100 lb losers...share your story

[ArmyBella]

I started dieting after a boyfriend I had, broke up with me stating that I was too fat and not good looking enough for him.

I got a gym membership and started working out on a daily basis. It was hard dragging myself to the gym at first because I was on a so-called healthy diet... Fruits, vegetables and lean meat. I ended up putting on weight!

I decided to call a friend of mine who happens to be an Army recruiter and told him I was finally joining the Military like I'd been wanting for 5 years...but I neded to lose weight.

He suggested that I try Atkins. I had no idea what low carb could do for me! I bought Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution and read it from cover to cover. I started the plan in April of 2007.

I was amazed at the results. I dropped over 112 pounds in 4 months... and I had never been so happy!

I swore in the Army on 9 Aug 2007 and left for Boot Camp not too long after. I ended up putting on weight because the food we were fed was just too high in carbs....

So here I am, trying to get rid of 30 pounds which won't be hard, I am sure. I did it once... and I can do it again.

As for that boyfriend of mine, he was shocked when he saw pictures of me and apologize for being an ass. Too bad! I am so glad it didn't work out because I am about to marry the TRUE love of my life. Someone who deserves me and loves me unconditionally.

[ArmyBella]

Originally Posted by bowulf

I have posted 211 pound success story in a video on you tube. Atkins Diet Success Story

My state newspaper did recent article on it before I ran the recent marathon. The short story is I discovered how bad off I actually was at 429 pounds on the way back from Utah in a cramped airplane seat. That and watching my friends from my former unit be deployed to Iraq convinced me I needed to do something. Luckily I had a brother who tried the Atkins diet before me and had lost 75 pounds despite me jeering him initially. This was the first time I was successful in any attempt to lose weight, and I remain committed to keep proving that I am not that old Kent any longer.

My success photos can be found here.

Whats up soldier? I can relate to your story a bit... Congrats!!!!
Wait a minute... are you a 96B too? LOL ( now 35F )
Amazing.... me too!!! Hahaha

[Sorithickulous]

Originally Posted by bowulf

I have posted 211 pound success story in a video on you tube. Atkins Diet Success Story

My state newspaper did recent article on it before I ran the recent marathon. The short story is I discovered how bad off I actually was at 429 pounds on the way back from Utah in a cramped airplane seat. That and watching my friends from my former unit be deployed to Iraq convinced me I needed to do something. Luckily I had a brother who tried the Atkins diet before me and had lost 75 pounds despite me jeering him initially. This was the first time I was successful in any attempt to lose weight, and I remain committed to keep proving that I am not that old Kent any longer.

My success photos can be found here.

Just thought I'd say I looove your videos on youtube...I was finally able to make chicken and a mock danish because of you! Very good tips...will be having that chocolate cake in a few days on my birthday

[Sorithickulous]

I look forward to posting my weight loss story here one day...in the kinda near future

[lovehatetragedy]

So many amazing stories. ^_^

I have lost a little over 100 lbs, and I still have 100 to go before I'm at my goal. Would love to share my story, but I think that can wait until I reach my goal. Keep up the good work everyone! And as for those just starting out, just stick with it. It is very possible. And you CAN do it.

[redo]

Very nice stories very inspiring

I'm about to hit the 80lb mark.

As for the posts about the army I always thought you'd lose weight in the army lol esp bootcamp I heard it was grueling.

[CaroleKI61]

This story is about Carole written by three year old “Crystal“.

I am writing this story from my inner child’s point of view.

I call my inner child Crystal, as in Crystal clear, sparkling and perfect.

Carole was born in 1943. She had a very emotionally disturbed childhood filled with heartbreaking memories.

Carole and I chose to keep the particulars a secret.

Carole had wonderful hard working parents, four sisters and a brother. She was raised in a gorgeous little town in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario., Canada.

Carole recalls that the rewards for her physical and mental abuse from outsiders were sweet treats, and pennies for candy. This quickly turned the emotionally neglected child into a teenager that ballooned into a size of 24.

Carole had a playful smile- a smile that expressed an innocent delight in life, she wanted so much to love and be loved. On the rare occasions that she attended school, she became the class clown and was sent to the principal’s office daily to receive the black leather strap across her little hands for disrupting the class with her laughter. Her laughter wasn’t genuine though it was a merely an attention seeking game, a foolish game which caused her deep hurt and humiliation.

