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Angelia lost 57 pounds

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Featured weight loss journey: Angelia lost 57 pounds with Weight Watchers Points Plus, learning to eat healthy and working out on a elliptical machine.  Here is what she had to say about losing the weight:

I wanted to share my story. My motivation for losing weight was a recent diagnosis of a chronic back condition and arthritis throughout my spine, hips and knees. In addition, I couldn’t climb the stairs without getting winded and was so tired all the time. I felt like I was too young at 42 years old to be dealing with all of this and the best thing I could do for myself was to lose some weight. Two months after my back surgery, I joined Weight Watchers Online (the Points Plus plan). This weight loss program helped me learn what to eat and how to eat, as well as when to STOP eating!! I lost 25 pounds in the first three months without working out.  I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and fish. I eat what I want, so if I crave sweets or fried chicken I can have them, but only occassionally and in moderation.  I also gave up soft drinks about five years ago. I drink mostly water and tea.

At the beginning of month three, I started working out 15-20 minutes a day on an elliptical machine. I worked my way up to 45 minutes a day which I do now. I also do resistance training with bands and small weights. I started in September 2012 at 239.6 pounds and lost 55 pounds by May 2013. As of August 2013, I am down to 182.8 pounds.  I went from a size 18-20 to a size 10-12.  My ultimate goal is to weigh 175 pounds – the size I think is right for me based on my frame and age (now 44). Even thought I still have significant health challenges, I feel so much better and it is nice to go to the doctor and not have her tell me I need to lose weight and I won’t have so much pain – weight can no longer be used as the culprit! I feel like Weight Watchers and exercise are things I can use to sustain my weight loss for life and I plan to do just that.

Angelia weight loss

TaTanesha lost 103 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss journey:  TaTanesha lost 103 pounds by exercising regularly and eating a high protein diet after the loss of a child.  Now, she wants to inspire others to lose the pounds.  Here is what she shared with us:

weight loss journeyHi, My name is TaTanesha. I have lost 103 pounds in a little over a year. I lost it by exercising 6 days a week and loading up on the protein. I also have a weigh loss page on Facebook called, “watchTashrink…a weight loss journey”.  On the page, I share my eating habits, old photos, menus, and workout routines.  I want to thank BWLW for being such an inspiration to not only me but to many black women out there.

What motivated me to start my weight loss journey was the fact that I was so tired of buying big clothes and tired of my body hurting from the excess weight. I gained weight during a period of depression after my daughter passed away.  The weight just packed on. I looked up and I was a whopping 305 pounds. I decided to go on Weight Watchers. I lost 60 pounds and then I decided to give that a break and do it on my own. I ate more protein, cut the junk food, started doing Zumba and was walking 6 days a week. My current weight is 202 pounds. It took a year, I’m healthier now.  I’m motivated and blessed. Thank you so much for this page, it”s an inspiration.  BWLW, Keep up the great work!!!

TaTanesha weight loss

Keesha lost 65 pounds

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Today’s weight loss before and after story: Keesha lost 65 pounds with Zumba, walking, fasting, changing her eating habits and help from Weight Watchers.  Here is what she shared with us about her weight loss journey:

Hi my name is Keesha. This is my story and I’m sticking to it.  My journey started in April 2011. I was 36 years old I weighed 240 pounds. I managed to lose 10 pounds by weening myself off of my drug of choice, soda. That got me down to 230 pounds. I was experiencing a few life altering situations. Pregnant teen daughter, death of close family members and a troubled marriage. It just seemed that no matter how hard I tried to make everyone else happy. I still felt as if I was lacking. I wasn’t healthy mentally, physically or spiritually.  I realized that It was time for me to do something for me. No, I couldn’t go on a shopping spree, a dream vacation or anything like that. So, I took a look in the mirror (for free) and gazed straight into the windows of my soul…MY eyes. I was lost and I didn’t recognize me. I set out on a journey to find ME.

