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My weight loss story


Emerald525

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Hello fish geeks! Yes I mean you. If you are on this forum and reading this then you are a fish geek! Embrace it! You're in good company.

 

I'm going to go off topic from reefing in the hopes that I may inspire others. January of 2015 I knew I had to make changes in my life or I would end up going to my grave early. Which would suck because I have been looking forward to retirement and traveling the world and visiting lots of reefs!

 

My blood pressure was dangerously high. I was at risk for a stroke or heart attack. I was at risk for diabetes. All that unhealthy food was finally catching up to me. It happens sadly as you get older. Things many of you take for granted were hard like simply tying my shoes.

 

I actually considered bariatric surgery which for those of you who know me is pretty serious for me. I have never had any type of surgery but knew something drastic needed to happen.

 

I even got a tattoo on the back of my calf. Again those who know me know I never planned to get a tattoo because the thought of putting something on my body for the rest of my life did not sit well with me. However I wanted a reminder that the changes that I was making would be permanent for the rest of my life.

 

The tattoo is of a lotus flower. It represents how something beautiful can spring from the darkness of our lives. It reminded me to not let the negativity of life bring me down but to push through to something better and brighter.

The yellowish orange center is the determination inside me.

 

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The first thing I did was walk. I walked 2 blocks and was tired and my legs were sore but I pushed through it and by the next week I could walk a mile. Then I tried 2 and boy were my legs sore but my back get better.

 

 

I took a weight management class. I knew all the information but weighing in every week really made me accountable. I started noticing results and lost 20 pounds in the 8 week course and knew it was possible and I was on my way!!!

 

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I started eating more vegetables as I realized though they are not as exciting as a venti frappucino from Starbucks they made me feel better.

 

As I ate less sweets and fast food the vegetables started tasting better. Again those who know me know what a picky eater I can be. Just ask Sirena what I do when she slips onions into things and they aren't cooked.

 

Sirena and I learned through books and classes how to make healthy food taste good! I will have to give Sirena more credit for that though!

 

There are now foods like sushi that I hated before and now love!!

 

 

This is part of my lunch today:

 

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As I saw how much better I felt and how much more I could do, that was all the motivation I needed.

 

 

 

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Now flashback to today! My blood pressure is back to normal! I no longer am prediabetic. I feel about 10 years younger. My feet don't hurt anymore and I have lots of energy!! I am in the best shape of my life.

 

I never aspired to run but now can run 7 miles !!! I never even thought that was possible and I have never been a runner. I do t run fast and other runners pass me all the time but I don't care because I'm running and it's not easy for me--EVER!

 

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Here are pictures of me now!!

 

 

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And oh yeah Sirena has done a lot of hard work too but I will let her share that story if she wants. I'm proud of her! We have both lost 130 pounds !!!! While this has been hard I wouldn't change it and my life is for the better!

 

 

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It's great to see how far you've come. Keep up the hard work. Losing weight isn't easy.

 

This may be a surprise to a lot of you, but I have also had weight issues. I was a horrible binge eater for years. A pizza, two orders of chinese, two dozen bakes cookies and cinnamon sticks to go was a common Friday night. Probably a 2L in there somewhere. I know how hard it can be to manage what you eat and control what goes in your body. It took a lot of talking and being open about it for it to stop. 

 

You two seem like the type of people that are dedicated to accomplishing your goals. Make it happen. Your dreams are the limit.

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A truly rewarding accomplishment! My respects to you Kim!

 

 

Thanks Jorge!

 

It's great to see how far you've come. Keep up the hard work. Losing weight isn't easy.

 

This may be a surprise to a lot of you, but I have also had weight issues. I was a horrible binge eater for years. A pizza, two orders of chinese, two dozen bakes cookies and cinnamon sticks to go was a common Friday night. Probably a 2L in there somewhere. I know how hard it can be to manage what you eat and control what goes in your body. It took a lot of talking and being open about it for it to stop. 

 

You two seem like the type of people that are dedicated to accomplishing your goals. Make it happen. Your dreams are the limit.

 

 

I am surprised to hear that Miles thanks for sharing. I would never have guessed it since you are so thin! It's a good reminder to me that you don't always know what's going on with a person from the outside. 

