, from time to time we do eat at those places where you shouldn’t, we just do it in moderation and we definitely don’t go crazy.

June 2011

Working out has become a part of our life. We enjoy going to the gym. Does that mean that every day is we are all gung ho about working out? Not a chance. There are some days we don’t feel like going to the gym and we push through. There are days that our bodies just tell us no way and we don’t go at all. I work out 6 days a week, three days a week a work out for 2 hours. My husband works out 5-6 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour. It doesn’t take up a lot of time and it’s time well invested in ourselves. We always complained before that we didn’t have time for the gym so we didn’t make it apart of life. That time was spent watching TV or eating or something not productive. But I found since I started going to the gym, I still has as much time as I did before and do pretty much all the same things. The biggest difference now is I don’t waste time. And yes, we do still work out when go out of town. We try our best not to have that interfere with our vacation plans and the others around us.

July 2011

Support is such a big deal when losing weight. Everyone needs that one person to help them through to talk to and someone who will hold them accountable. That person has been my husband. I’ve lost a lot of weight, but I’m so incredibly proud of my husband. He’s done an amazing job and has lost 199 pounds in his year. He’s lost a person my size! Can you believe that? I do know that I could have done this without him BUT it would have been a lot harder. I just would have stumbled a few times along the way. But knowing that we were in it together just made it better. And now we have this amazing story to tell and we can tell it together.

September 2011

you’re fat, overweight…whatever (I don’t like to sugar coat the phrase), you spend a lot of money of clothes. We had to shuffle off to the larger specialty store to buy clothes and didn’t have a lot of options. I went from a size 28 to a size 12 and a 2XL shirt to a medium. Do you know how excited I was the first time I put on a pair of Old Navy jeans? Or the first pair of Gap pants I bought last week? I’m extremely satisfied. When I was in high school I shopped at Gap and Old Navy but I had to buy men’s clothes because I couldn’t fit in the ladies sizes, so this was a HUGE deal for me…and will continue to be a huge deal. This will never be something I take for granted ever again. And I’ve also lost some shoe sizes. I wore a 12 and now I’m in 10. Who would have thought I would have been able to lose a shoe size?

December 2011

People don’t look at us the same way. People don’t pity us and really want to talk to us. This is a good and bad thing. I like that people have noticed that I’ve lost the weight, but it makes me feel bad at the same time. I’m still the same person. I’m just as approachable as I was last year. I still laugh at the same jokes and tell the same stories…except now I’m not as fat. Overweight people are treated so badly for no reason at all. It disgusts me at how we treat each other because of the fat on their body or their lack of being healthy. Sometimes people just don’t know how to change and they need help. So help them and don’t punish them.

In my mind, I will always be an overweight person because it’s something I have been my entire life. I will gladly tell my story as a way to inspire and I will always support the people who really need it. I’ve been there, gone through it and I’m still growing through it. There is one thing I know for sure though; I will never go back to being that person. I’ve worked too hard and too long.

January 2012

And here we are today, still working towards a goal but happy! This has been an eye opening experience that has completely changed my life. To all the people who said we couldn’t/ wouldn’t do it or the people who tried to sabotage us along the way, this post is for you. I can’t speak for my husband, but I TRULY feel like I can do anything now. Not because I’m skinnier but because this was one of the hardest and easiest things I’ve ever done. I’m not saying I have pushed through to the other side, but I do see the finish line in sight. It’s been a long journey but not an impossible one. When we started I would get frustrated because I didn’t see the results instantly, but you must remember that weight loss is slow road and you have to stick with it…even when you want to give up. My husband always tells me, it took years and years for us to put it on so it’s going to take time to get it off. And that’s so true, but if you’re focused it won’t take as long to get it off.

There were weeks when I didn’t lose any weight at all and one week that I ever gained. It’s hard but I used that as my motivation to keep pushing forward. Anyone can do it; you just have to believe in yourself!

I also wanted to add that we don’t do anything out of the ordinary. This was not a diet; it was just a lifestyle change. We went with something simple; watching what we eat and working out. There’s no extreme dieting going on here because we didn’t want to have to get off a program to get back into the real world.

July 2015