I started off with getting baptized because I knew I couldn’t do this without GOD. I joined church and started to pray more. I started using my YMCA membership that I had been paying on for years and never used. Then I started doing Zumba classes. I joined run/walk groups via Facebook. I also started walking on my own. The weight wasn’t going anywhere. I googled information on losing weight and discovered that losing weight was more than just exercise.  It was about a lifestyle change. I had to change my way of thinking and EATING! I went on a 17 day fast. Plenty of water, green tea, no sweets, no sugar, no bread, lean protein (chicken, turkey and fish), no beef or pork for me, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and rest.  I was eating right and hitting the gym at least 4-5 times a week. In that amount of time, I lost 26 pounds. It was on!

I was now a grandma and I wanted to live for my children and my grandchildren. I wanted to be a shining example for them and me. It took me from October 2011- March 2012 to lose 30 pounds on my own. My goal was 170. Now I was at 200 pounds and I was feeling great but I wasn’t finished. I hit the gym even harder. I continued doing Zumba, joined a spinning class, a BLT class and start hitting the trails. I lost 20 more pounds that put me at 180 and BAM! I hit a plateau. Those last 10 ponds wouldn’t budge. So, I had heard about Weight Watchers from a few friends. I saw their results so I decided to join online. In one week I lost my 10 pounds!! I hit my mark! 170 pounds. I had signed up for three months, so I kept going. In August of 2012, I was down to 165 pounds. I was happy there. Mentally and physically so I stopped.  To date, I am now 38 years old. I went from a size 18 to a size 10!!! From 230 pounds to 165 pounds! I have lost a total of 65 pounds and have maintained the weight and healthy eating habits, with the help of Weight Watcher from time to time, for one year!!  (I fall off sometimes but I dust myself off and pick up where I fell off) With hard work, God, good friends and faith in yourself. This and any other journey is possible! When people see me they say I’m high school skinny. More importantly for me though, I feel good about the possibility of adding at least 10 more years to my life by getting healthy. It will allow me more time and energy to live!!!!

Keesha weight loss story

Kia lost 155 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss success story: Kia lost 155 pounds.  This 5’4″ mom has been dealing with her weight all of her life and had lap band weight loss surgery but gained the weight back.  She credits Weight Watchers, Zumba, bootcamp, walking and running as a big part of her transformation. Despite personal tragedy, she has pushed to be healthy and happy.  I think her story is moving and heartfelt.   Here is what she shared with us:

I am a married mother to two children, ages 2 and I have a very challenging,demanding career. This background information provides a little insight into what could be considered the chaos of my everyday life. It is challenging, yet can also be rewarding. It also doesn’t leave very much time for incorporating a healthy lifestyle that for 37 years, I did not employ. Change is definitely, in my opinion, one of the hardest thing for any person to accept because I believe you have to rediscover who you are! That is where my journey began!

I have been overweight all of my adult life. I started to gain weight as a pre-teen, around the age of 12. While in high school, my dad allowed me to sign up for NutriSystem. I was able to lose approximately 30 pounds, which put my weight at 168 pounds. I hated the food and the program was not sustainable because eating their food was the only key to success. Standing only 5″4″ tall, by the time I entered college, I weighed a whopping 210 lbs. The weight continued to snowball from there. When I returned home from college I weighed 260 pounds. I immediately joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. This also proved to be futile because I was not ready to change my eating habits. I loss no weight during this time. I quit!

Through the years, I tried and failed many times at all kinds of weight loss plans. Mostly crash dieting and extreme food depravation. I would lose weight for the short term, at times as much as 40 pounds, but I would shortly gain it all back plus a little more.

Kia weight loss story

I haven’t yet shared this part of my story with everyone because it is deeply personal, but I wanted to be totally honest.

