before weight loss

Update 3/12: Val is now down a total of 370 pounds and was recently featured on Good Morning America.  More info on that…

Today’s featured weight loss success story: Val lost more than 350 pounds without surgery.  She began with Weight Watchers and later learned to change her eating habits and exercise.  Her story is so inspiring and I’m so glad she shared it with us.  Here is what she shared with us:

“Most commonly, when we hear about someone’s successful weight loss, we rightly focus on how they did it. While I enjoy sharing my weight loss process, I also like to reveal ‘why’ I lost more than 350 pounds. To me, when making major life improvements ~ motives are just as important as methodology.

From a child, I was extremely overweight. I would have been an ideal student for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Get Fit initiative. Childhood obesity caused me to experience deep emotional pain and I learned to console my internal hurt with my Consoler-in-Chief ~ food. I never saw food as something that was hurtful me. To the contrary… food was always there to soothe and satisfy me.

Throughout my teen and college years, I continued to gain weight. Since I was very tall (6’ ft.) with a large body frame, I did not appear to weigh as much as I did. Even though, my physical presentation was quite overwhelming. In spite of my size, I wanted people to look beyond my physical appearance to see the wonderful person underneath all of the fat.

In early adulthood I began to experience physical challenges that were directly related to my weight. The excessive poundage began to take its toll on my joints and legs. Sometimes it would seem as if my knees were going to break. My ankles would swell and a varicose vein eventually ruptured in my right leg. The initial stages of several other health challenges that could have turned into major medical problems also began to emerge.

Food, my lifelong friend, had betrayed me. The very thing that had been my source of solace was making me sick. Ultimately my weight ballooned to nearly 600 pounds. I was forced to a point of decision. My choice was: Accept responsibility for my well-being or face a life filled with frustration, unfulfillment and extreme health challenges.

While in the hospital preparing for a surgical procedure, I needed to be weighed. I was too heavy for any of the hospital scales. Without asking me how I felt about it, the decision was made to take me outside to the loading dock to weigh me on the freight scale.

I wanted to die!

The hospital staff talked about me like I was not there or was an object. I felt like a piece of freight. After weighing me, on the way to surgery, they announced through their circuit radio system that they had a 600 pound woman heading to the surgical room…and they needed every available man to help transfer me to the operating table.

Deeply humiliated, I remember feeling so insignificant and invisible. What I knew for sure is that I never wanted to feel that way again. Shame, criticism and condemnation do not inspire but this experience was my turning point – the moment when the course of my life had to change. For the first time I faced the realization that I wanted to get the weight off – for good….for me!

My weight loss journey has been long. I have not always been consistent with doing the right things along the way. There have been many cycles of losing, gaining then losing again. I had to admit that my issues were not just physical; it was necessary for me to face some hard truths. Issues that I never dealt with because I anesthetized myself with food needed to be addressee. I also acknowledged the hypocrisy of trying to help others while willfully doing such harm to myself. It was time to confront the hurt of being misunderstood and rejected. I could no longer allow past pain to destroy my future. No longer would I forfeit my power for self-growth and development. After confronting my toxic connection with food, I began to establish healthier ways of dealing with challenging life issues.

Then I asked myself the most critical question: WHY?
Why wasn’t I fully enjoying the abundant life I deeply desired?
Why was I choosing to struggle with something that I could surrender?

Deep within ~ me always believed that God had a better and more fulfilling life for me. I knew I was valuable, abundant & loved.

I wanted to have a surgical weight loss procedure but was advised by my doctor that I was too large to undergo the surgery. He referred me to a dietitian who instructed me to go Weight Watchers for support and a more structured eating plan. I lost my first 100 pounds with Weight Watchers. I was ecstatic! Even though I still weighed around 485 pounds, I was now able to purchase clothes from a retail store. It had been years since was able to do that. I bought a size 28 pair of black stretch jeans. I had to lose another 20 pounds for them to fit comfortably and when I was able to zip my first jeans, you could not tell me I was one of the finest women in the world.

In addition to eating much smaller amounts of food, staying away from daily consumption of high fat, high carb food choices, I began to walk every day. Initially, I could barely walk a block without feeling exhausted but as I persevered, I progressed. My walks gradually increased to 3 – 4 miles, five or six days a week. I actually love working out. It feels good to sweat. And it’s so rewarding to get down to a new size. I now wear a size 14 top and 16/18 skirt/pants. {My goal is to be a size 12 – 14}

Additionally, one of the most important things I began to do is saturating my environment with positive messages. Daily faith-building affirmations became my indulgence. I would also set small, incremental weight goals for myself. I never thought about the fact that I had a mountain of weight to lose. I would say that I have to lose 5 or 10 pounds. And pound-by- pound and inch-by-inch ~ the weight came off and I gradually reached the milestone loss.

I also learned how to mute the voices (internal and external) that were destructive to my emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being. Learning to love myself for who God created me to be was pivotal. Love is absolute but we often learn to love (even ourselves) very progressively. I found that as I lost more and more weight, I felt better ~ physically, mentally and spiritually.”

Check her out online: www.shaped4success.com