I started noticing weight gain after I had my 1st child. I was 19 and gained almost 70 lbs during pregnancy and after I had my daughter I didn’t really lose much of the baby weight.
NAME : Sammi
BEFORE WEIGHT : 215
AFTER WEIGHT : 155
POUNDS LOST : 60
HOW DID YOUR WEIGHT AFFECT ANY ASPECT(S) OF YOUR LIFE? My weight affected every aspect of my life. From feeling winded after minutes of playing with my kids, or being mad or bitter that a shirt I liked wasn’t made for “my size” and really just feeling worthless like I had nothing to contribute to society because of my size. I was embarrassed to leave my house most days, I was always in a bad mood because I was constantly thinking about my weight and how unattractive I felt. At the time I thought life was so unfair, I was convinced there wasn’t a thing I could do about my weight and that made for some pretty dark times in my life.
WHAT WAS THE “TURNING POINT” THAT GOT YOU STARTED ON YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY? My “aha moment” was in January of 2014 but it was the months leading up to that, that really count. The day my Husband came home from Afghanistan, July 10, 2013… he was gone almost 9 months and before he left I told him I was going to lose weight! I was excited to go through a transformation and be a whole new woman when he came home….ya well that plan went as far as being a mere thought in my mind. How nice it would be to be thin, to be sexy. To this day I can only imagine what went through his head when he saw me after 9 long months away expecting or at least hoping I’d lost weight or at the very least if I tried to be healthier. I’m pretty sure I gained weight while he was gone. Why? Because it was too hard, because I was lazy, and quite frankly I just didn’t care. Those are memories I’ll never be able to change. That moment when he saw me for the first time in months & months…what a complete let down I was. What type of wife was I?! I never really could get that moment out of my head but as food being an addiction to me I pushed that memory to the side and continued to eat and eat…Eventually that moment I had in my head from my husbands homecoming and my addiction to food came face to face and I knew I had 2 choices, either once again push that memory aside and continue down the dangerous path I was already traveling OR I could change my life. I could finally be the woman I had wanted to be for so many years. I thought it over for a very long time and Jan 4, 2014 was the day I changed my life forever.
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED? Small changes. I first started by cutting soda out of my life completely. Cherry coke was like life juice to me, without it I couldn’t function but I knew how bad it was so I quit cold turkey. Next I cut the fast food. I’m embarrassed to admit that while my husband was deployed I ate fast food like 5x a week, sometimes 2x a day! I knew if I wanted any chance at losing weight and being healthy that the fast food had to go. When I had a handle on those things I started in with the exercise! I can say that Shaun T saved my life! I lost 20lbs doing T25! After I completed that program I went on to do several other beach body programs.
HOW LONG AFTER YOU STARTED DID YOU BEGIN TO SEE RESULTS OF YOUR WEIGHT LOSS EFFORTS? I started to notice results probably in the 2nd month. I had lost around 15lbs at that time.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART? Definitely without a doubt my biggest challenge that I overcame was my addiction to food. I would eat and eat and eat. Even as a kid I remember being a very good eater. I was just always hungry and even when I felt full and satisfied I’d still eat! The food was just so good I didn’t want to stop. A lot of my eating was done when I was alone because if no one saw me then I could eat even more at say dinner with my family (even though I had just been out and stopped at fast food). What you eat in private you wear in public is so true. If we were out at a restaurant oh man I did not want to waste money so I would clean my plate! I’ve learned to overcome by simply learning nutrition. Learning exactly how bad the processed foods are and the chemicals in them! You tube was a big help in that process! When I think back I really was clueless about the foods that went into my body. So simply learning and researching played a big part in helping me overcome my food addiction. Another part of that was support. Reaching out to others who knew what I was going through helped a lot and of course my family was very supportive of me!
DID YOU EVER WANT TO GIVE UP? WHAT KEPT YOU GOING? There were several times I could of given up, that I wanted to call it quits because I didn’t like the number I saw on the scale or I was too stressed to fully commit and sadly there were a couple months in there that I slacked off big time but I never fully gave up! But there’s also a ton of reasons that I’ll never give up! First off my family, I cook all the meals for our family and it’s important to me that my kids grow up with knowledge of healthy foods and learning about nutrition. Also my husband, he deserves to be with someone who’s healthy and happy and I’m definitely the happiest when I’m living a clean lifestyle. Most of all…ME! I’m my biggest reason for not giving up. For everyone else in my life to thrive and be at their best I must be at my best and eating healthy and exercising regularly will help me stay at my best!
DID YOU HIT ANY WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAUS? HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THEM? I have hit a few plateaus and I found that changing up my exercise routines really helped.
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO LOSE MOST OF THE WEIGHT? I lost majority of my weight in about a year.
DID YOU HAVE ANY NON-SCALE VICTORIES? Clothes! Fitting into clothes I hadn’t worn since before I had kids!
WHAT DOES YOUR DAILY DIET LOOK LIKE COMPARED TO WHEN YOU WERE HEAVIER? Before it was fast food and cokes daily. I didn’t pay attention to calories, actually I didn’t pay attention to anything other then if it looked good I ate it. Now I eat mainly a vegan diet. Vegetables, fruits, whole grains!
HOW DOES YOUR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY COMPARE TO WHEN YOU WERE HEAVIER? I did zero physical activity when I was heavy and now I do cardio kickboxing classes 5x a week and I recently found a love for running!
MY WEIGHT LOSS TIPS & TRICKS
- Make small changes! Trying to change everything overnight will be so over whelming that you probably won’t stick with it!
- I’m sure this has been said a million times but once more won’t hurt…Don’t beat yourself up if you have a set back. We are all human and setbacks are part of the journey. The important thing is that you don’t quit. Don’t ruin all your progress over 1 setback.
- Try and stick to the perimeter of the grocery store where they have the fresh fruits and veggies! Stay away from the middle isles, it’s full of processed boxed foods.
- Take before pictures! you’ll have something to look back on when you might not be feeling motivated and having those pictures will allow you to see all the progress you’ve made!
- Don’t let the scale control you! Use it as a tool in your journey and know that your worth isn’t determined by the numbers you see on that scale!
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