My Story - With Before Pictures

After hitting 125lbs lost last year several people asked me to write about my journey to that point. Here's the story along with some of the before pictures:

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As a child I saw my mom try many diets: Nutri-System, Cabbage Soup, Grapefruit, Slim-Fast, Weight Watchers, and many others. I never thought of myself as a fat kid, I was tall so I carried my weight really well and it wasn't until I hit jr. high that I started looking more than "big-boned". We had just moved to Hawaii and I was about to start attending public high school. Having just watched the 1992 Summer Olympics I was inspired to join the swim team. I was slow but after months of long practices every day I'd lost 40lbs and become extremely fit, not to mention tan :) The season ended and suddenly I wasn't burning all the calories I was eating each day. I started gaining again. In the 18 months between the end of my 1st swim season and the start of college I had gained almost 60lbs.

I started college at 212 lbs. I was wearing a size 16-18 and still felt relatively fit.
Late nights, dorm food and lack of structure caught up to me and I gradually started packing on the pounds. By my sophomore year I'd met my future husband Preston who was also a bigger guy due in part to playing on the college football team and he liked me as I was (now about 250lbs). We moved in together and started getting fatter. We ordered 2 pizzas and each ate one, we loved the never-ending pasta bowl at Olive Garden etc. When we got married after college I had gone over the 300lb mark. I had to have my wedding dress custom made, as I couldn't buy a dress off the rack. Preston was wearing a size 60 tux. We were huge and stressful jobs, a move to another state and lack of exercise only helped us get bigger.

A scary trip to the hospital (which was thankfully a false alarm) for Preston in 1999 got him motivated to start eating healthier. He weighed more than 400lbs and had a host of health problems. He started slowly cutting out meat, beer, and candy and before I knew it, he'd dropped 50lbs. I wasn't eating like him in fact pizza; ice cream and Hostess Sno-Balls were still staples of my diet. He wanted to get a mountain bike so he could start exercising, I told him at the bike shop "You better actually use this bike". Well use it he did! He rode to the train, then he started riding all the way to work (15 miles), before I knew it he was riding 20-30 miles a day. My partner in crime was disappearing before my eyes. Our house was filled with healthy food, I worried he'd meet someone he liked more than me since I was still fat but I never did anything to get myself healthy.

After being laid off in the fall of 2001, I decided to head back to Hawaii for a visit with my parents. My mom had had the gastric bypass surgery a year or so earlier and was struggling to keep the weight she'd lost off (nearly 100lbs) so while I was there she asked me if I'd go to her new gym. So off we went to this place called Curves. We went around the circuit and chatted with the other ladies there. No men, no mirrors, 30 min, hmmmmm I could do this. We went a few times that week and when I returned home I found a Curves near my house. At this point I weighed about 350lbs and I had just started a new job. I started going to Curves 3 x a week. I was losing inches but not any weight. Many of the women at Curves were doing Weight Watchers. I didn't want to do a diet so I dismissed their success stories.

My husband had now lost almost 150lbs and was biking every day. I enjoyed Curves but hadn't changed my eating habits and thus wasn't seeing any real results. On September 27, 2002 without telling anyone I decided to go and hear the "pitch" at Weight Watchers (WW). What was the gimmick, how'd the program work? I met the leader of the Friday afternoon meeting Bobbie and before I got on the scale I told her I was very skeptical and I was only doing the program for a week, if it didn't work, I was quitting. I got on the scale and weighed in at 358.4 lbs, I wore a size 34 to the first meeting. I was a little nervous when I told Preston I was going to give WW a try; he said, "Whatever you want, I'll be supportive". We got rid of all the junk food I'd kept in the house and I followed the points program diligently all week. At my next meeting I'd lost 9.6 lbs, HOLY COW!!!! I was hooked! I kept going to Curves 3 x a week and following the WW program and within 3 months had lost my 1st 10% (a big milestone in WW).

I made it through the holidays and before I knew it, it was New Year's Eve 2002. I'd heard about a 5k Run/Walk called the First Run on the radio. It was a fun event that was held downtown at midnight. I'm still not sure why but I decided that I would do the 5k. I weighed about 320 lbs and my only exercise was 3 x a week at Curves. My tennis shoes were from Payless and I was wearing all cotton. I put my race # on and got all lined up. I'd never done an event like this so I wasn't sure what to expect. The clock struck midnight and we were off. I walked as fast as I could but minute-by-minute I fell further behind. By the time I had made it to the 2-mile marker I was pretty much in last place. I was going as fast as I could but I wanted to die - my legs hurt so much. I didn't want to be last so I tried to push harder barely making it across the finish line before the final finishers - a man pushing his wife in a wheelchair. My time was 1 hour and 2 minutes.