By the age of 31, I was completely fed up with myself topping out at 319 pounds. This prompted my decision to go under the knife and have lap-band surgery. This has proven to be one of the worse decisions that I have ever made. Although this surgery probably assisted in me being able to get pregnant. Prior to the surgery, I did not have a consistent menstrual cycle for years. My doctor often told me that this was a side affect of being morbidly obese. After the surgery I immediately dropped 50 lbs and within a month I found out I was pregnant with my first born. I was over the moon with excitement and did not care that I had just invested a ton of money into the surgery. Within another 18 months I was pregnant again, but this time I wasn’t so lucky. I loss the son that I had prayed for after 5 months of pregnancy. This sent me into a tail spin. I had no outlet for stress. Eating was what provided comfort in any uncomfortable situation. I quickly started to put the pounds back on. By the grace of God, I was pregnant again within a year with another son who is now two years old. I never once had the lap band adjusted. I believe that even if I did adjust the band, it would not have sustained weight loss because I was not ready to change my mind about food. ]

During my second pregnancy I developed hypertension. I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me at the age of 36, but I accepted it as my fate. I thought that I was just an overweight woman. I spent many years convincing myself that I had achieve the American dream because I had a husband, two children, four fish and two birds. What more did I need? I was worried about the life threatening effects of hypertension, but not enough to change my lifestyle.

On a random night out with my girlfriends, I was chatting with a stranger who happened to be really into fitness. We started to chat about my fitness journey and I have to admit I was pretty defeated. He encourage me to give it one more try, if not for myself, then for my children. The following Tuesday, January 17, 2012, I walked into Weight Watchers with a friend weighing in at 299.4 pounds. I initially only wanted to join for one month to see what it was all about, but after the first meeting I was hooked. I signed up to do it all. I wanted to work the plan to the fullest to see if I could do it. After the first week I was down 4 pound. The second week, I was down another 4 pounds. I thought that this was impossible. This continued for about a month and then the weight loss started to slow to about a pound per week. I realized then that I need to incorporate exercise into my plan. I have never been very patient, so I knew in order to stick with this I was going to need to see results… FAST!! I started doing Zumba on my WII 5 or 6 days a week with my husband and children. I followed this routine for months, barely missing a day. When the weather started to get warm, i signed up to start walking 5K’s. This changed my life. I started walking along the Chicago lakefront everyday 3 – 4.5 miles. By the end of July I was able to run the entire path, albeit slow, but I still did it. This started my “like” for running (I’m still not in love). Running for me is the time that I have quiet space, with just my thoughts and my breathing. I often cry when I run, but it’s a good cry, a release of emotion. I have found out from talking to other runners that this is a common phenomenon. Running allows me to be FREE of stress!

In September, it started to get cold and I started running on a treadmill! Boring! Yet again I had to be flexible if I wanted to stay on the path to weight loss. I was already down nearly 100 lbs, I couldn’t quit now. I joined a bootcamp with a friend. This is where I developed a love for circuit training. In October, I was referred to Andrea Nichols-Everett, who own D3: Dre’s Diesel Dome. I initially started doing the bootcamp only two days a week and I would run the other three days. After two months I was hooked and changed my program to Monday – Friday, while still running three days a week.

Today, I weighed in at 144 pounds at Weight Watchers. That puts my official weight loss at 155.4 pounds.  Slowly, but surely changing my mind about who I am has led me to change how I think about what i eat!

Jacquelyn lost 76 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss success story: Jacquelyn lost 76 pounds in 7 months by following the Weight Watchers plan and exercising hard.  Here is what she shared with us:

I’ve lost 76 pounds since Jan 1st, 2013.  My motivation is my mom,my son and my best friend. Weight watchers and exercising are the only things I used during my transformation.  I still have 40 more pounds to go.  I walk 4 miles a day and do Zumba 4 times a week.  I lift weights 2 times a week.

My motivation for losing weight was my family.   When I joined Weight Watchers, I loss 8 pounds in the first week and another 6 pounds the next week.My family cheered me on so that I didn’t want to stop. My eating habits were bad because I didnt have portion control.  My husband made me a man sized plate and I ate until it was gone and wanted more. I often went to bed full and miserable. Weight Watchers gave me the control I needed and helped me to not only understand food but underatand how it affected my body and weight loss. My starting weight was 285 on Jan 1st, 2013 and as of July 26th, I weigh 209.  I have loss 76 pounds. My workouts are continuous. At each moment of the day, I think about what I could be doing to help my journey.  I excercise about two and a half hours a day and most of that time is taken up by my daily walk/run regimen. I do zumba 4 times a week and I lift weights 2 times a week for toning purposes. My transformation took 7 months  I still want to loose avout 40 more pounds before I go into maintenance mode and I hope to do that by December of this year. My mom and my best friend are great supporters becauae we work out together everyday.

