My home nurse, Beth, told me yesterday that she's inspired by my weight loss and has started working out and is planning on changing her lifestyle to a healthier one for her and her children. It made me happy to have an affect on someone in such a positive way. After she left, I was telling my mom about what persuaded me to lose the weight and she said that it was a good story and I should share it so others know.
So... here goes... Around September/October of 2007, my brother asked me & Mark to go to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game with him and his girlfriend. I was weighing around 265-275 at this point in time. The stadium had just been built a couple years prior and it would be my first time to go and see it so I was pretty excited, even though I'm not a big fan of baseball.
We get to the game and I go to sit down and I couldn't believe it, I DIDN'T FIT IN THE SEAT! I have a tiny little butt, really, no junk in the trunk, and I had to wedge myself into this seat =/ My stomach was literally resting on the arm rests and I couldn't get myself in the seat enough to reach the back of it. I was mortified. And what's worse, Mark and I were next to the aisle so any time someone needed out of our row, we had to stand up. I was so uncomfortable the whole time!!! Then something happened which I call, "the snap." I decided at that point in time I was going to diet until I was skinny. I would not give up until I reached the lowest weight I could. I just snapped and went into diet mode. It became an addiction!
The image stuck in my mind and I used the anger, depression and insecurity to fuel my desire to lose weight. I started out with the fad diets... I drank a slim fast shake for breakfast, a slim fast shake for lunch and either a subway 6" sub or a grilled chicken breast with vegetables for dinner and that was it! No snacking, no fat, no anything =/ I was able to pull this off for about 2-3 weeks and then was so frustrated that I decided to try something else. My next attempt was a trip to GNC to buy some diet pills. I chose hydroxycut and cut my diet to max 800 calories. Horrible idea! I was running on a treadmill and had just started Jillian Michael's 30-day Shred, so of course the weight came off fast but I was so hungry and starting to have serious headaches and body aches. The last bad idea I had was a juice diet. I researched on the internet how to detox and begin a new, healthier lifestyle and stumbled upon this idea. For 3 days I drank juice and water, no food or any solids... just straight juice. My dinner was chicken broth. I don't know WHAT I was thinking LOL!!!
By November, 2007 I figured out that even though I had lost a lot of weight quickly (around 25lbs in a month), I was going about it all wrong. I felt like crap every day and I noticed I was starting to drink a lot more alcohol than I used to. I, again, got online to research dieting. I had never learned how to eat healthy and sizable portions. I stumbled upon caloriecount.about.com and November 5, 2007 became the last 1st day of my diet =)
I began writing journals, researching calories in different foods, looking up recipes and planning out my diet by the week. I wanted to stick around 1500 calories a day and exercise 300 of them off. This was still a bit extreme and I probably should have been eating more but my body quickly fell into rhythm and my weight loss averaged 10-15lbs per month. This new diet became my lifestyle change soon. I was able to stick with eating right and not even having to put much thought into it. The weight kept coming off and I was loving the results! By June, 2008 I had reached 185lbs and I felt very comfortable with myself. I took a break on the exercising and started eating a little worse than I had allowed in the past 7 months.
After the summer passed, I was ready to get back into the exercising/dieting groove. I just began doing what I had before, eating lots of fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains. The weight was much harder to take off this time. I tried not to get discouraged but by April, 2009 (almost 6 months of staying on my "diet"), I had only lost 20lbs. At 165, I was comfortable but still felt like there was more weight to come off. I started working harder at exercising, walking 2.5 miles per day and doing the Shred dvd 6 days a week. By October, 2009, I reached 150lbs and Mark and I decided to have baby #2 since I was healthy and in shape.
During the pregnancy I gained 25lbs, which I pretty much lost without trying within a couple of months, and was sitting right back at 150lbs. My step-mom-in-law bought our family a gym pass at our local recreational center and starting in January, I began going to the gym 6 days a week, hour and a half each day. I bumped up my protein intake and planned out a routine to build muscle and eliminate fat. By April, 2011, I reached 135lbs and was toned and looking the best I had ever (minus the massive amount of excess skin)! And that brings us to my current day surgery and complications... =/
Yesterday my temp was a little higher than normal (my general temp is low), my blood pressure was whack and I was having cold chills with goose bumps and sweating at the same time. Today I woke up and I'm very achy around the wound area so I'm a little freaked out the infection may be coming back =( =( The drainage in the wound vac is yellow instead of red, too. Beth will be here tomorrow so we'll see if it's gotten any better. I pray so!!!
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