 

This is also a reminder for me to share with people to not assume that people who are overweight are lazy and undisciplined. There is so much judgement in the world. You do not know what is going on in their life and the odds are stacked against us to lose weight. Only 5% of people have this type of success and often it is short lived which is why I make posts like these. As you lose weight the body adapts and there is a rule of thumb that for every pound you lose that is 8 less calories your body needs to maintain itself so for me that's 1000 less calories per day! :blush:

 

One thing I forgot to mention is Sirena and I also took this class about emotional eating called Changing from the Inside. I highly recommend it.

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Emotional binge eating has been a serious problem for my wife and I.  We have both seesawed up and down post-army due to kids/medications/mental health.  Your accomplishments and story are inspiring.  Sincerely, what you two have done is flat out incredible.  Being recently diagnosed as prediabetic myself was a serious wake up call.  Running and dietary changes have helped immensely.  Thank you for the post Kim, I needed some motivation to get out in the cold and get some exercise.  

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When I started my weight loss I couldn't even make up a flight of stairs without feeling I just ran a marathon..I had high blood pressure and just hated myself. It took the doctor to say your going to die very soon if you don't stop. I stopped. I started at a massive 236lbs. It's been slow but it's been 3 years and still working on it and I'm down to 170lbs. I only have 10 more lbs to hit my goal weight. Sadly I don't have much home support. I just go jogging and walk as much as I can. When I started to lose weight I had access to a gym threw work but changed jobs and no longer. That's when weight loss really slowed down... but it's still a work in progress.. You go Kim.....yeah I found I can not go over 1000 calories or weight loss stops... Sucks lol...where is that class?

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Emotional binge eating has been a serious problem for my wife and I.  We have both seesawed up and down post-army due to kids/medications/mental health.  Your accomplishments and story are inspiring.  Sincerely, what you two have done is flat out incredible.  Being recently diagnosed as prediabetic myself was a serious wake up call.  Running and dietary changes have helped immensely.  Thank you for the post Kim, I needed some motivation to get out in the cold and get some exercise.  

 

 

Thanks for sharing! Food addiction is like any other addiction. The only problem is you can't avoid food which makes it more challenging. What I have learned is certain foods (mostly processed foods like crackers, chips , and sweets) are the ones that tend to trigger that binge response so I don't keep them in may house. Fast food and junk food companies know this. They spend millions to make their food irresistible to you. It really is hard to be healthy.  I also do not completely avoid them and every now and then allow myself to have some of these as treats.

 

Speaking of exercise, I don't let ANYTHING get in the way. It is normal to have that voice that says.. it's early, you're tired, it's cold go ahead and take a day off. I have found what works for me is to keep going no matter what. Friday when there was ice on the springwater corrider I was still out there. (The only one except for 3 bicycles :) ) .

 

I have asthma and am having a flare up and was coughing so hard last night I finally went to sleep so I would stop coughing but still went out there and ran today.

 

I know myself and I know if I take a day off that I slide so back into old habits. Part of the journey is learning what works best for me.

 

Thank you for sharing Kim, very inspirational!!

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

Thanks Dan! Posting this inspires me as well to keep going and not give up! I have been amazed at the support. Just today as I was running ( a woman on a bike commented on how great I look :) ) It feels good to have that kind of support! That's why most of us are on this forum to begin with!

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When I started my weight loss I couldn't even make up a flight of stairs without feeling I just ran a marathon..I had high blood pressure and just hated myself. It took the doctor to say your going to die very soon if you don't stop. I stopped. I started at a massive 236lbs. It's been slow but it's been 3 years and still working on it and I'm down to 170lbs. I only have 10 more lbs to hit my goal weight. Sadly I don't have much home support. I just go jogging and walk as much as I can. When I started to lose weight I had access to a gym threw work but changed jobs and no longer. That's when weight loss really slowed down... but it's still a work in progress.. You go Kim.....yeah I found I can not go over 1000 calories or weight loss stops... Sucks lol...where is that class?

 

Congrats to you! It is definitely difficult if you don't have support at home but still can be done! I'm on a program called Prevent (now Omada) where I weight myself every day and it's an online group.  You definitely need support for this type of change and ongoing support.

 

Jogging and walking are great exercises. I also recommend strength training. The more muscle you can build the better your metabolism will be. Fortunately you don't need an expensive membership from a club. A book I recommend is called

 

Strong Women Stay Young

 

I also use an app called Fitness Blender which has all kinds of free exercise videos.

 

The class I mentioned is called Changing From The Inside Out It's at Providence and a dietician runs it but she's really a therapist. Her name is Chris Jensen. She has been doing it for a while but I heard she was cutting back on the classes.

