From Obese at 25 to Strong Being the New Skinny...

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Replies

  • Thank you for sharing your story. I have 2 daughters with PCOS and it is a catch 22, you have a hard time losing the weight and it causes weight gain too. Your story shows that with some hard work PCOS does not have to rule your life. So proud of you for sticking with your plan and now enjoying the fruits of your labor. Thank you for showing us it can be done.
  • onyx1972
    onyx1972 Posts: 133 Member
    AH-MAZ-ING! Wonderful story, so glad to have read it... you are truly inspirational .. Congratulations....
  • sthrnchick
    sthrnchick Posts: 771
    Thank you so much for posting this... very inspiring and the kick in my butt I so desperatly needed this morning! I have just started my journey... and my goal is to look and feel healthier... yesterday was a super hard day for some reason...and again, really just needed to hear this today! BTW- AWESOME JOB!!!
  • Charlotte_Ashbridge
    Charlotte_Ashbridge Posts: 18 Member
    Hi Natalie - your story is brilliant - fantastically written and so truthful! Well done for coming so far x
  • dilleight
    dilleight Posts: 50
    Nice story! Cool to hear one with "stones" involved too. Blimey!
  • I needed to read that today. Thank you for sharing your story.
  • giselle9938
    giselle9938 Posts: 194 Member
    Your story is amazing! You're a inspiration for all of us!
  • Navotc
    Navotc Posts: 97
    Thank you for posting. An inspiration!! So happy for the fitness you have achieved and are achieving! I lost weight about 15 years ago and very slowly gained it back. But this time, I'm adding fitness when losing, and I'm developing better habits. Inspiring stories like yours really help the journey. At about 16lbs lost, I'm still waiting for my first "Have you lost weight?" but I am pressing forward. Even if the compliments never come, by God's grace the goal weight will!
  • squishycow7
    squishycow7 Posts: 820 Member
    love your story!!! modest :) & well written to boot. thanks for sharingg!
  • amybug83
    amybug83 Posts: 4
    You are truly an inspiration too all of us with weight loss goals. Thank you for sharing your story and pictures. You look amazing! I started at 260 lbs and I'm also 5'5". I'm down 20 lbs, 19 of those before I joined MFP. Stories and friends like you are what I and anyone else with weight loss needs, need in order too keep motivated. I agree with the majority on your writing, in all honesty, when you reach your final goal, you should write a weight loss inspirational story just as fun as what you wrote here. I think you would already have many potential buyers here with MFP, myself included. You will reach your goal weight and make one hell of a Zumba instructor. Live long and dream big and STAY STRONG! :)
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    Natalie, I have to say that you touched my heart with your story ... there were little bits of my own life in there and bits of my friends lives in there too. You are a very clever lady - I hope you appreciate fully the magnitude of not only your success at becoming healthy - with the bonus of slim - but also the great encouragement you have given to the people here on MFP and no doubt in your life away from mfp too. I wish you every happiness and success - and ... if you ever do write a novel please be sure to let us know here as I am sure it would be an excellent read!

    Hello there,

    Thank you ever so much - what kind words. Whilst I appreciate the boost a success story can give, I think it's timely that I thank those who have offered their encouragement to me. It means the world, especially as it comes from people who know just what it's like. I've never encountered such a supportive, encouraging place - what a wonderful resource this is.

    Oh lordy. Don't encourage me to get spilling my guts even more, I'll never stop - it's like a Pandora's Box of navel-gazing ;)

    But again, thank you. It really is appreciated x
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    thank you for sharing your story!! You've done an amazing job!! I started about where you did, and I'm aiming to get to at least 150, which it's been a good 10 years since that weight for me. I'm also hoping to get more toned, and to not be afraid to lift weights by myself (gotta blame my high school weight teacher for that one). But good job and keep up the good work!!

    Don't fear the weights; the weights should fear YOU...and all that jazz :)

    Weights - more specifically kettlebells - have been a godsend to me. I've got hardly any excess skin on my arms and legs, and I think it's largely due to them :)

    All the best x
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    What a brilliant story and so well told. You really are an inspiration in what you have achieved.

