My Two Year Weight Loss Anniversary

Over the long weekend my family and I visited Estes Park, Colorado, in a trip that has turned out to be a bit of a yearly tradition. I’ll write more about what we did and saw later, but I wanted to take a moment to celebrate a big accomplishment of mine which I celebrated the anniversary of over Labor Day.

Left, 2011. Right, 2013.

Labor Day 2011 looked quite a bit different from Labor Day 2013… as you can see above. I have always struggled with my weight, but by Labor Day 2011 I was at my heaviest weight ever and extremely miserable. I had just started Weight Watchers that week and felt like I was never going to get out of the whole I’d dug myself. It was a terrible feeling, and I truly felt like I was at rock bottom. Estes Park was where I decided it was time to make a big, big change in my life, and I came home to Iowa with a sense of purpose. I was going to lose this weight, no matter what.

My closest friends saw the weight come off little by little, and I think some of them were shocked to see the contrast from 2011 to 2013 when I posted it on Facebook. Others don’t see me very often, and to them it looked like the weight just fell right off. Everyone was surprised when I told them I had lost 90 pounds.

Here is the real story of how I lost my weight, and I hope sharing it will help others realize the hard work and dedication it takes to go through that kind of lifestyle change. It was the biggest learning experience of my life, and the tools I gained in the process have come into every facet of my life.

Like I said, I started out on Weight Watchers and weighed myself for the first time in probably three years. I had just gone up to a size 20 in pants and was absolutely mortified. I did not want to be a size 20 then or ever. Weight Watchers was a good place to start for me. I could still have Buffalo Wild Wings and beer on the weekend, but during the week I had to eat in moderation. I started to eat more regular meals, and at more fruits and vegetables. What I ate didn’t really change that much, it was more about learning moderation and adding in some more healthy foods. I exercised for thirty minutes about five or six days a week, mostly Jillian Michaels videos and bike rides.

About two months into my weight loss I decided I wanted to try the Couch to 5K program. I had no intentions of ever being a runner, but thought the program would be a good way to help me increase my endurance, which I could then take into other workouts.

Surprise, surprise. I fell in love with running. I especially loved running in light rain and fall was the perfect time for me to start running. I didn’t miss a single day on the program and by the time Christmas came around I was able to run three miles without stopping. I shed a lot of weight during Couch to 5K and had lost almost forty pounds by the time I was done.

Right after Christmas I went to India for a month. I was studying abroad and India will always hold a special place in my heart because like Estes Park, it was a turning point in my life. It was in India that I really became even more in touch with the natural world, and I could feel a spiritual shift in the way I was thinking. I became more appreciative of the small things around me, I became more grateful, happier, and most of all more focused on what I wanted out of life and how I could build that life for myself.

While in India I didn’t pay much attention to losing weight. I was just enjoying the culture. I wanted to eat everything, try everything, knowing that if I didn’t I would regret it later. Towards the very end of the trip I got food poisoning, which is an effective weight loss technique but not one I would recommend :).

I came home from India having lost another thirty pounds. I had to go down two sizes in jeans. Even clothes I bought in India had become too big for me by the time I landed.

While in India I read the book Born to Run, which made me even more excited to continue running when I came back. The day after I returned I went to the gym and ran two very fast miles, but felt pretty gassed by the end. It was clear that I needed to revisit the end of Couch to 5k, which I did, and by Valentine’s Day I had run my first 5K, the Red Flannel Run in Des Moines. It was a very emotional experience for me when I finished and I was crying quite a bit. The chubby girl who couldn’t even run a mile in gym class had just run three, and it was at this time that I realized with hard work and dedication you can really accomplish anything.

Around this time I dropped Weight Watchers and started using SparkPeople, which is a free service that I would highly recommend to anyone. I still use SparkPeople to help me get back on track if I feel I’ve fallen off the horse.

I ran another 5K, and then started training for my first 10K, which I finished. I did quite a few 5K’s that spring, a triathlon, and started racing bikes. I was working out a lot, but I only lost about ten pounds during that time.

After graduating from college I moved home with my parents. My goal for that summer was to maintain my weight until my wedding in August, and I was successful but it was very difficult and stressful as my parents ate very differently from me, even at that time. I was unemployed and working out a lot, training for my first half marathon.

In September 2012 Jason and I moved into our own apartment. I ran my first half marathon in October around that time Jason and I became vegetarians, and I became mostly vegan. I lost my last ten pounds that fall, and have bounced around in those ten pounds ever since. I don’t weigh myself very much anymore, maybe once a month just to keep things in check. I looked at losing weight as a lifestyle change, which means I’ll never be done. I’ll always be trying to be healthier, be better. Right now I’m focused less on cardio and more on toning up and building muscle. Now I do resistance training three days a week, high intensity interval runs twice a week, and might go for a slower bike ride once or twice a week. I’m eating a high protein vegan diet with a cheat day on the weekend (usually not vegan). This is very different from the way I ate when I was losing weight, but I’m seeing results from the diet and it’s working for me.

For people who are trying to lose weight, my biggest advice is to not build a diet but build a life. Build a life you can live in. For me, I could not give up beer. I just couldn’t. It’s too much a part of my social life and my life with Jason. I love trying new beer, going to beer release parties, and just having a couple of drinks with friends. I knew that and know that. Because I love beer I don’t eat very many desserts or high fat meals, but this was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

When I was losing weight I hated strength training, so I didn’t focus on it because I knew I would fall of the bandwagon. That’s not to say I never did strength training, because I did, but not at the level I do now. You need to find the healthy life you can live in and what is part of that. Envision what your life could be like if you were healthier and then make the changes that will get you to that life. That is the only way you will be truly successful.