May 10,2013
The last thing I will ever claim to be is any sort of fitness/weight loss expert. One of the most irritating things to me is someone who gives advice on something they know absolutely NOTHING about. When it comes to weight loss, I am no expert. I found something that worked, and I stuck with it. In the past, I tried several times to lose weight and failed miserably. (I will admit, one of those times ended up being because I was pregnant) But after deciding I was not going to let a “diet” get the best of me one more time, I succeeded. Before I jump right into how I lost the weight, I need to give a little bit of background about my situation….
First of all…In high school, I was a toothpick. I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain an ounce. I used to be one of those people I hate! God Bless my mom and the quick metabolism she gave me. Weight had never been an issue. Then I went to college. Again, weight wasn’t an issue. Until I discovered this magnificent little invention called alcohol. BOOM! There went my weight. Over the next 4 years I gradually put on weight as I drank more and ate horribly. It wasn’t anything that bothered me. I occasionally used the gym on campus when I was feeling a little fat, but it was nothing that really bothered me. I was still pretty small, just a little less small than I was in high school.
After college, I moved to Washington DC and was completely out of my comfort zone. I was not used to the lifestyle out there. EVERYONE runs there. No matter where I was there were always people out running. I grew up as a competitive swimmer so nothing about running interested me. I hated the sweating and the discomfort in my joints. I was used to getting into a cool swimming pool and easily gliding through the water. After trying to get into it a couple times, I just knew it was not for me. At the same time, I was growing depressed as I did not have any sort of social circle in DC. I had left that all behind in Ohio. People were not as friendly as they were in my hometown. So I think I did a little bit of depression-eating as well…let me tell you….there was this Chinese place in DC called Kitchen No. 1 that probably contributed to the weight gain more than anything else!!
Me and my Mom shortly after moving home from DC. I am wearing a baggy shirt to hide the fat.
When I moved home from DC, I was teetering around 150 pounds. This bothered me, but not enough to do anything about it. I felt like as long as my stomach was flat, I didn’t look bad. I didn’t realize the rest of me was ballooning up around the flat stomach. Steve only knew the “fat” me. I was this weight when we started dating and God love him for still thinking I was attractive, because I cringe every time I see a picture of myself from then. I managed to somehow not step on a scale for another year, and when I did….let’s just say it was not pretty. I broke down. How did I let myself get this fat? I was a marshmallow! (I do realize I was NOT morbidly obese. But going from weighing 110 in highschool to this?) I decided then and there that I was going to do weight watchers. My sister had given me a spreadsheet of what she ate when she was on weight watchers. So I figured out how many points I was going to need online and just tried to figure out the points on my own because I did not want to pay the money to do it online. A couple ladies I worked with at the time were doing it as well so I had some extra encouragement and accountability. This was going to be fun!!!
It wasn’t fun. I was starving and I was NOT losing weight. One of the ladies had weight MELTING off of her and it was so discouraging. I started taking diet pills to go along with the weight watchers and they made my heart race and I was sick to my stomach. But I kept going. I think in three weeks time I lost 3 pounds. Not horrible but after the 3 weeks, it stopped. I remained at the same weight. I began to feel a little sick and extremely emotional! Why wasn’t this working??? I was even doing Jillian Michaels and still nothing! Come to find out, I was 5 weeks pregnant (hence the emotions). My weight loss went to hell in a hand basket! The first thing I did when I found out was get a burrito bowl from Chipotle!
My pregnancy was not an easy one. I was extremely sick and even ended up in the hospital with dehydration because I could not keep anything down. The sickness lasted my entire pregnancy, but after my first trimester, I was able to start eating normal food again. And I had even lost weight from all the pukey pukey!!!
Unfortunately the only food that really settled my stomach was all the greasy food. I had begun a new job at the time and going to work sick every day was not appealing…especially since I had not yet mentioned I would be needing a two month maternity break in October…. So in order to keep myself functioning I ate McDonalds, Wendys and all the other greasy crap that settled my stomach. By the time I was full term with my pregnancy I was just over 200 pounds. I am 5’5”. That aint good. Preggers or not.
Me and Steve at my baby shower
After my son was born, I shot down to 180 in a matter of a couple days. Then in the following weeks I went down to 172. And there I stayed. After I went back to work and could actually eat with 2 hands again, my weight hit a plateau. This was not good. Steve and I had our wedding date set for August and there was no way I was going to get married looking like a beluga whale. (Baaaaaby Beluuuuuga) After the holidays, my plan was to join weight watchers again. This time, I was going to do it right.
