"Aha" Moment - Lorrie

The following story is written by my friend,  Lorrie B. She and I worked together for 2 years, and I was able to talk with her in bits-and-pieces about her journey to a better self. We would talk about the different things she was trying to do to lose weight, and I remember the day she announced that she had successfully gotten in the habit of going to the gym everyday, and was loving it! Then she endlessly invited me to go with her. (She quickly discovered that was a losing-battle). She is truly an inspiration for any young woman who is looking to lose weight, adapt a diet, and exercise more. Thanks for sharing your story, Lorrie!

   My first “aha” moment was in the summer of 2010 when I stepped on the scale at a local Big Lots. I was at my biggest, in the 270’s! I have been plus size my whole life but just kind of ignored it. The smallest I can remember being is a size 16 and that was when I was 13 years old. I started to realize the toll of the extra weight on my body. My back would go out every few weeks, I had severe pain in my feet even when I stood for only a few hours, It was harder to keep up with people, and don’t even get me started on “chub rub”.  If I wore a dress within a few hours my inner thighs would be swollen and at the end of the day they would be bleeding. I decided I needed to make a change so I could live a happier life. 

The first thing I needed to do was focus my mind and start setting goals for myself. Practicing SGI Buddhism really helped me achieve those things, through chanting. Being addicted to sugar  and cheese was a hard habit to break. I quit the sugary drinks. I was already a vegetarian at this point  but you might as well have called me a “cheese-atarian”. My boyfriend and I decided to go vegan for our health because of how addicted I was to cheese. As a result of these changes I dropped down to 258. I really wanted to lose more weight but didn’t know how to start.  This is when I saw celebrities on TV/ videos on you tube of people doing the lemonade diet and I decided to give it a try. I convinced my boyfriend to go along with me. On this diet my goal was to drink this lemonade and not eat  for at least a few weeks. Not surprisingly on day 4 I felt week and terribly hungry!  My boyfriend  came home and said that he had done some research on this diet and said that over all this was not a healthy way to lose weight. I agreed and that night we each had a giant bowl of red beans and rice. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed food so much! I did lose 7 pounds during that 4 day period but gained it right back. Ultimately this is when I decided to find a healthy approach to weight loss that would not be a quick fix but a lifestyle change.

A few weeks later my boyfriend called me from his work telling me that he had found this free calorie counting website “caloriecount.about.com”. I wasn’t sure if this would work for me but I gave it a try. It took a few weeks to get the hang of logging everything that I ate. I learned how many calories that I needed  to eat to lose the amount I wanted to lose per week (2 pounds) based off of my personal info like my height, age, and activity level. I realized the more that I exercised the more I could eat while losing weight.  The website started me off with 2,000 calories (now I‘m down to 1,700).  For the next 21 days exercised because I wanted to make a habit of  it. I would go for 6 mile walks with my boyfriend and go to the gym on the days we didn’t go walking. After 21 days I knew I was in the habit so from then on I allowed myself 1 day off per week. Sundays became my weigh in day, I focused on my nutrition, and wrote down every work out I did on my calendar. It was so exciting to watch the pounds come off each week and reach my goals! 

It has been almost 7 months of diet and exercise. Now I am down to 200.6 (57.4 lost). No longer am I in pain and I am over half way to my goal of losing 100 pounds in one year!