Hey! My name is Sheila and I’m a 45 year old wife, mother, and virtual assistant. I love my family, traveling, reading, and physical fitness! I’m about to take you on my weight loss journey, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.

The Journey

In 2002, I realized that I was a fat chocoholic and needed to lose some weight. I was always fit until I got pregnant with my son. After gaining 75 lbs during pregnancy, I knew I had a long road ahead of me getting back into my size 8 pants. I was 23 years old at the time and losing weight was easy. All I thought I had to do was drop my caloric intake low and do a little exercise.

I started keeping a food journal and tried to eat under 1,000 calories a day. Some days I only ate around 800 calories. I bought one of those little trampolines and started to jog on it a few times a week. Before too long, I was back in my size 8s and weighing less than I did before I got pregnant. However, I was what I call “skinny fat.”

Skinny Fat = A thin person that has no muscle tone and looks great in clothes, but horrible naked.

Dropping my caloric intake down to around 1,000 a day was very damaging on my metabolism and started my horrible journey into fighting my weight and becoming unhealthy.

My husband worked night shift every other week and I was at home with the baby at night. I get bored easily and one of the few things that kept me from being bored was eating. Guess what my first choice was? Yep! Chocolate! When my husband was working, I would make myself a batch of chocolate pudding and eat the whole thing. I would also go to our neighborhood store and buy myself a pint of Blue Bell ice cream. I was in total heaven while eating my pudding and ice cream.

As you can imagine, the pounds started piling on. My husband couldn’t understand how I was gaining so much weight. I didn’t eat enough food to gain that much weight, he said. Little did he know, I was doing all of my binge eating alone. Chocolate was my secret lover.

My eating habits didn’t change for years and before I knew it, I weighed over 200 lbs and wore a size 20W! That was OK with me. There were a lot of overweight women out there. Surely if they were overweight, it was just fine for me to be overweight. Right?

I have had back problems since I was a cheerleader in high school and due to being overweight, the pain was much worse and at times, I could not even move. I saw a doctor who said I needed to lose at least 30 lbs. I was also diagnosed with high blood pressure and placed on medication to treat it. The doctor that told me to lose 30 lbs for my back was much fatter than me! How dare he tell me to lose 30 lbs when he needed to lose at least 150! My bad habits continued. As long as the medication took care of the high blood pressure, no worries!

My husband never once told me I was fat and I thought it didn’t affect our romance, so no worries there either. Well, I was very wrong. My husband finally had a heart-to-heart talk with me and I learned that he did know I was fat and felt that my weight was causing me to retreat. Of course it did! I didn’t want him to see me fat and naked! He tried to be encouraging by helping me eat more healthily. However, I was a chocoholic and I had to have it! The more my husband tried to encourage me, the more chocolate I ate. I mean, this was a girl who would go workout at Curves and then stop by Burger King on the way home for dinner. I was getting nowhere fast!

In 2000, we built a new house and had full length mirrors in our master bath (something we never had before). Every morning I would step out of the shower and see my full naked body in the mirror. Who was that fat girl? Not me! One day as I stood there looking at myself, I could hear the cheerleader in me yelling, “Help me! Help me!” The light turned on.

My husband brought some meal plans for diabetics home in various calorie ranges. I found the one for eating 1,500 calories a day and started it. My husband was also “dieting” and was having great success. I tried to stick to the new “diet” as much as possible. However, there was always my secret lover – chocolate.

I had to have surgery and after the surgery, my intestines “went to sleep” as the doctor said. This caused me to lose a few more pounds as I could not keep any food down. My husband told me that since I lost those pounds, it was a great way to jump-start my “diet” again. I had to agree.

I used to lift weights when I was a cheerleader and loved it. I decided to add weight lifting in addition to my “diet” to see if I could speed up the weight loss. The weight lifting did help and I lost around 20 lbs the first year of my “diet.” This new lifestyle continued and I would lose a pound here and there, but no real significant weight loss for a whole year.

In 2002, we decided to take our first cruise to the Southern Caribbean. I decided that if I was going to be cruising around the Caribbean in a swim suit, I needed to get serious! I found a cruising website that had a message board. One of the forums was on losing weight. I jumped right in and got some good support. I also increased my workouts by adding some step aerobics twice a week. Adding the aerobics made my weight loss speed way up – I could actually see muscles! I ended up losing around 50 lbs total.

Before our cruise, we went to Destin, Florida for a few days so we could do some clothes shopping and get some pre-cruise sun. One of my high school friends met us down there and she helped me buy my cruise wardrobe – thanks Judy! Imagine how happy I was going from a size 20W to a size 12/14. The first time I tried on some clothes and I didn’t have to shop in the “Plus” section, made me cry like a baby from happiness!

I continued visiting the cruising forum and developed some wonderful relationships. I met one lady in particular who was a great inspiration to me and it made me push even farther with my weight loss. (Thank you, Lynn!) Through this forum, I learned that the word “diet” was not a good word. If you think of it as a “diet,” you will feel deprived and have a tendency to binge. It is a “lifestyle change” because you will be eating healthily and exercising the rest of your life if you want to stay healthy.

I began taking my workouts more seriously and added some sort of cardio 5 times a week while continuing to lift weights 3 times a week. The scale was going down, but the important part was that I was losing inches! As one of my personal trainers said, “Who cares what the scale says! You don’t walk around with your weight plastered to your forehead.” I’ve tried to remember this advice, but still depend on the scale. I also take my measurements at least once a month and know when a certain pair of pants get a little tight, it is time to step into high gear!

Results & a Little Chocolate

In total, I have lost around 70 lbs and now wear a size 8. My high blood pressure is gone without the aid of  medication. However, weight will always be a constant struggle for me because I’m a chocoholic, but I’ve learned that I can maintain my weight and have chocolate at the same time. Now, how neat is that?! Guess what the key word is? Moderation.

I hope my story has inspired you to go forth and conquer! As I say, YOU CAN DO IT!

Thanks for reading!
Sheila

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