My Honest Journey Towards Weight Loss - How I Managed To Lose 130 lbs in 6 Months

first pic, 277 pounds, second pic I had already lost 80lbs, and third...down 130 lbs

Losing weight is not an overnight success but rather it’s a roller coaster ride that will lead to self-discovery, freedom and finding joy.

After all, who wouldn’t love to lose weight without necessarily suppressing your diet? 

A little back-story 

I always believed that nothing was impossible for a determined person provided you had a positive mindset.

This attitude is what helped me to accomplish the biggest milestone in my life; to lose 130 lbs in 6 months without ever going hungry.

My name is Linda Smith and I’m going to share with you my honest weight loss journey in this article. Please read on to see how I managed to lose 130 lbs in 6 months. 

Right from middle school through to high school, I never thought too much about weight, nutrition or exercise.

Not only was I surrounded by a group of super great and supportive friends, I also grew up in a family where all women were less or more overweight.

Due to this reason, I was consistently taught that being fat was part of “our genes” so sooner or later, I too would be overweight.

But, do you truly believe that being overweight is influenced by genetic coding or is it as a result of the environment you’re exposed to?

Well, in my case, my journey towards weight loss sparked when my mom scolded me for not trying to lose some weight.

This was one of the worst moments of my life as I was not only sad but I developed a negative attitude (low self-esteem) that left me trapped beneath stretchy pants and oversized t-shirts. 

A week ago before this infuriating incident, I remember searching for a modernized designer dress to wear during my uncle’s marriage anniversary.

The most shocking thing was that none of the dresses in the store fit my body. This jaw breaking incident left me totally disappointed with shame written on my forehead.

It was just terrible that all I had to do was simply cry in the dressing room asking myself questions I barely had answers to.

Although this was a heartbreaking experience, it turned out to be an expensive turn around point of my life as I had to set specific goals towards my weight loss journey.

At first, there were so many trials and errors as I couldn’t imagine moving out of my teeny comfort zone (that encompassed eating junky foods, dairy products, delicious leftovers and being lazy). 

The beginning of a tough journey 

The motivation and inspiration towards my weight loss journey were not just generated from my health aspect but rather from a collection of painful experiences I’ve had over the years.

For instance, I remember being referred to as the “fat girl in the neighborhood”.

I also remember wearing the buggiest t-shirts and shorts during school games and I remember how I would try fitting my huge body in teenage dresses without any success.

I mean, it hurts a lot, doesn’t it? 

Now, my situation got worse when I moved to the city. At the age of 23, I was subjected to long working hours and constant demands of the city life left me tired and unable to work on my weight loss journey.

Although I had decided to change my diet, the busy lifestyle in the city left me with no choice but to rely on boxed meals, highly processed foods, sugary snacks and fast foods such as meats and dairy products.

Scientists say that it only takes 30 days of doing the same thing every day to form a habit right? For me, it took less than 30 days to form an addiction to eating unhealthy meals. 

Since I was living alone, I discovered that I was getting hungry a lot and was not exercising at all.

The results: Well, you won’t believe it! First, I discovered that everyone around me was dating.

This left me with an impression that maybe my oversized body was the reason why guys were not noticing me.

Secondly, I noticed that my skin was kind of clogged and dry with premature wrinkles forming at a distance.

Although I tried to hide my poor health with makeup and clothes, it wasn’t enough to give me back the confidence I needed to move on. 

As I mentioned earlier, my journey towards weight loss was more of a roller coaster than an overnight success.

I started off by skipping breakfasts (a surefire way of losing weight), taking fewer meals for lunch and tracking what I ate throughout the day (after all starvation = weight loss right?).

However, my attempts were mostly short lived as I occasionally found myself eating a massive burrito for lunch and making orders of pizza and cookies during the night.

Sometimes I would decide to go to the gym to lift some weights and perform some workouts in an attempt to lose weight but due to my bad eating habits, my efforts were not enough to perform the magic. 

Finally the AHA! Moment 

One Saturday morning while I was at the gym, a friend (who happened to be my immediate neighbor) approached me and suggested that I really needed to work on my health.

She mentioned to me that my number one priority in life was my health and that I was doing a perfect job of destroying it.

Her advice not only shocked me but it rekindled the bitter experiences I’ve had since I was a kid (since I’ve been overweight for most of my life).

Our chat didn’t just end there. I decided to take this God-given opportunity to share my story.

I confessed to her how I’ve tried different remedies to lose weight without any success.

I confessed how heartbroken I was when I learned that all my colleagues were dating and how guys would ignore me no matter how hard I tried to impress them.

Actually, it was like my weight was being announced to everyone leaving me with a garment of shame on the outside. 

After a 30 minute chat (with tears flowing down my rosy cheeks), my neighbor suggested an online forum to me that was hugely related to weight loss.

In addition to that, she happened to share a link to this website and informed me that I really needed to track the amount of calories I was taking on a daily basis to make my weight loss journey more successful.

With curiosity taking the better of me, I opened the link to see what was in store for me.

The weight loss solution I found on the website was the answer! After all this struggle I was very happy to find something that works.

Me and my dog Tommy :)

I will be honest with you—it was not just a walk in the park as it was full of ups and downs along the way.

However, if I had learned about this trick earlier on, my weight loss journey could have been much easier.

This is the reason why I love sharing my story, to show you that nothing is impossible provided you apply the right methods.

I stopped hiding under the confines of my weakness and started going out on a regular basis.

Not only that, I went ahead to participate in 2 half marathons because my fitness levels were great and I had lost alot of weight. 

Although the program worked out smoothly most of the time, there were two times I had setbacks.

After the challenge 

In November of 2018, I discovered that my weight loss journey was a success. I had managed to lose 130 lbs within 6 months settling my weight at 147 lbs.

I started off at 277 lbs at around June 2018 have managed to lose 130 lbs.

Isn’t that unbelievable? Who would have thought that the heaviest girl in the neighborhood would once be a supermodel in her later years? 

I now feel free and more confident than ever. Am living a healthy life, am now dating and I’m feeling more energetic to face any challenge life might throw at me.

What I went through inspired me a lot and I’m now thinking of becoming a nutritionist and a health coach to help other overweight people achieve their dream. 

More pics

 

The final word

I want to inspire as many people as possible and would highly recommend you to check out the weight loss program I used for inspiration in case you’re looking for an effective weight loss solution.

~ You can also make it! Never give up ~