Acceptance

Throughout high school and life after high school, I was always the “Big Girl.” I was raised to be confident, to love myself and to be comfortable in my own skin. I embraced being big and just accepted my life as it was. I was always going out, drinking, eating and just overall enjoying life. Whenever I had an annual physical with my doctor, my main issue was always my weight. I never really took the advice my doctor was giving me, seriously. Until one day, I was at work and I started to struggle with my breathing. Later that day, I went to the emergency room. During a follow up visit with my physician, following my emergency visit, he mentioned again what he has been mentioning for years now, my weight! It wasn’t until this visit I realized that I am making myself sick. I had to “ACCEPT” the fact my lifestyle needed to change. At this very moment, I had no other options but to start living a healthy lifestyle.

Determination

I was never determined to lose weight; however, I quickly realized that determination is important. There were many days in which I struggled with living a healthy lifestyle. I loved candy and sour candy was my weakness. I used to cheat on my meals and have candy, sometimes soda, just to satisfy my cravings. During this time, I was not successful with losing weight. In fact, I actually started gaining some pounds which frightened me. I knew that if I wanted to lose weight and keep the weight off, I had to be “DETERMINED.” I eventually stopped buying unhealthy snacks to keep in my kitchen and I incorporated more workout sessions within my day. After my very first week of being strict and determined, I lost 15 pounds. I went from 360 pounds to 345 pounds. Once I started seeing these results, I never went back to my old lifestyle.

Consistency

When I first started losing weight, I would often reward myself for a good week. I figured I can have cheat days and just go back on my “diet.” However, with this mindset, my weight often had a yo-yo effect. I would lose weight and then gain weight and lose weight again. I knew my goal was to at least lose 100 pounds and I was nowhere near reaching my goal. So I realized, in order to be successful at living a healthy lifestyle, you have to actually “LIVE” a healthy lifestyle. Meaning, this was no longer a diet for me, it was the lifestyle change my physician always told me I needed. The biggest part of this lifestyle change was being “CONSISTENT.” I knew I couldn’t keep cheating myself if I wanted to lose my weight. So once I started being consistent at working out and eating healthy every day, my weight consistently melted away. Not only was I losing weight on a consistent basis but I became more energized and athletic.