In January 2009 just having relocated to the East Coast, living in West Long Branch New Jersey I began to notice the full effects of my poor lifestyle choices on my body. I got on the scale which read the highest it has ever read for me: 200 lbs, give or take a few ounces. I couldn’t believe it! I knew I’d gained weight, but 200? We spent 9 days or so traveling by car with my family and husband from California to New Jersey and along the way we stopped at about a dozen Waffle Houses which became my favorite dive diner, hands down.
When I left Cali I weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 186. Even that was an exceptionally high number that I fluctuated with over the last 7 years, but 200 was unfathomable. Often you hear people describe their turning point for making major positive changes in their lives. Well, 200lbs was mine.
Four years later I’m down to 159lbs and still dropping the weight. I’ve managed to lose the weight slowly without engaging in crazy diets (one of the reasons I got to 200 in the first place), watching what I ate and exercise. Good old fashioned exercise. Many times I’ve wanted to take the easy way out and get plastic surgery, however there were two problems with that. One, its expensive, and two, I’m deathly afraid of having my body cut open and manipulated unnecessarily. I don’t blame people for having weight loss procedures such as liposuction or gastric bypass, I just don’t believe things like that will help people keep the weight off and deal with the underlying issues that lead us to put on the weight in the first place. Which more often than not is emotional eating.
For the next several months, I’ll continue to document my journey to getting to my health goal which is somewhere between 140-145lbs. I hope you will come to use this blog as a tool- one that will give provide ideas and inspiration to shedding your excess weight and discover new ways to motivate you and inspire you to motivate others. People should learn to enjoy their lives and become healthy and active participants in life rather than sitting on the sidelines. There’s no joy in being overweight, being too tired to play with your family, too embarrassed to go swimming, and avoid activities that would otherwise bring you excitement.
It’s not always easy for me to get motivated, I struggle often with image issues and negative self-talk. At times I feel guilty when I splurge and eat ice cream or foods that aren’t good for me. But I also remind myself that everything in moderation. I continue to compliment myself when I look in the mirror and see progress. I’ve found the road to a healthy lifestyle is a long one, but it can be great if you put in the effort and find ways to make it fun, and most importantly surround yourself with positive, supportive people.
I look forward to reading your stories, tips, advice, suggestions, and see what your goals are, etc. Nothing changes if nothing changes.
Sabrina-
Carolina Fit 
Hi Sabrina,
This is a great idea:) enjoyed your story. I do have a concern on your fixation with numbers. Why do you feel you want to weight 140-145? Is that a number from your past? It’s not the number but how you feel in your body, throw away the scale:) Are you letting a scale tell you how to FEEL:) I know I have for way too many years. I’ve broken the habit mostly, i do go ack to it once in awhile but there is a difference, I try to not let it tell me how to feel…Just a thought:) Love you girl and miss ya
Hey Chica,
My number, 140-145 is my weight goal that is considered a healthy range and is also realistic based on my age and body type. Now if I were aiming for my high school weight of 125-130 that was be very unrealistic. I try not to stress too much about the number, though it does act as a monitor to keep me balanced (pun intended). In today’s society its a challenge to live a healthy lifestyle, a scale is only one out of several tools to stay on track.
That’s amazing! Congratulations – you’re a real success story and I look forward to reading more about your journey 🙂
Get it girl!!!!