Photographs of those years showed Carole looking forlornly alone, and her pale freckled little face betrayed the painful struggle that was going on inside her. Unshed tears gleamed in her vulnerable green eyes. Nevertheless, she remained the trouper, always doing for others, always concerned, even when suffering from rejection, fear and heartache.

She wasn’t feeling sorry for herself or playing the victim. But she was hurting, she was frustrated and she was confused.

Carole was reeling, struggling to find herself and was tired of looking after her many cousins. At the age thirteen; she worked, in hospitals, laundries, egg packing plants, menial jobs at menial wages. Unwanted feelings from times past kept cruelly floating back to the surface. Carole learned that she could sooth those painful feelings with food.

At the age of seventeen, following a heart wrenching experience, she packed a little bag, boarded the train and then she left her hometown and moved to the big city. The bright array of city lights terrified her. Penniless, hungry and with holes in each shoe, she humbled herself and had her dad send her a train ticket to go back home. The day that she was about to depart, she met Frank. When she met Frank and married at age nineteen she weighed two hundred and twenty pounds. She gave birth to seven children and suffered greatly when she had three miscarriages.

Carole’s thoughts, behaviour, and patterns crippled her life.

Her weight continued to climb and at the age of fifty-nine she weighed four Hundred and fourteen pounds. Diets did not work for her and yet she tried them all.

While watching Dr. Phil one day she came to ask herself the question, “What payoffs am I getting for my unhealthy conduct?“ That week she did a lot of soul searching and became willing not to just identify those payoffs, but to give them up.

Well at least to start to give them up!

She asked herself …

“Where am I going? Am I doing what I really want to be doing?

She realized that she had settled for less because it was easy, safe, and non-frightening, she decided to take off the blinders and deal with the reality.

Carole realized that she was filled with anger and resentment towards the people that had hurt her. Hatred, anger and resentment were eating away at her heart and soul. She experienced sleep disturbances, nightmares, depression and fatigue. She realized that she had built a wall of fat around herself to protect herself from further harm. She felt safe from a lot of things by hiding behind her weight. She foolishly thought that it protected her from unwanted advances from males. And no one expected much from a crippled old woman of her size.

After surgeries, accidents, horrific falls and a variety of many an illness. Carole spent most of her time hidden away in her bedroom living on whatever her husband brought her.
Food was her heroin; whatever feelings cropped up she had a fix ready to relieve the pain. Loneliness called for candy, rejection, set off cravings for salty junk food, sorrow was eased with a box of honey garlic chicken wings or spare ribs and he list goes on and on.

Carole developed cellulites in her legs as well as degenerative arthritis. She purchased a motorized scooter and arranged to become a member of Wheel Trans. The bus would come and take her where she needed to go. She started a swimming program and a low fat diet and struggled with a slow weight loss. From her suffering came her commitment to survive. In November of 2002 she weighed in at three four hundred and fourteen pounds.

Someone told her about the Dr Atkins plan and she bought the book and started it immediately. She was doing well until she took a terrible fall down the stairs and developed a serious bout of cellulites, which put her back to bed. In spite of her pain and bewilderment she continued on eating the low carbohydrate way and continued to lose weight.

On June, 7, 2003 she stepped on the scale and beamed with joy, for she now weighed two hundred and ninety pounds. The first time she had been less than three hundred pounds in thirty-six years. Her weight loss fluctuated a lot and there were many days of frustrations and tears. Carole quickly learned that when she chose her behaviour she also chose the consequences.

But still she carried on.
Carole giggles in a child like manner about her being the NECK, of the family. Claims that her husband Frank is the HEAD of the family. Carole borrowed the words from the show MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING; she claims to be the NECK of the family, and it’s her job to turn all of the HEADS.

I’ve watched her operate, and she does a darn good job at it too.

Having a large family with seven children, and her grandchildren and the extended family brought many new and different problems every day. Problems that cause feelings that demanded to be soothed. Most of the time Carole was strong enough to stop, identify the cause of the sudden urge to eat the wrong foods. Other times she would give into her feelings and suffer the consequences of her cheat. On a good day she would quickly make up a substitute for the fix she needed. Pork rinds would become her cinnamon buns with some butter, cinnamon and Splenda, dipped into the yogurt cheese she had strained. Tomatoes, pepperoni and cheese turned the rinds into a delicious pretend pizza. She learned how to prepare yummy low carb meals and continued to lose weight even though she wasn’t getting any exercise.

