This is awesome to see all this progress! My story isn't as amazing, but I thought I'd share. Hopefully this will be a fairly condensed version, sometimes I tend to get carried away with talking/typing, so here goes.
I met my husband 12 years ago and I weighed 135 lbs, basically fresh out of high school where I had been in marching band for 4 years, so quite in shape. Too bad I don't have pictures, I never liked being on camera. Anyway, met my husband and joined him on is truck for about a year, he was a Semi truck driver. I gained 20 lbs and also became pregnant after that year in which I gained an additional 46 lbs! So i was 201 the day I gave birth to my first son, I only know this because I had a checkup with the dr that morning. I ended up at 175 after all was said and done which was also my pre-pegnancy weight with my second son about a year later. With him I initially lost 11 lbs in the first 3 months, very, very bad morning sickness with that one! I gained about 20 lbs or so after that though. After having him I was down 11 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight, so sitting at 164 lbs.
So life went on, I never cared what I ate, drank soda ALL the time. If I needed a drink, it was soda, when I ate, another soda. I drank 6 a day on average. I slowly gained weight, never really caring, I just said to myself I never wanted to hit 200 since the only time I was that heavy was with a kid in my belly. Fast forward about 8 years later I had finally hit 200lbs, I was determined NOT to go any farther so I decided to start riding my bike, we have great paved trails close to our house that go on for miles. I rode my bike for an entire Summer from April to September I was up to riding 10 miles a day, rarely skipping days. I lost 10 lbs initially, but plateaued. I was still drinking soda and eating what I wanted, so just riding my bike wasn't working anymore than to keep the weight steady. Never rode again after that summer, my husband got too sick for me to be away from home too long. Being on a bike I couldn't get home very fast if I went as far out as I usually did.
Fast forward about another year later I was doing things like going to Gorden Food Service, which is a restaurant supply store where they have giant boxes and jars and cans of everything a restaurant would want. I'd buy those big ass boxes of candy, first it was york peppermint patties and I'd eat the whole box in a week. The next I remember buying a big box of cow tails and said to myself 'oh yeah, I'll make sure and let the kids have most of these!' Yeah right.....I ate the whole box that week, and still nabbed another box and did it again... I ended up at 215 lbs! Finally I said enough is enough, I've got to figure out what to do here! I cut down my soda first off, never had more than 3 a day if I was thirsty I'd drink milk or lemonade and soon it was only cranberry juice, I realized how much I loved the stuff. The hardest part was I HAD to have a soda with my meals, that's where the 3 a day came in. I at least managed to maintain my weight, never went above 215. It wasn't enough for me just to maintain, I didn't like how I looked or how I felt.
While my husband was in this hospital that, had we known how horrible the place was, he wouldn't have gone there, but had he not gone there I don't think I'd have had this success story to tell! I visited a gas station for some drinks one day, I happened to notice these Special K drinks, it said something about curbing hunger for 4 hours. So I decided to try one out, it was a French Vanilla Special K Protein Shake. It was quite tastey! So, the rest of this story short, I made my own diet of drinking these protein shakes for the most part if I'm hungry, drinking cranberry juice if I'm thirsty and I do still have about half a 12oz can of soda a day with something good and healthy to eat! I still eat candy now and then, and other things I used to eat but in much moderation.
Since August of last year, I've officially lost 32lbs! And that's with no working out what so ever, with traveling to and from the hospital and spending most of my days there I never had the time... ever. I was either at the hospital or at home sleeping so I did what I could do and that was change what I put in my body. So my clothes are fitting much more loosely now a days, hopefully I'll be able to start working out since I'm home more. That will boost my weight loss even more, or help build muscle, which would be best.
Dang, I knew it was gonna get long, but that's my weight story in a nutshell, kind of a big nutshell, but there you have it =P
I just saw a sign for the church across the street that said it was starting fitness classes this month, I'm tempted to check it out since it's so close to my house. If it were summer I definitely would be out riding while my husband is still in the hospital. Anyway, thanks for reading, I'm open to suggestions!
Oh, and if anyone wants more insight on the shakes let me know, they work great for hunger control!
