'I Lost 104 Pounds Without Restricting Myself To Certain Foods'
I pretty much weighed more than 200 pounds my entire life. Well, if I’m being even more specific, I reached 200 pounds at 11 years old. Life in my small town was all about eating, socializing, and eating while socializing.
I played basketball and volleyball in middle school, but my weight rarely budged. It did, however, go up when I started singing in high school. Since I wasn’t as active anymore, my weight neared 300 pounds.
As far as eating habits go, I was always fed. My mom didn’t work, so she had time to cook large, easy dinners for our seven-person family. Our meals typically included rice, chicken, vegetables or pasta and salad-balanced, for the most part. But there was also usually gravy and cornbread on the table, too.
Those meals in combination with the fast food I also regularly ate (a Big Mac and large fries with multiple bottles of Pepsi) contributed significantly to my weight gain over the years. Plus, I worked at McDonald’s in high school, so there was no shortage of greasy meals and super-sized cups of soda that I'd follow up with a pizza delivery or spaghetti and more soda.
Just like with my eating habits, I also took the fast and easy route with my weight-loss tactics.
I tried to lose weight multiple times. The first was when my husband and I were having trouble conceiving. When my doctor suggested weight loss, I turned to tons of diets and even bought a dietary supplement product. I also did short-term weight-loss challenges set by my local gym that involved restrictive eating plans and ultimately weren't sustainable.
When those methods didn’t work-because I had trouble committing, or because I'd barely lose any weight after completing a 30-day challenge-I looked into getting weight-loss surgery (which never panned out). I thought making my stomach smaller would be easier than eating well and exercising.
My turning point was after I had my children, and when my knees kept giving out.
My husband and I were able to conceive thanks to IVF. But the hormones it involved did affect my body and cause me to gain about 15 pounds before I got pregnant with each of my two children. Then, the pregnancies affected my weight, too. I weighed around 285 pounds while pregnant with my daughter and 296 pounds with my son.
After I gave birth to my first child, I found out I had arthritis in my knees. My doctor told me that my arthritis pain would make activities including exercise or running around with my kids a challenge, so I gave up on trying to lose weight in order to avoid the pain.
But I quickly grew frustrated by watching my kids and husband from the sidelines. I felt like I wasn’t being a good mom, so I decided I was going to do something about it.
In November 2017, I joined WW (formerly Weight Watchers) on a friend’s recommendation.
The WW in-person meetings weren't for me, so I kept up with the program online, and my eating habits did a 180. I cook two different dinners most nights, one for me and another for my husband and kids. Here's what my meals usually look like:
Breakfast: A Premier protein shake blended with a cup and a half of spinach with PB2 peanut butter before my 10 a.m. workout
Lunch: Scrambled eggs with red peppers and onions, with Quest protein waffles
Snack: Kettle corn Popcorners or a Premier protein shake
Dinner: Cauliflower rice seasoned with curry, air-fried chicken breast, salmon, or shrimp with a sweet potato or broccoli
Dessert: Peanut butter and carrots (I know it sounds strange, but it’s good!) or apple slices dipped in a mixture of Greek yogurt and Funfetti cake mix
When it came to exercise, I eased into it.
I started waking up early, to work around my husband and kids’s schedule, and followed video workouts on YouTube that would be easy on my knees. By March 2018, I felt comfortable doing the YouTube workouts and hired a trainer who came to my house three times per week.
My trainer taught me that exercise can help strengthen my knees and showed me how to work around the pain and to even improve it. (For instance, lunges are not my friend, but now I know that distributing my weight with squats is less aggravating for me.) After a few months, we reduced our sessions to twice a week, and we started training at the gym in June of 2018.
These days, I work out on my own and hit the gym six days per week. I go to the gym in the morning and focus on cardio and full-body exercises that my trainer taught me. She gave me the confidence to go to the gym and create daily programs for myself inspired by trainers on Instagram.
I usually use the elliptical or run on the treadmill for 25 to 30 minutes of cardio and strength train for 45 minutes, with one day every week (usually Wednesdays) dedicated to a full session of cardio, which might be a cycling class or bootcamp.
I reached my goal weight of 180 in February 2019, and I realized I wanted to lose more.
WW has helped me maintain a healthy lifestyle that is still flexible. I don’t restrict myself to certain foods or get sidelined by knee pain (which has reduced significantly thanks to the weight loss). So, I wanted to see what else I could achieve and set a *new* goal for myself.
Now I'm at 171 pounds, and I’m aiming to lose five or six more pounds and then focus on maintenance using WW. I’ll do that by continuing to check menus at restaurants ahead of time and bringing dishes to dinner parties that will keep me on track.
Though I’m still learning, I'm really proud of myself. I’m playing with my 5- and 3-year-old, bike-riding with my husband, and feeling better than I have in years. I finally learned that motivation doesn’t drop from the sky-I had to find it within me to stay consistent and put in the work.
('You Might Also Like',)