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Ok I will check it all out... yeah really hard to watch someone eat chips,candy eat McDonald's etc... on the good side when I do eat that crap I get so sick .... I'm glad I do...Lol I use myfitnesspal app a lot and my Garmin vivo watch. Thanks for the info

 

 

And yes that would be very hard to have that kind of food in the house! No different than an alcoholic having beer in the house.  Stay strong!

Yes if you look at my left wrist you will see a Garmin Vivo watch that I always wear.

I also use myfitness pal and mapmywalk. I try to track my food every day as it keeps me accountable and makes me think twice about eating something and also just makes more aware of how many calories are in food. Starbucks grande frappucino has 400 calories. When I found that out I have never had another one!

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Unhealthy eating exists for all people. Skinny or fat. It's crazy how easy it is to fall into the cycle of obsessing about weight. It almost makes you want to eat more. I used to binge eat and go running for few hours to compensate, then you feel even hungrier and want more food. The key is to stop the cycle from the root of the problem, and talking about it helps you find it.

 

Thanks for sharing your stories. Please keep me updated. :)

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Being in the fitness industry and growing up in a gym ( couldn't tell by looking at me haha) this makes my heart so Incredibly happy! I love seeing people find fitness and health and continuing to better their life. AMAZING work Kim, I'm super proud of you and Sirena. Absolutely amazing work you two!

 

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Such a great story! Thanks for sharing.

 

Anyone who has made changes before feels like something is missing, I'd suggest a book called Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. Changed my life. Made it easy to make good choices. Worth looking into.

 

 

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Very impressed Kim! Keep up the good work

 

Thanks Ryan! My goal is to lose 30 pounds more which has been difficult. I have hit a platuea but am not gaining which is good. I joke that in the end all I will be able to have for breakfast is a heaping bowl of air! ;)

Keep it up! And good for you!

 

I do things I shouldn't well drink things I shouldn't :laugh:

 

Getting old sucks...........I know..........keep it up Kim!

 

 

Thanks Scott.  In the class I took I learned to change my mindset. I no longer am tempted to drink sodas not because I know I shouldn't drink them but because I don't want to because I have finally made the connection on how they make me feel.

 

Getting old does suck. Once you hit 40 you start losing muscle which lowers your metabolism. THat's the main reason men typically have an easier time with weight loss because they have more muscle mass in general. Even though you don't burn as many calories with strength training it is key to weight loss for me because it improves my metabolism as I build more muscle.

 

Being in the fitness industry and growing up in a gym ( couldn't tell by looking at me haha) this makes my heart so Incredibly happy! I love seeing people find fitness and health and continuing to better their life. AMAZING work Kim, I'm super proud of you and Sirena. Absolutely amazing work you two!

 

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

 

 

Didn't know you grew up in a gym but you seem to do a lot of active things like snowboarding. And yes getting healthier and losing weight has allowed me to do things I couldn't in the past. I love hiking and now I can go as far as I want with no fear that I will be too sore to make it back.

 

Being free of the self imposed prison of my body is part of my motivation to keep going. It is why I seem so obsessed with exercising.  I work out 6 to 7 days a week and some people give me a hard time about it but I tell them that exercise is like medication and I wouldn't skip my routine anymore then I would stop taking a medication.

 

Such a great story! Thanks for sharing.

 

Anyone who has made changes before feels like something is missing, I'd suggest a book called Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. Changed my life. Made it easy to make good choices. Worth looking into.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Yes Susie like other people have touched on. My experience is weight loss is 99% mental and 1% diet and exercise. Like Miles also touched on and what you are touching on is once you get to the root of why we binge eat then the rest will follow.

 

The first thing I did when I started on this journey was write down all the reasons I wanted to be healthier.

 

I also recommend Intuitive Eating and Eat Drink and be Mindful

 

I will definitely check out this book too

 

Awesome Kim! Thanks for sharing!

 

You're welcome Son. It helps me too. I'm still dealing with this lower respiratory tract infection and woke up at 1am coughing last night. Needless to say when my alarm went off at 520 this morning to get up and do my 30 minute ab routine. That voice was telling me "It's early you're tired you can workout in the afternoon" I almost listened to it but then read this thread and know myself well enough to know if I don't work out in the morning then it will rarely happen later.

 

 

Thanks everyone for the kind words and support by the way! :applause:  Good luck to you in all of your goals as well!  It's a hard road with a lot of obstacles but well worth it!

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