On June twenty ninth Carole weighed two hundred and eighty six pounds. The race was on to get to two hundred and seventy four pounds so that she could celebrate her first one hundred-pound weight loss. She reached that goal in July? 2003. This was a joyful day, a happy day but not the end rather a new beginning to losing the next hundred pounds. According to the medical charts for her height and frame size Carole “should” weigh one hundred and forty pounds. However Carole chose to set her final goal at one hundred and ninety-nine pounds. Frank does not like slender women! : Love:

She has not met that goal yet but is striving towards it.

Carole is happy with her husband of forty-seven years; they are enjoying their golden years together. They are not suffering from the empty nest syndrome because the family is still around daily.

Carole is yearning for the day when she can get the excess skin removed from her stomach. This is the part of her body that she dislikes the most.

Her doctor has a wonderful plastic surgeon lined up for her, this doctor does a great job and even makes a pretty “belly button” Carole has impishly claimed that she will have a gold navel ring attached as well.

She is also extremely unhappy about her upper arms. Flappers, she calls them! Carole giggles when she tells people about her grandchildren saying that she had started growing her own wings for when she becomes an angel. Oh yes! She giggles but it is a very touchy subject, as it is with most women.

Carole will turn sixty-seven on February 14, 2010 and accepts that time has ravished havoc on her body. Unfortunately the stretch marks and incisions from four large surgeries will remain on her body forever, but Carole doesn't mind them, they are just silent reminders of the cruelty she inflicted on her body.

The years of eating, drinking, smoking and using a lot of prescribed medications, and lack of fresh air and sunshine and lack of exercise show!

Carole was deeply saddened when Dr, Atkins passed away after his fateful fall.

Carole is a member of Dr. Atkins Low Carbohydrate Board. She thoroughly enjoys sharing with her new cyber family.

Together they have added on to Dr. Atkins plan by creating low carb yogurt cheese, Carole strains three of the red and white cartons of Yoplait full fat yoghurt, draining of the whey that is high in carbohydrates. This yields one full carton of creamy delicious yogurt cheese. To this assorted flavours are added to suit her desires. It is usually eaten after being sweetened with Splenda. Carole claims that yoghurt cheese is a lifesaver for her.

She also drinks a bottle of pure unsweetened cranberry juice diluted with sixty-four ounces of water. Carole claims that this is softening and even removing some of the cellulite.

Constipation was a huge problem on this new way of eating until four tablespoons of ground flaxseed was added to some yogurt cheese sweetened with Splenda. Flaxseed oil is used on salads and for cooking too, thanks heavens, no more problems there!

Carole has to force herself to drink water but she tries to get at least a gallon of water a day. Starting with a cup of boiled water with lemon juice every morning.

In the past few months there have been a lot of changes in her life. The dark clouds of depression that hung over her for years have lifted.

Her Diabetes is under control. The acid reflux has ceased. She is sleeping better and no longer has wakes up in the morning to discover that she had been on a binge that she couldn’t even remember.

However the corn syrup, milk, bread and butter would be on the kitchen table in the morning and there wasn’t anyone else to blame it on.

Carole wanted to share her healing weight loss journey with the hopes that it might help someone who is suffering the anguish that she had been suffering. She wanted to tell people to stop resisting, and to start coping. She wanted to share her honest opinion that if she could do this anyone could. She has a dream and even though the old painful feelings keep creeping up she’s not allowing them to fester, or poison her dreams. She will always have problems and she recognises that, the difference now is that she is prepared to deal with whatever comes along.

Carole is only 75 pounds from her goal of 199 pounds and she feels confident that she will reach her goal weight of 199 pounds by her birthday next year. February 14, 2010, and then maintain that weight forever. This is a way of eating than can be enjoyed.

Stay tuned folks for the continuation of... Carole’s road to success.

Carole isn’t looking for happiness she’s already got that, what she wants is optimum health and to be able to dance at her grandchildren’s wedding with the best man in the world, her husband Frank.

We’ll see you lighter!

Carole

And me, her inner child “Crystal.”