    Good luck with becoming a Zumba fitness instructor - I hope you are given the opportunity to truly inspire people and help them achieve their goals the way that you are bound to achieve yours

    Thank you very much - I do think everyone likes a good success story, and I personally find it very important to relate to teachers of any kind. So at least the (hopefully!) future members of my class will know that I know exactly what it's like, that I've been there, and most importantly that it can be done.
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    I LOVE LOVE LOVE your story and can relate to so much of it, the love of food (and not the "good" foods lol), and hating to excercise! Fantasticly written, you are very funny, I truely enjoyed reading it.

    I have to ask though what in the heck are kettleballs?

    Hi there,

    Thank you :) Kettlebells are pretty much summed up here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettlebells

    YouTube has some pretty helpful basic move videos, too - weights and cardio all in one, have to say they've been great for me. And the testosterone in me likes flinging a weight around and being all sweat-shiny and muscled!
  • Masterdo
    Masterdo Posts: 331 Member
    Something I’d not been since I emerged triumphant from my mother.

    What an amazing way to say that, haha.

    You'll surely be an amazing instructor. Good luck, and thanks for sharing your story :)
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    Thank you for sharing your story. I have 2 daughters with PCOS and it is a catch 22, you have a hard time losing the weight and it causes weight gain too. Your story shows that with some hard work PCOS does not have to rule your life. So proud of you for sticking with your plan and now enjoying the fruits of your labor. Thank you for showing us it can be done.

    Hello there,

    Thank you for your reply. Honestly, PCOS used to make me so miserable - weight gain (all over, but in the middle too - grrr), having to go and get hairs ripped out of places you NEVER really should, male pattern baldness...what a bloody dee-light.

    I still have to go for sneaky waxes, and I'm still losing my hair, but I'll be damned if PCOS rules my middle any more. I maintain that I battered it into submission with a kettlebell - I can't cure it, and it'll be with me more or less forever, but I'll show it who's boss :)

    x
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    Thank you for posting. An inspiration!! So happy for the fitness you have achieved and are achieving! I lost weight about 15 years ago and very slowly gained it back. But this time, I'm adding fitness when losing, and I'm developing better habits. Inspiring stories like yours really help the journey. At about 16lbs lost, I'm still waiting for my first "Have you lost weight?" but I am pressing forward. Even if the compliments never come, by God's grace the goal weight will!

    When that first question comes, you are ENTIRELY PERMITTED to have a sneaky victorious air-punch afterwards. I know I did!
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    love your story!!! modest :) & well written to boot. thanks for sharingg!

    Thank you :) I just glanced at your photo and it contains two of my favourite things - muscles and a cat. Excellent!
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
    You are truly an inspiration too all of us with weight loss goals. Thank you for sharing your story and pictures. You look amazing! I started at 260 lbs and I'm also 5'5". I'm down 20 lbs, 19 of those before I joined MFP. Stories and friends like you are what I and anyone else with weight loss needs, need in order too keep motivated. I agree with the majority on your writing, in all honesty, when you reach your final goal, you should write a weight loss inspirational story just as fun as what you wrote here. I think you would already have many potential buyers here with MFP, myself included. You will reach your goal weight and make one hell of a Zumba instructor. Live long and dream big and STAY STRONG! :)

    Hi there,

    Thank you so much for your response, and congratulations on your loss so far :)

    Money for my brainfarts? What a world! But thank you; to be honest I've always written as a hobby, so the fact that people enjoy it is really quite a lovely bonus. I've been tinkering with the idea of a blog, although sometimes tells me I'm now a little too late given that I've lost most of the weight.

    'Confessions of an Ex-Binge Eater and the Ongoing Battle to Put Down the Fork', anyone...? :)

    Thank you again, the support shown here has pretty much melted my heart.

    xx
  • Donners185
    Donners185 Posts: 329 Member
    Amazing story, thanks for posting. Very inspirational :-)
  • Stephanellie105
    Stephanellie105 Posts: 1 Member
    That is such a brilliant story, i have just started on here and i hope to have an insipational story like yours in a years time! Keep up the good work and i'm sure your make a brilliant Zumba instructor and inspire others :-)
  • lose3stone
    lose3stone Posts: 76 Member
    Omg your story is amazing and such an inspiration, :)