So, I have always struggled with my weight. My entire life, I have been the fat girl.
I have tried dieting...well, crash diets... Literally. Like the 18 yellowjackets and two redbulls a day, or trimspa, or cabbage and greenbeans... Never have I gotten to a healthy weight and kept any if it off. I was on 18 yellow jackets a day when they were pulled from the market and I plumped from a size 9 right back to 18!!!
Last May, my mom asked if I wanted to take over my dads contract at their gym. He had only gone twice in the 8 months they had it. I jumped on it! I had just watched a video my husband had taken at my sons birthday. I knew I had to change and fast!
I talked my neighbor girl into going with me at night. We went 5 days a week from 9pm to midnight. I felt soooooo much better! & it was nice to have an out.
On the 4th of July, I was at my brothers for party and fireworks. As we were leaving, I turned to tell my son to watch where he was walking, I took a step, and felt my knee snap backwards underneath me. I fell to the ground like a little old lady. It was like a contortionist act gone wrong. I felt my toes hit my stomach. I tried soooooo hard not to scream, so that I wouldn't scare my son, but my throat betrayed me. I let out a blood curdling scream and could not stop sobbing. My brother and husband carried me to the car and rushed me to the E.R.
Doc said it was a devastating sprain at the least, no break that they could see, but most likely, I had torn ligaments. I was referred to the orthopedic surgeon in my area, fitted with a brace and crutches and sent home with a large dose of pain meds.
When I got to the orthopedic, he did an ultra sound and MRI. I was told there was a small tear on my meniscus and that I was not to bear any weight for 6 weeks to try to avoid surgery. I had also sprained my ankle... I don't remember it ever hurting and the doc at the E.R. didn't notice either, apparently. But it was a second degree sprain.
I was devastated. This was going to end what I had worked so hard for! I had already lost just over 30lbs!!!
I hated the crutches and brace. I hated being out of work.
My family does a fair booth every year at several events, and without being able to stand, I was out! I missed one event and decided I had enough! I took off the brace and hid it and my crutches. No more!
I went back to the gym that night.luckily, my gym had a pool. I spent the next week doing nothing but trying to get my strength back.
I worked the next event, sometimes even forgetting that I was injured.
That is until my knee buckled and said it was done.
The day after the event was my first day back on the treadmill. Walking was excruciating. But I refused to give up.
Within a week, I was running again! Which mind you, is hard enough for a 30yr old fat girl smoker! But, I knew I had to do it!
September came and the bills got to be too much and I had to cut the gym. $100 a month was just too much when I needed to be feeding my son.
October and November flew past without me even breaking a sweat. I was surprised however, that I was still hanging on to my now almost 50 lb loss.
So now i'm trying something new. Hard work, eating right (which is a lot more complicated than u would think!!) I now go to the gym 6-7 days a week. I pass on the empty calories. My biggest motto so far is: I can eat whatever I want...to work off! Which makes treats a lot less appealing when I know half of a candy bar means half an hour on the treadmill...
But I'm truly addicted! I love the gym! It's empowering and invigorating! Who would have ever thought, a fat girls favorite addiction is the gym!?!?!
Now it's December. I started going to Planet Fitness. I go 6-7 days a week for 2-3 hours a day. It's $10 a month. I can make that work. I also work out with my neighbor girl at her house 3-5 days a week for usually 1-2 hours.
I wasn't paying much attention to my calorie count, besides making sure that I worked out at least enough to burn no less than twice my intake.
I started getting really weak. I figured it was the flu, but with no other flu symptoms, and I started passing out, I went through my tracker to see if anything there had changed. It had. I was burning an average of 2000 calories a day and my intake rarely broke 300.
I googled 300 calories a day. I had never before counted calories, so really the concept was sorta new to me.
Google was not impressed.
It guided me to several anorexic websites. Girls asking how long they could actually survive on only 300 calories a day... The answer, 1-2 weeks. Websites of girls, pregnant girls trying to stay skinny though through pregnancy to still see their ribs. Apparently when working out, you're to consume no less than 1200-1600! My bad!
It's not like I was trying to starve myself either. I was eating what I needed to feel full, when I WAS hungry.
I was making choices to eat lower calorie meals than before. But I really have only ever eaten once or twice a day my whole life. So it didn't feel like I wasn't getting enough.
My hardest struggle now it's trying to eat enough times a day to get at least 1200 calories. When u aren't eating Bullshit empty calories, you have to eat alot!!! It takes up most of my day to eat enough.
I'm now down 68 lbs!!
When I started this I was at a sickening 272 lbs! I was popping the buttons on size 20 Jeans! I am now at 204 and at size 13. & am super excited to break the 200 lb barrier!
I honestly had not noticed a ton of difference in my body until I found a pic of me from last year and put it next to one of me a couple days ago.
The change in my face is shocking to me!
Pics attached.
My goal, is to be at 150 lbs by July 4th, 2013. Which will be a total of 122 lbs and a whopping 44.8% of my body weight loss, in just over a year! Wish me luck!