I sucked but I had finished and somewhere deep inside I knew I'd be back, I had to get better, to beat my time, to do more races. Clearly Curves was helping my stamina and cardio but it was not the same as walking, so I started walking once a week in addition to Curves. I got my 50 lbs lost magnet, I dropped below 300 lbs. It was around April 2003 when I read some messages on the WW message board about these girls who were doing a triathlon. Whew, there was no way I could do that. I mean a triathlon, hello! I grew up in Kona, which hosts the Ironman triathlon every year, and there was no way I could do that. With a little research I learned there are actually 4 distances of triathlon with Ironman being the longest. These girls were going to do a sprint, which was an 800yd swim, a 12.5-mile bike and a 5k run/walk. Hmmmmm, I'd already done a 5k, I owned a bike and I used to be on the swim team in high school...

The Danskin Women's Triathlon was being held in Seattle in August and Sally Edwards (a 16 time Ironman finisher) always finished last so no woman had to be last. I had 4 months to train. I was on a mission. I found a group of women on the WW message boards that had done triathlons and many who like me were training for their first one. Soon I had joined the Tri-ers thread on the Fitness Challenge board. Questions were asked, fears allayed and copious amounts of encouragement and motivation were offered daily. I did another 5k and I finished 10th from last :) I started riding my bike, 5 miles was a struggle. I walked a 1.5-mile loop near my house. I swam 2-400 yds in the pool. Training for a triathlon was tough! I walked on my lunch break, I rode my bike on the weekends and before I knew it summer was upon me and my race was only 2 months away. I worried about what to wear during the race since there aren't a lot of options for workout clothes when you weigh 290 lbs. I decided to do a 56-mile bike ride for charity in July. It was the toughest thing I'd done to date but I climbed the mountain (you ride up Mt Hood and down the other side) and finished the ride.

I was so nervous about swimming in a lake that I decided to sign up for a sprint triathlon relay 2 weeks before the Danskin. A friend of mine was going to run the 5k and I would do the swim and bike. I was so excited!!!!! I wasn't sure how I'd do but I felt like I could finish and that was all that mattered. The relay day approached and I went to pick up my packet and t-shirt. I was bummed when I found out they didn't have XXL t-shirts. If I was doing the race I wanted to be able to wear the t-shirt. The race director looked at me and said, "I don't know any triathletes who need an XXL" Bingo, the gauntlet was thrown down and I knew that I was going to prove her wrong. They found an XXL t-shirt that was meant for a volunteer and I finished the relay and got ready for my first triathlon. My husband and I headed to Seattle where I met many of the women from the message board who were doing the race. I was nervous and excited. There were thousands of women, many of them looked just like me. I met Sally Edwards who greeted all the women as we entered the water. I swam, biked and jog/walked my way towards the finish line and as I approached it I saw my husband who had tears streaming down his face. I was going to finish and become a triathlete. I choked up and raised my arms in victory as I crossed the timing mat. I did it, I am a triathlete!!!!!! I will never forget the feeling of joy and accomplishment I felt as I raced along surrounded my thousands of women who’d set a goal and were on their way to achieving it regardless of what size they wore.

Since finishing my first triathlon I've continued to lose weight with WW and set bigger and bigger goals for myself. I ran the Seattle 1/2 marathon in November of last year, I finished a 100 mile bike ride in 8 hours in June and in addition to the 2 sprint distance races I did this summer I also finished my first Olympic distance (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) triathlon in August. Finishing the race in August was a special treat because I did it with 20 of the women from the WW message board. Last year we decided to meet, so we picked the world's largest triathlon held every year in Chicago and came from around the country to spend the weekend together racing. We had a blast and it was great to put names to faces and have friends racing right alongside you.

After finishing the Olympic race in Chicago I decided to take my training to the next level and on Oct 31, 2004 I finished a Half Ironman distance triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) in 8hrs 16min and 22sec. It was the most challenging thing I’ve ever attempted. I finished last but all that mattered to me was that I finished.

Losing weight is hard, maybe the hardest thing most of us will ever do but the benefits are incredible. I’m down 135.6lbs and even though I still have days where all I want is pizza or a hot fudge sundae. 9 out of 10 times I opt for a 2pt popsicle or a light frappacino instead but if I do have some pizza or the sundae, I get right back on track and think about the size 34 jeans I used to wear (I wear a size 18 now) or the rush I get when I’m crossing the finish line.

If I can do this, anyone can but you have to want it and you have to be doing it just for you. WW and exercise has changed my life and it can change yours, believe in yourself and you will all find your own finish line. Feel free to email me if you have any comments, questions or just need some encouragement.