I have been overweight my entire life . I was an athlete so my weight stayed somewhat under control, but I was always in the 200s
NAME : Ashley
BEFORE WEIGHT : 270
AFTER WEIGHT : 148
POUNDS LOST : 122
HOW DID YOUR WEIGHT AFFECT ANY ASPECT(S) OF YOUR LIFE? Being overweight affected every aspect of my life. Both of my siblings were very small and athletic so I was very self-conscious of myself even when I was very young. When I got older I missed out on many social events because I didn’t want to squeeze into a little dress and have to suck in my stomach all night. I had very low self-esteem and didn’t think of myself is beautiful. I also had a hard time walking places with my friends because I would get so tired which was very embarrassing so often times I just chose to stay home.
WHAT WAS THE “TURNING POINT” THAT GOT YOU STARTED ON YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY? I had several embarrassing moments one of which was when I went to a theme park with my brother and sister and I was asked to get off of a roller coaster because they couldn’t fasten the belt around my waist in front of the entire line. The turning point for me was when I went through a pretty bad breakup . I was depressed and lonely didn’t want to leave the house and it started showing in my legal studies. My sister told me that I needed something else to focus on besides the break up and she told me that I should start going to the gym to work out. She also told me that she would be my accountability partner so I wouldn’t do it alone.
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED? The very first upset us to begin my journey was I called the trainer because I didn’t really know where to start I started walking on the treadmill until my first session with him and I threw out all of the junk food in my house so that I wasn’t tempted to eat it anymore. I also researched different workouts to try so I didn’t get bored.
HOW LONG AFTER YOU STARTED DID YOU BEGIN TO SEE RESULTS OF YOUR WEIGHT LOSS EFFORTS? I didn’t start seeing results in my body until I was about three months into my journey.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART? I had to overcome losing weight while in law school. As you can imagine law school is very demanding so I had to find time to work out twice a day while still keeping up with my studies.
DID YOU EVER WANT TO GIVE UP? WHAT KEPT YOU GOING? I wanted to give up all the time when I felt like I wasn’t getting results. Are used to call my trainer and my sister crying asking them why I was doing this when I didn’t see any change in my body. They told me that I had to keep going and that I knew what I signed up for and that eventually I would see the change I was looking for. When I didn’t believe in myself they believe that I can make the change for me. Little by little I started seeing changes in my before and after pictures and in my clothing. Once I start to see the changes it pushed me to go even harder in the gym and I never looked back.
DID YOU HIT ANY WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAUS? HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THEM? I hate weight loss plateaus about once every few months and when that happened I learn to stay off the scale and focus on changing my workouts in the gym and also switching up my diet. I had to understand that plateaus were part of the process and that they were bound to happen at some point. It’s easier to embrace them and just keep pushing forward.
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO LOSE MOST OF THE WEIGHT? It took me eight months to lose 122 pounds and it took me about five months to lose majority of my weight.
DID YOU HAVE ANY NON-SCALE VICTORIES? I had several non-scale victory’s for example fitting into jeans that I could never fit, fitting into old bathing suit’s and watching my jeans size go down month after month.
WHAT DOES YOUR DAILY DIET LOOK LIKE COMPARED TO WHEN YOU WERE HEAVIER? When I was heavier my eating habits were terrible I was an emotional eater I ate fast food and Socially drink with my friend several nights a week I ate out every night because I was in law school and didn’t have much time to cook or at least that’s what I told myself on average I was eating fried food for lunch and dinner daily and I was having a full breakfast every day.
HOW DOES YOUR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY COMPARE TO WHEN YOU WERE HEAVIER? Physical activity was very hard for me when I was at my heaviest because I was asthmatic and I was embarrassed that I couldn’t physically do with the other girls were doing. I play tennis in college and I always finish last in workouts and physical fitness test so I learn to work out in private so that I wasn’t being judge because I thought people were judging me and laughing at me. I didn’t initially like working out because I thought I was the fat girl in the gym but once I got past that embarrassment I actually started to push myself to do with the other smaller girls could do and it made me better for it I actually think I lost weight faster because I was rising up to their fitness level
MY WEIGHT LOSS TIPS & TRICKS
Stay off of the scale it doesn’t always show your accomplishments. Sometimes it will deter you from continuing to go hard in the gym.
I have people around you that are going to encourage you to keep pushing and slap food out of your hand when you get tempted.
Always work out like it’s your last workout of the week that will keep you pushing as hard as you possibly can
Always going to the gym with the plan that way you stay on task and get done faster
Find food that works for you if you create a meal around someone else then it won’t necessarily work.