I figured since its a new year and people have been watching me slowly shed pounds that I would start to let everyone in on it.
I guess a little background would help!
In 2007 I started getting really sick, sleeping all the time, hair was falling out, etc etc... I had actually started to loss weight because everything I ate made me sick. But suddenly after finding that I had PCOS and Hypothyroidism and was put on a combination of drugs to help I reached a weight of 287lbs (holy shit my mother was the only person to ever know that until now). I got the you're going to die speech from my doctors etc. I didn't listen because I didn't see it. It wasn't until a nasty horse back riding fall (stop the laughing now!) in which I broke my back, I realized I needed to do something, but I didn't really do it for my weight, I did it for my pain.
After I recovered I vowed everyday after class I would hit the gym for at least 20mins. I started biking for 20mins a day and felt more energized. I slowly started going to the gym and lifting weights. I lost 10lbs in my last semester of college and felt great. I spent that summer traveling where I lost 25lbs while living abroad. I felt even better. But I came home and life went back to normal & so did the weight. I gained everything I had lost. I started swimming every night and I started to feel better with my pain. Again not seeing the advantage of my weight loss at all.
After returning home for a second time I joined a gym and vowed to swim daily. I did that for a good year losing up to 50lbs. Then came my knee injury. I had started running in the winter/spring of 2011. I felt great, started out slow and even ran a 5K.
Three weeks after the 5K I felt a sudden pop in my knee and knew that everything was going to change. I had devastating knee injury with 90% of the cartilage being torn on my knee cap. My recovery was slow and painful. I gained almost all of the weight back because I couldn't workout as much with my work schedule and PT schedule. Once I was off my crutches I hit the pool again. And I started to loss again. By the end of 2011 I had gained 40 lbs and lost about 30 lbs.
2012 hit and I was still having issues with my knee, but I was feeling more and more energized. I had a tonsillectomy (I'm not recommending surgery what so ever) and after not being able to eat for a good two weeks I lost 20lbs. (They say average is 10 lbs) This was amazing. I felt amazing. So I kept up with my workouts. I kept swimming and added in a vigorous weight training program to help strengthen my knee.
By the summer of 2012 I had hit the ever dreaded plateau. I had lost 70lbs by then and felt I would never be able to keep going. Then I started with one step and I was running again. Alright I cried the whole time because I was told I would never be able too again. I gained 20lbs that summer. I was so mad at myself. How could I do that? How could I allow it to happen?
I became extremely busy with school and work that my workouts dropped off. I started running again and added my weight lifting again to find myself by Thanksgiving reaching my year end goal of 100lbs off 6 weeks early.
I cried, I jumped up and down, I felt everything at once honestly. But the holidays have hit and well I gain 7lbs. What I've learned is I'm ok with it because I haven't given up. So here I am going to let everyone in on the last 60-70lb journey of what I call finding the healthy me. I don't have any expectations or time frame set. While I do set foreseeable goals I don't see one at this moment expect to continue to get healthy. Until I find my next goal I'm just going to keep moving.
So here it is here's my "secret" I don't have one!!! Alright maybe I do, but I haven't really pinned it down to one thing.
I'm not perfect, but I just keep trying. Many people have said I'm an inspiration, but I don't feel that way. I'm just me, just working on living the best life I can possible. I hope you join me on this awesome, hard work, devastating, emotionally challenging journey to figure out what my "secret" is.
If you don't believe me here's me in 2008 at my biggest.
Here is my latest picture November 2012.
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