ONE YEAR + 106 LBS LOST + NO SURGERY: Before & After pics!

One year ago today, I decided to make a big change in my life—an alteration to dramatically modify my eating and exercise habits and live a healthier, happier life—and most importantly to do it on my own, without surgical intervention. I worked with my doctor once a month to weigh in, re-adjust my diet, and keep me on a positive trajectory, and it worked. She encouraged me to track all of my calories (currently, I’m on a 1,200 calorie diet—but usually I eat between 1000-1100 calories) on www.myfitnesspal.com and it was eye opening to see how many extra calories I was consuming.

Diet was obviously the most critical thing that needed to change. Small modifications didn’t work for me—I needed a complete overhaul; it was all or nothing, and ensured my continued success. All junk food was thrown out and replaced with healthy, organic, low calorie, unprocessed food, and my diet became almost entirely vegetarian. I learned that food is fuel for my workouts, not really something to gorge on or just haphazardly consume.

Besides my changes in diet, my fitness regimen also was critical. I began working out 1-2x a week at first for about 6 months, but started seeing my weight and body change drastically when I started training 4-5x a week. It’s been amazing to see a new physicality that I never knew was inside of me; to see how truly strong my body is, and how important every class is to maintain what I’ve been working so hard to achieve.