My Story

To start off, I have been on a long weight-loss journey; I am talking from 2009 to present. It all began when my daddy passed away in October 2009. :,-( He suffered a lifetime of heart disease and other related issues. He never took care of himself, binged often on decadent treats, smoked nearly his entire life, and all around mistreated his body.

It wasn’t until he passed away that I knew I had to get serious about my health and, to start, I NEEDED to lose weight. I am 5’8” tall and, at the time, I weighed 235 pounds! My heaviest weight was 255 pounds. I had high blood pressure and I was taking medication to lower my numbers. Prior to his passing, I lost 20 pounds ‘sort of’ trying to lose weight. However, It took months to lose that little bit of weight. Once the initial grieving was over (that fog that you go into when a loved one passes), I became serious about my health.

 

(End of 2008)

 

January 2010, I signed up for Weight Watchers' online program. I followed the program exactly as outlined. I did very little exercise because I was lazy and had little-to-no energy for that sort of thing. I got creative and found ways to divvy up my points in a way that kept me full. I went to bed hungry once or twice because I either miscalculated something or ate something 'blindly' without knowing the point value. Aside from those few times, I never felt deprived. It really wasn’t that bad and the weight was melting off.

To make a long story short, by mid-2011, I weighed 160 pounds. That’s a whopping 75 pound loss on Weight Watchers and 95 pound overall loss! I tapered off on the weight loss at that point following a non-weight-loss-related surgery and six month recovery period.
 

(End of 2011)

 

Once the healing was done, I started working out to P90X. I started the program three separate times and quit, on average, around the 60th day. I never did finish an entire 90 days of the program. I started and stopped a couple exercise programs over the course of about a year, but I kept mostly active. During this time, I slacked off on the nutritional aspect of losing weight because I figured since I was working out so much, I could eat what I wanted…not entirely true by the way!

August 2011, I became pescetarian. This is someone who eats a vegetarian diet with the addition of fish meat. The diet was energizing, but I still needed my blood pressure medication. My goal was to lower my blood pressure and get off the medications that my dad once took. I knew that the high blood pressure and medication was causing internal damage. I began to do more research to help resolve this issue.

February 2012, the hubs suggested we try a plant-based diet. A plant-based diet is one that excludes consumption of ALL animal products (i.e. meat, dairy, eggs, and for some, honey). I thought he was crazy and I resisted, but not for long. I am one for supporting him and decided to back him in his decision. It was a decision that changed my life. My blood pressure was finally normal! I went to see my doctor as soon as I could and asked to be taken off meds. That was the most liberating day of my entire life. Since that day, I have never looked back.

Even so, I did not lose the remaining weight on this lifestyle change. In fact, I actually gained about seven pounds. So, here I am today three weeks back into the Weight Watchers way of life and I have lost the weight I regained. I unofficially broke 160 pounds. Today, I did a ‘cheater’ weigh-in and I was 159 pounds. I officially weigh in every Thursday, so I will post a little update at the end of each week.

I hope you enjoyed reading. I look forward to inspiring others, even if it is just one person, to get healthy.

Much love! <3

-Theresa

 

:-)