fit > skinny

My whole life, I was always the ”big girl”. When I was young, it didnt bother me too much, but as I got older, I started noticing more teasing and more bullying. I went through phases of depression, and had a great amount of anger built up inside of me. In high school, I joined the track and field team where I got into shape. Once that ended, I went to college, and managed to gain close to 70 pounds over 4 years. I am (and probably always will be) a ”feelings eater”. When I get upset, or stressed, I eat. During my last year of college, around 22, I had a long conversation with my best friend, Kim from high school. It was the first time I had expressed any of the self-consciousness that I had been holding in for years. We talked about it, and I had considered changing my diet, but highly doubted I could do it, considering I had tried many diets in the past and none of them worked. Christmas day, 2008 is when I finally made the decision that it was time to take control of my life. I saw a picture of myself (the one attached), and it was the first time I had seen how much weight I had gained. I decided to wait until the new year, so January 10, 2009, I began my journey. I don’t consider it a diet, per say, because it was more of a lifestyle change. I worked out 5+ days a week, and only ate healthy food. After 8 months, I dropped 70 pounds. To this day, I still enjoy my healthy lifestyle and have become more active by doing 5Ks and Tough Mudders whenever possible. I really hope to lose 40 more pounds to each my ultimate goal weight. Having changed my life for the better, this has been the best 4 years of my life and I hope for many more healthy years to come.