8k - Black Weight Loss Success

Paula wrote us to share her weight loss journey. She had weight loss surgery in 2003 and lost 130 pounds. In 2012, she renewed her weight loss efforts and dropped 40 pounds. She joined weight watchers and amp’d up her exercise efforts.

My name is Paula and I have struggled with weight my entire life. After my second son who was born in 2002, my weight really got out of control and I knew I had to do something. Over the years, I have tried every diet under the sun and they just didn’t work. I needed to do something quickly so I could be around for my boys. That is when I decided to have weight loss surgery on April 23,2003. On that day, I weighed in at a whopping 400 pounds (the before picture I took 2 days before surgery). Once I had the surgery, I lost just about 130 pounds and I felt great. Life was good.

Now, fast forward to 2012. Still feeling good, but not feeling healthy. I knew that if I didn’t want to see 400 pounds again, I needed to revamp my eating and get active. So, that’s what I did. I started out by cutting junk foods and making healthier food choices. I also started working out at home, doing Zumba and the Biggest Loser on the Wii. In 6 months, I lost 30 pounds. Next, I joined a local gym by my home and started taking Turbo Kick classes, spinning, and any other cardio class they offered. I also joined Weight Watchers, which was a godsend because it helped me learn about portion control and how to really make healthier food choices. It also helped me dropped another 10 pounds.

Now, I am a GLADIATOR lol. I take Tabata Boot camp classes at 5:30 am in the morning,where me and several other women go HARD w/the best trainer performing HIIT drills and challenging our bodies. The best part of it all, is that I have also fulfilled a dream I have had since I was a little girl. I am now a full blown RUNNER! I did my first 5K in Oct 2012, since then I have ran another 5K and an 8K in March 2013! My second 8K is coming up in June and then it’s time to train for my first half marathon! Losing almost 200 pounds has literally changed my life. I am am now a much happier, healthier and confident person then I ever was or ever thought I would be.

Paula weight loss surgery

Today’s featured weight loss story: Kashina lost 100 pounds with low carb eating, clean eating and exercise. She now runs more than 4 miles per day.

“I started my lifestyle change back in December 2011. I was around 270 maybe even 280 pounds. I’m not sure because I didn’t have a scale at the time. It had been a year since I had my baby and I hadn’t lost anything but my baby bump. I had no energy and my husband was pretty much doing everything around the house because it was just so much work to get off my big butt! I was miserable and hated my reflection in the mirror. One day my husband picked up a book and an old picture of me from when we first started dating fell out of it. I was at least 80 pounds thinner in that picture and that very day I decided I needed to get back to that size.

I’ve never been “skinny”, I’m 5’9″ and have a very large bone structure. I’m often mistaken for a Pacific Islander. My original diet plan was to get on a high protein, low carb diet and not to buy a scale for a while. I didn’t want to get stuck on a number. I know that weighing yourself daily can either encourage or discourage you. I felt that it might discourage me because I had a lot of weight to lose and wanted to lose it fast. To guage my progress I had a size 14 pants in the closet (I was wearing a 20), and I would try them on periodically to see how they fit. At first I couldn’t get them past my thighs. It took about 6 months of eating low carb for me to feel that I had got back to the size I was before the baby. Once I was there, I realized how overweight I still was. I still hadn’t stepped on a scale, and when I did I was still over 220lbs which I knew I didn’t want to be.

Kashina weight loss success

I started to get more energy and started doing a lot more around the house. I then decided that I needed to exercise. I started riding an exercise bike, but couldn’t really keep up with it because it hurt my butt and couldn’t really keep my baby away from the spinning wheel, so I decided I would start running. My first day I ran around my block which when I mapped it was .75 miles. I felt I could go further so I mapped out a mile and started running that daily. It started getting easier. Now I’m up to 4 miles a day. I just ran in my first 8K race 2 weeks ago and I was so happy that I had the stamina to run the full race without walking.

Right now, I weigh 180 and wear a size 10 pants. I’ve lost 100 pounds, but I still want to lose about 25 to 30 more. In addition to running I bought a weight bench a weight set and various other pieces of fitness equipment. I try to work a different muscle group every day. My goal has changed so much since I got started. I went from just wanting to get back into my size 14 pants, to wanting to get as fit as I possible can. I realized that I don’t just want to look good in clothes, I want to look good nude too! That’s where the weight training comes in. I really want to have nicely toned muscles. I’ve had to adjust my eating to continue weight loss. Now I don’t just eat low carb/high protein, but I eat clean which means no processed foods. I also eat 5 or 6 small meals a day with 25-30g of protein in each meal. I’m so much happier now that I’ve started to take care of my body and I realized that loving the skin you’re in doesn’t mean just accepting yourself the way you are, but loving yourself enough to do the very best you can for yourself which means feeding yourself the healthiest foods, exercising and getting enough rest.”

Kashina before and after