My Story

I've been a serial yo-yo dieter for nearly half of my life. I started gaining weight after battling with and beating a chronic illness. I started trying to lose weight with MyFitnessPal shortly after I got married at 19.

I spent years starting, quitting, re-booting, re-working, giving up and ultimately killing myself the slow way. I went from busy retail and food service to a steady 7:30-4:00 desk job and the weight packed on even more.

I was depleted of energy. I was miserable and desperate to lose weight, but no matter what I did, my body held on to everything. I finally had a curious lab result that gave me the "subclinical hypothyroid" diagnosis, but my doctor at the time didn't see anything wrong and I stayed the same.

After two years, two different doctors and another lab test to check my thyroid, I finally found a doctor that really took their time with me and listened. They decided to not only check my thyroid, but my thyroid antibodies! The one test none of the other doctors even bothered to order!!

And I finally got a diagnosis! At nearly 240 pounds, I was found to have Hoshimoto's disease and hypothyroid. She put me on Synthroid and Wellbutrin for anxiety and appetite control immediately. She also found that I had tachycardia and threatened to put me on heart medication if I didn't start exercising. I'm 26. I don't want freaking heart medication.

I have been on Weight Watchers since January 22nd. I was very reluctant to start WW, as I know they restrict fat and sugar like crazy. I am also highly aware that it's just a gimmick. But, I'm so happy I took that step! I also started taking a small group personal training class with my gym called MX4 that I take three times a week.

Medication, WW and MX4 have CHANGED MY LIFE! I have lost 44 pounds so far with a goal of reaching 145. When my doctor saw me at my 3 month follow up appointment in May, she was blown away at my progress! I have brought my resting heart rate down from the high 90's to the 60's per my FitBit Blaze, and she couldn't stop commenting on how much weight I'd lost (nearly 30 pounds at that time).

WW is becoming harder and harder to navigate, as my points keep diminishing and I keep going over. I'm starting a Whole 30 with my closeknit gym group (for fun only) and I know that with the high fat, it'd be impossible to stay within my points. Not staying within my points budget has a negative effect on my brain. For example, I was probably 60 points over last week and felt crappy about it...but I still lost .9 pounds!

I'm switching to MFP for the first time in a long, long time to keep my mental health in check during this Whole30 challenge. It makes me nervous. I had nothing but a negative mentality while doing MFP in the past because I wasn't losing anything, but I know my health probably had a lot to do with that as I felt I was doing everything right and saw negligible results!

Let's see how the next 30 days goes. If I lose weight, maybe I'll cancel my WW subscription and stick to this once and for all!

Thanks for reading!