I went online, paid the money and signed up for Weight Watchers Online. The fact that I was spending money to do this was going to be my extra motivation. And boy did it work! I took it VERY seriously!! I measured everything to the T and counted EVERY SINGLE POINT that went into my body. The website was full of delicious looking recipes so even though I would get home from work and be waaaay too tired to cook, I cooked. I was already getting used to being tired ALL THE TIME from having an infant, so I pushed myself to make meals for Steve and myself. And believe it or not, Steve actually liked the meals and encouraged me to cook more!! After the first week I had only lost 2 pounds. But I compared it to the last time I had tried weight watchers and it was a small success! So I did it another week and it got a little easier. Steve even helped me cook some of the meals and I even downloaded the weight watchers app for my phone so I could log points any time. After the second week I got on the scale, and about fell off of it. 4 more pounds came off in one week. I had lost a total of 6 pounds in 2 weeks. IT WAS WORKING!!!!!! I continued the program. I still ate cheat meals on weekends and when we would order food at the office. I just didn’t eat as much of it as I usually would. I took a lot of flak for it. People actually teased me at work for “being good” as they put it and would try to encouraged me to eat MORE. To this day I will never fully understand why. But while they teased, weight kept melting off of me.
By the time it was time to go wedding dress shopping, I had lost 12 pounds!!! This was a huge victory for me since I had never lost this much weight before. We went wedding dress shopping and I found the dress of my dreams. I told the sales lady that I had lost some weight and was planning on losing more. She told me that the dress could be altered 4 sizes down so I should be fine and I ordered the size that fit at the time (Which looking back was a HUGE mistake). But I would have never foreseen in a million years how much weight I was about to lose and I HAD to order the dress in January for it to be ready by August, so that is what I did.
Me in my wedding dress in January
In February, my office held a “Biggest Loser” competition. By that time, I was back down into the 150’s and figured I probably wouldn’t lose much more weight, but I decided to sign up anyway just for extra motivation. And the winner got money so why not?
The weeks went on and I kept losing. I stuck true to the points and any time I cooked, I used precise measurements. Everyone I spoke to warned me that I should not get used to losing weight like this because I would eventually hit a plateau. But every week when I stepped on the scale, I would weigh less than I did the week before, even if it was only by mere ounces. In May, the contest ended. Almost 200 people had participated. They split it up into men and women since they tend to lose weight differently. Over 80 women participated. And in a very close race, I won the entire competition! Nothing had seemed more surreal to me. Did I really have issues losing weight a year ago and now here I am WINNING a weight loss competition? I never even exercised during this whole ordeal. I lost weight by eating differently!!! That’s it!!! I think the fact that I had an infant son helped. It’s not like I could just go home and sit on the couch all night and not move. I had a little person to take care of and I think that was mainly what made this time different. Also, I obviously couldn’t drink the way I used to either. This helped the weight come off even quicker.
Even after the competition I continued to drop weight. By the time my wedding rolled around, I was down to about 125 lbs. When I went in to pick up my wedding dress, the girl actually brought my dress out and thought it was a mistake. I said to her, “I told the sales lady I was planning on losing weight and I guess she didn’t believe me or something” ;) God Bless the woman who altered my dress and was able to make it stunning for my wedding day. I know it definitely was not easy.
Today, I teeter around 120 pounds. I am not a rail thin toothpick like I used to be in high school. But I have chosen to stay at this weight for now….pretty much because I do NOT want to buy any more clothes. I would not say I am on weight watchers anymore, because I don’t really need it. After following the program for several months, I just formed new eating habits and stuck with them. I don’t really believe in diets. I believe in lifestyle changes, because that is what it took for me. I had done the whole “diet” thing and it never worked. It wasn’t until I changed the way I lived that it finally worked for me. Now, I do not count calories and do not count points. I even make meals during the week that I get from normal cooking websites and not just weight watcher or www.skinnytaste.com (Which is a WONDERFUL website!!!!) I eat out with my family on weekends and probably have an unhealthy addiction to Wendys! But I also eat more veggies, drink less alcohol, and cook dinner for my family almost every night, even though sometimes it would just be easier to run through a drive through. And I still keep the weight off. This journey taught me a lot more than just how to lose weight. It taught me about self control, perseverance, and PORTION CONTROL. I will never ever go back to that gluttonous person I used to be. EVER!!!
Even after the competition I continued to drop weight. By the time my wedding rolled around, I was down to about 125 lbs. When I went in to pick up my wedding dress, the girl actually brought my dress out and thought it was a mistake. I said to her, “I told the sales lady I was planning on losing weight and I guess she didn’t believe me or something” ;) God Bless the woman who altered my dress and was able to make it stunning for my wedding day. I know it definitely was not easy.
A little smaller than the last time I wore it
After all the weight loss, I received a huge response from friends, family, distant cousins, co-workers, my son’s babysitters and realtors who wanted weight loss tips. As stated in the beginning, I do not claim to be any sort of expert. I just know what worked for me and I stuck with it. But just from watching me lose weight, several people in my life joined weight watchers. There has never been a better feeling to me than being a motivation for that.
It is funny when people who never knew me at my bigger size make comments about how much I suck because I am skinny and can probably eat whatever I want and not gain an ounce. I burst out laughing and tell them that is the farthest thing from the truth. I worked very hard and I changed. And if I ate anything I wanted all the time, I would DEFINITELY balloon back up. And I tell them my story. The same one you have just read. I hope you all understand now.
Meghan
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