Jacquelyn weight loss story

Shaniqua lost 102 pounds

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Let’s show some Black Women Losing Weight love to Shaniqua!  She has lost 102 pounds going from 285 pounds down to 183 pounds.  Check out her before and after photos. Here is what she shared with us:

“This has been the longest journey of my life. Depression had me at my heaviest weight in 2006.  I weighed 285 pounds. By the grace of God, I woke up, got up and started moving. I cut out fried foods and fast food.  I also started taking a step class once a week for exercise. I went from 285 pounds to 206 pounds within two years and I stayed at 206 lbs. from 2008-2011. Then, I had my second child and went back up to 225 lbs. Before depression could sink back in, I joined Weight Watchers.  I went from 225 pounds to my current weight of 183 pounds with the Weight Watchers weight loss plan.”

Shaniqua weight loss story

Lindsey lost 140 pounds

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Update: Lindsey has lost a total of 140 pounds and her loose skin removal surgery is being chronicled on a new show, Skin Tight, on the TLC network. (Jan 27th at 10pm EST). More info on the show.

lindsey before and after

July 2013: Today’s weight loss before and after story: Vlogger Lindsey M. Adams lost 126 pounds.  She realized God’s healthy plan for her life, left an abusive relationship and learned to eat right and exercise with programs like Weight Watchers.  Here is what she shared bout her weight loss journey…

Lindsey weight loss storyLuke 1:37 “ For with God nothing shall be impossible “ That is the foundation that transformed a 5’5″, 307 pound women into a healthy, whole and fit 181 pound woman today. After 126 lbs. lost and still losing; God has been my number one source, provider, intercessor, healer and motivator. I started my Journey in July 2011, after the Lord spoke to my spiritual accountability partner about the enemy’s plan to kill me with morbid obesity. I wore a size 22/24 and weighed over 300 pounds. Most importantly I had low self- value and esteem and was in abusive relationships for over 8 years. I found myself being the “other woman” or the “side-line” piece because I tried replacing my feelings of rejection with male attention. Between July 2011 and October 2011, I lost 26 pounds by walking 1 hour on my local track for 3 days a week. In October 2011, I joined Weight Watchers and a nutritional program called “Body Breakthru”. As a member of these programs, I learned lifestyle changes and ways to face my weight loss challenges. I also joined LA Fitness and became an avid group fitness participant. Over a total of 15 months, I lost my first 100 lbs. Today, I am a size 10/12 and 181 pounds. I am excited to reach my goal and I continue to add variety and intensity to my workouts. I also work diligently to stop over eating and emotional eating, as well as to practice better portion control and honest calories tracking. I have been a motivational speaker for the Weight Watchers’ Jennifer Hudson Center in Chicago.  I am also an online personality creating videos about my weight loss journey on LindseymAdams.com.

weight loss success photos

Samentha lost 40 pounds

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Let’s show Samentha some love for achieving a loss of 40 pounds by changing her eating habits with Weight Watchers and working out regularly.  Here is what she shared with us:

My decision to lose weight was the best thing I could’ve made for myself. I gained self confidence, self respect, and learned to love and embrace myself all over again.

I have 2 children with Autism.  Accommodating my life and dedicating all of my time to them caused me to neglect myself. What I finally came to realize was, neglecting myself was just as bad as neglecting the kids. My son and daughter needed me at my best. So, I joined Weight Watchers in July 2012. I lost 30 pounds in the first 3 months. In July 2012, I was 204 lbs. Today, I am proud to say that I am 164 pounds and still losing!

