Friday, April 27, 2012

My Weight Loss Journey

Something that a lot of my friends don’t realize is that I got pretty fat for a while.  At my heaviest, which seemed to be around November of 2009, I topped the scales at 150lbs.  Keep in mind that I’m only 5’3, and most of my life I spent weighing [significantly] below 120lbs.  I’m still not entirely sure how it happened.  I do think that living on my own played a HUGE role in it.  At my pre-employment physical, I weighed 136 clothed, still heavy for me, but seriously not too bad.  That was in May.  Somehow between May and November, I put on ~15lbs.  That’s HUGE when you lack in height the way that I do.  15lbs on me is like 30lbs on someone who’s 5’8. 
Unfortunately the best pictures to display me at my heaviest were from a friend's baby shower, and I looked more pregnant than her :( Also, I had my hair dyed red that day. (http://i.imgur.com/aoGyM.png Link for bigger photo)

I was living a pretty sedentary lifestyle at that point.  For some reason I wasn’t working out regularly, which is strange for me, since I’ve been working out very regularly since I was 15.  Work was slow, so I was sitting at my desk most of the time, and I’d come home, eat dinner, and sit in front of the TV or my computer, and talk to Derek until I fell asleep (we didn’t live together yet at this point).  I just led a boring, sloth-like lifestyle.  And that HAS to be what did it. 

Once Derek moved in, late November 2009, actually, we started to make some changes.  We both started watching what we ate WAY more, working out more, and even got a WiiFit to play at home to get some fun exercise in instead of sitting and watching TV all night.  This actually helped a lot, weird as it may sound.  I think I got down to about 138 at my lowest during that point in our life, and it didn’t take THAT long.  Just a couple months, but it goes to show you what finally getting off your ass can do!  …And then we bought our house and my weight fluctuated between 138 and 145 for about a year L

Seriously, it was like my body did NOT want to get any lower than 138.  I was miserable, and depressed about it.  After we got engaged we really started to try to get into wedding shape, we were P90X’ing regularly, eating “healthy”, I kept my daily calorie intake to usually at or a bit under 1000 calories a day, but nothing was happening.  Granted, I was probably gaining muscle and losing fat a bit, because I was noticing my tone starting to come back, THANK GOD.  But the scale wasn’t moving. 

I reached the breaking point at my first wedding dress fitting, I was SO excited to try it on, and when I did, it just wasn’t right.  It wasn’t too small, or like I couldn’t fit into it or something, it just didn’t look as good as the samples I tried on.  It didn’t fit right, and it didn’t look nearly beautiful enough for me to wear at our wedding.  I almost started crying on the drive home.  I had to try something new.  I needed to figure out a way to get back to kind of shape I used to be in.  I needed help.

Enter Dave.  Dave is a good friend of mine who was in Costa Rica with me for 2 months in 2007, and for some reason still talks to me.  He knows A LOT about nutrition and exercise, so I tend to ask him for advice often, while also getting angry at him because he gives out advice when I don’t ask for it either!  But that’s just Dave, he’s a good guy.  Anyhoo, I turned to him.  I told him I needed to lose 10lbs asap.  Like, in a month, before my next dress fitting, asap.  And I told him he had to help me, and no was not an acceptable answer.  He warned me I wasn’t going to like what he had to say…but it would work.  There is really no way it wouldn’t…Keto.  A Ketogenic diet.  What the fuck is that?  No carbs.  Stop eating fruit every damn day.  He got mad at me because I tried to make him make me a meal plan…he refused.  So instead he pointed me to r/keto, and I did my homework.  Shit looked easier than I thought!!!  I love meat and veggies!  Tuna, eggs, steak, TACO BOWLS, cheddar, I could DO this!  So I did, and so did Derek.  By managing to keep my net carb intake to, on average, under 20g a day, the weight melted off.  For the first time in years, I was starting to feel a sense of accomplishment.  I was still working out also, so the weight was coming off, and I was toning, and I was finally starting to feel good about myself again.  In about a month, I lost around 7lbs.  I got down to just above 130.  I was happy, my next dress fitting went SO much better, and the dress looked gorgeous.  But I wasn’t done yet ;)

 I kept it up, and by the wedding I got to 127.  I hadn’t been that weight since early senior year of college.  I was ecstatic.  Derek was around 200lbs also, and looking pretty trim and sexy I may add!   This “diet” really is easy to maintain.  You allow yourself cheat days once and a while, where I usually shove pizza or nachos in my face, or Melting Pot the shit out of myself.  So it’s not like you say bye bye forever to some of your favorite things.  They are just SO much better when you get them now. 

Fast forward to now.  It’s been 8 months since the wedding, and my weight was fluctuating again.  +10lbs from the honeymoon (I drank fruity sugary drinks and ate fried plantains with every meal, sue me), lost about 5 of it, then came the dreaded Holiday season, impossible to keep weight down…teetered from 130-135 mostly.   I needed to change things again.  Enter gym nut Jo-Ellen.  I wanted to turn back into what I used to be, the “If I don’t work out today I hate myself” Jo-Ellen.  Plus, I was getting boobs soon and knew I’d be out of commission for a while, had to get in shape.  So with the help of my amazing, sexy, loving, supportive husband, we started gyming it up about 5X a week.  Doing some workouts together as well.  So right before my surgery, I was 129, with some killer abs.  I was pumped.  Until now.  I thought THAT was great. My goal weight for years has been 125.  Well, I’m 125.4 and should probably take a picture of myself in my yoga pants and sports bra, all flexing and shit, because I look fantastic and I’m not afraid to brag.  I have been working SO hard for this, and the fact that I’m finally getting back to where I can be comfortable with myself is absolutely fantastic.  I’m proud of me, so I don’t care if I may come off as being obnoxious or bragging or whatever, because I feel good about myself again. 

Since it was requested, here is a repost of me at 129, right before my surgery.  Quite a transformation thus far!

2 comments:

  1. I have to say congrats on 2 accounts -

    1) AMAZING accomplishment
    2) Being open and honest to share this story with us

    The fact is it's something SO MANY people struggle with. And it's not easy to lose weight. I've lost 50 lbs since the beginning of 2011 so I know EXACTLY what you went through to get to where you are now and you deserve every bit of recognition for your accomplishments. Seriously awesome job, I'm proud of you!

    Plus, it's going to make you look that much hotter in Mexican Fiesta legging!!!

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  2. I already thanks and congratulated you via gchat :) But wanted to reitterate here too! <3

    ReplyDelete