From 263 Pounds to 128 Pounds (Lots of Pictures)

I thought I would share my success story up to this point. While I was young I was very athletic and had a muscular build. I always felt much bigger than other people. I started gaining weight like crazy when I was about 19 years old. At 20 years old I got married and become pregnant with our daughter. I was on bed rest for most of the pregnancy and my weight continued to balloon. After she was born I was working out 6 days a week and literally living on steamed broccoli...I continued to gain more and more weight.

In 2011, we got pregnant again with our son. This too was a really hard pregnancy and I spend most of it confined to my bed. After he was born I wanted to get serious about my health. I was running 5 Ks, weightlifting, eating about 900 calories a day but my weight continued to rise until I hit 263 pounds. I had a hard time nursing because I was scared of suffocating the baby! I went to doctor after doctor but no one could give me any answers. I saw several dietitians and personal trainers. Nothing helped. I tried all the over counter shakes and weight loss products. I was desperate. My husband is a wrestling coach who is a big advocate of wrestlers losing weight in a healthy way...even he didn't know how to help me.

In 2013 I made the decision to have weight loss surgery. The problem was they wanted me to lose 40 pounds before I could have the surgery. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't do it and I became extremely depressed and anxious. I finally saw an endocrinologist who diagnosed me with PCOS and put me on medication. The weight started flying off! I was warned that after a while the medication would no longer work so I made the decision to go a head with the surgery. In May 2014 I had a gastric sleeve. The surgery initially didn't work and no one knew why. My endocrinologist upped the dose of my medication and that did the trick. I am one year out from my surgery and I now weigh 128 pounds which is the lowest I've weighed since about 7th grade. I exercise 6 to 7 days a week and I eat between 900 and 1200 calories most days. I would like to lose another 10 pounds but I am starting to focus more on weightlifting and building my muscles back.