How I Lost 70 Pounds

Many people don't believe you can lose so much weight in less than a year, and honestly, I didn't believe it either.

Growing up, I was tiny, barely had any fat on my body. When I got to the age 13, I started gaining weight once I found out I was lactose intolerant. Some people were confused because if I wasn't able to consume any dairy, how would I be gaining weight? I didn't understand it much either, but as time went on and I got older, I just learned to accept it. I didn't gain a lot of weight, but to my doctor and myself, I was overweight.

When I was the age 16, I was really struggling with trying to lose weight. I downloaded apps that gave me daily workouts and tried weight loss pills, but nothing seemed to work right. Although the pills worked when taking them, as soon as I stopped, I gained all of the weight back, if not more. It was hard for me. I started to hate myself and became depressed.

Two years passed and I'm 18 starting college. I still accepted my weight and tried not to let it bother me as much as I did in high school. I had a lot more friends in college than I had ever had before... To be honest, I thought I didn't have many friends before because of how I looked, but I learned that wasn't the case when I went to college. I still tried to lose weight and then would give up when I didn't see any change. I ended up at my highest weight of 210 pounds.

July of 2017, I finally decided it was time for a change and to actually do something about it all. I pushed myself so hard to achieve the goals I always wanted to reach. I went on Pinterest and found arm, core, love handle, and leg workouts and mashed them all together to form a 30 minute workout. I started off by just doing one 30 minute workout every single day of the week, but as I got used to it, I decided to do the routine twice a day. For example, some of the exercises were leg raises, crunches, push-ups, hammer curls, squats, lunges, etc. Every body is different. I paired random exercises until I found the ones that worked best for me. Along with working out, of course I ate healthy!

For breakfast, I would either have eggs with toast or oatmeal and a glass of water. For lunch, I had a spinach wrap with turkey, provolone cheese, lettuce, pickles, black olives, and honey mustard and water with lemons and strawberries. For dinner, I would season chicken and pair it with veggies and sometime rice. I would also have snacks throughout the day and that would usually be, trail mix or fruits. Sure, my meals got quite boring, but it really helped me with my weight like I wanted. Also, eating healthy made the weight loss process go a lot quicker!

In just 6 months, my weight went from 210 to 140 and I was in shock when I saw this. My pant size went from a 12 to a 6, I went from a size XL dress to a medium, XL men's t-shirts to a small in woman's t-shirt, and my bra size went from 38D to a 36B. My depression was completely gone, my relationship got better, my overall mood was so, so much better than before, and I felt confident again.

My journey may not work for you, but I really hope I could give you some inspiration. I gave up so much throughout my life, but when I knew I needed a physical and mental change, I pushed myself to reach my goals. Never give up on something you really want, no matter what it is. You are special and I wish you the best of luck with everything!