[Eliza_Jazz]

Carole, I suspected you were a fellow Aquarian, and this post confirms it. Only we Aquarians can be so crazy in a good way and waaaaaaaay ahead of the rest in our thinking.

Eliza

[CaroleKI61]

Originally Posted by Eliza_Jazz

Carole, I suspected you were a fellow Aquarian, and this post confirms it. Only we Aquarians can be so crazy in a good way and waaaaaaaay ahead of the rest in our thinking.

Eliza

Thanks we arent' supposed to reply to the storiesas far as I know so we can start a thread below tthanks love Carole

[Whoami]

Thank you all for your stories! They are so inspirational!
I am kind of bummed that I need to go to bed and only got halfway down the page, but eager to read more tomorrow!
It is such a wonderful and generous gift you all give- opening yourselves up and sharing your emotions, thoughts, trials, fears, motivators, and triumphs!

I wish I could give each of you that have done this soul searching and this hard work a HUGE hug for making it and for sharing with us all! Thank you SO MUCH!


-Who

[jbiggars63]

Hello world! I have made a lifestyle change! December 21st, 2008 I went to my doctors office to weigh and I tipped the scales at 493 pounds! I was tired of fat clothes, I was tired of walking through Walmart leaning on the cart and sweating like I had just run the boston marathon by the time I got to the checkout counter! I was tired of being tired!

I went to work immediately! Cut my calories to 1200 per day and began logging everything I put in my mouth. I started hitting the YMCA. The first few weeks I rode the exercise bike for 15 minutes, 3 times a week. I recommitted to TOPS Club Inc. – (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) on Tuesday nights with a club in Valley Center #0414. TOPS is a weight loss support group that can be found just about anywhere in the US and Canada. By January 6th, 2009 I was down to 478. I came up with a slogan for our group that I follow on a daily basis. NMX – No More Excuses! We had some t-shirts made up with this logo on the front that turned out very cool looking. During this time I had been impressed with the weight loss of a member (the leader) of our TOPS Club (70+ pounds in a little over 3 months). She had been going to a Medi-Weightloss Center and loved it so I decided to give it a try! The soonest I could get in for an appointment was the 23rd of January but I went ahead and began their diet based upon her description of it. I also upped my exercise to 20 minutes, then 25, and then soon afterwards 30 minutes 3 times a week. I also began to circuit train in weights 3 times per week. By the time my first appointment came around for Medi-Weight loss, I weighed in at 454 pounds. As part of the first appointment you undergo a full physical, blood work, and EKG. Everything came back looking very good. I have been very lucky at the age of 45, (now 46), not to have diabetes but I did have a small issue with blood pressure. I was put on a 1000 – 1200 calorie diet and was instructed to keep my carbs below 25 grams per day. At this point I also began a daily regiment of taking suppliments. During a 24 hour period I take a multivitamin, calcium, 3 Omega 3 oil pills, 3 fat burner pills, 2 Stay Slim pills, and a water/blood pressure pill. I also began doing cardio 5 times a week and weights 3 times per week. By March 20th I was down to 415 pounds. At this point, I added walking to my routine. Early on I started at 1 mile 3 times a week at a brisk 4mph. I am now doing 2 miles, 3 times per week. April the 24th, I weighed in at 389 pounds and have lost 15 inches off my waist! THAT IS 104 POUNDS LOST IN 127 DAYS! The last weekend of April, I attended the TOPS Club SRD (State Recognition Days) in Topeka, Ks and was awarded 1st place in weight loss for men in Kansas! Woo Hoo! My doctor has set a goal for me at 250 pounds but I would like to see myself in the 190 – 200 range which will be a 300 pound total loss! I am a third of the way there! As I reflected on the accomplishment thus far, I thought I might help inspire other people towards taking charge over their weight issues! I plan on becoming a personal trainer when I get closer to goal. This is the first time I have delved into doing anything on the web so let’s see what I can do!

Through this process I also found a wonderful group of people who provided an excellent source of support on a Medi-Weight Loss board. The one thing I have found is you can never have enough support in this quest to become healthy! Well, today I weighed in at 325 pounds. I have 75 pounds to go before I have surgury to remove the loose skin in my ab area. 168 pounds gone forever since Christmas! I am workin my hardest to reach goal by Christmas! Wish me luck! I put together a blog to follow my progress if your interested.