I workout outdoors at least 4 times a week. My routine is mostly running and using weighted jump ropes. I also use free weights at home to tone my arms and squats to work my lower body; especially my buns

It was hard sometimes sticking to my regimen and sometimes I’ve lacked motivation and became discouraged. My friends and family are my backbone. I told EVERYONE I could about my goal. They all helped keep me accountable for my choices and actions concerning my health and lifestyle. I have learned that it does take a village.

I finally feel beautiful and liberated. Hopefully my story can help liberate others. Be happy and be healthy.

Samentha weight loss story

Latavia lost 150 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss before and after story: Latavia lost 150 pounds.  She went from a size 22 to a size 8/10 with Weight Watchers, seeing a nutritionist and working out 5 days a week or more.  Here is what she shared with us.

5 years ago, right before I graduated from college, Is when I began working out. I started by working out 3 days a week for a hour a day.  Gradually, I worked myself up to exercising 5 or more days a week for an hour a day. I joined Weight Watchers and started tracking everything I ate. Within a month I lost 10 pounds.  By the end of the first year I lost 100 pounds and I went from a size 22 to a size 14. In December 2012, I started seeing a nutritionist who helped me make better choices in terms of my eating habits. Since December, I have lost 50 pounds and currently wear a size 10 or 8. I have so much more energy, I feel healthier and I can shop anywhere I want!

Latavia weight loss story

Jimella lost 33 pounds

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June 2014 Update: “I was featured last year however I’ve made progress since then. I am down 40 lbs total, which is a 7 pound difference from before.  This is after adding running to my routine and incorporating weights a little bit more. I’ve noticed that I’m losing inches, especially through my midsection. After my story was featured on your blog and holidays rolling around I did gain about 10 lbs back. However, when the new year came in I got back on track. I’m not ashamed to admit that I gained because there’s definitely ups and downs with this weight loss journey. I always say it’s a journey with no destination because this is for life, even after the goal weight is reached. You still have to continue maintaining the lifestyle change. I love the BWLW page for constantly motivating and inspiring. My journey continues!” – Jimella @ear_candy_couture

Jimella before and after

Original Post – July 2013  – Let’s show some BWLW love to Jimella!  She lost 33 pounds and fought off high blood pressure with Weight Watchers and working out.  Here is what she shared with us:

I began my weight loss transformation Feb. 20, 2013 although I’ve been overweight since June 18, 1980 (the day I was born). Last time I went to the doctor my blood pressure was 185/110. I would have slight headaches periodically I’m sure due to increased pressure and my love of salty foods. I refused to get on any type of medication. I just couldn’t see myself taking medication everyday at (then) 32 years old. I felt too young to be doing all that especially when I knew this could be fixed with weight loss. Of course this runs in my family and I’ve seen it take such a great toll on close family from strokes to kidney failure and I just can’t find myself 20+ years down the road in that same cycle.

I began by changing my eating habits drastically. I started eating more vegetables and/or juicing, whereas before I would go days if not weeks at a time without eating any type of vegetation. I threw out ALL junk food and salty foods, which was hard at first because my weakness is juice and chips (which I still struggle with). Eventually I joined Weight Watchers which I love because it teaches you about portion control and how to make healthier eating choices. If I couldn’t calculate the points on it then I just wouldn’t eat it. I became active by working out 4-5 times/week in the gym. I started making my workouts more fun by doing outdoor activities like going bike riding on the beach and hiking and now I’m down 33lbs but the journey continues. My goal is to be in a comfortable size 14 jeans (currently size 18, previously size 22). I’m still in awe when I look at my pics. I love it! Once I start to see my collar bones pertrude a little more then I’ll really know I’m making extreme progress, LOL.

When I found pages such as this one and all the fitness and eat clean pages on Instagram, I became that much more motivated and encouraged. I love seeing all of the success stories from everyone but primarily from other black women because we have such a bad stigma on us when it comes to health and fitness (or should I say the lack thereof). It feels so good to see us conquering that stereotype and I’m even more proud of the discipline, strength, and dedication that God has blessed me with to join that fight.

Jimella weight loss before and after