Cassandra lost 78 pounds

Weight Loss Story of the Day: Cassandra lost 78 pounds. At 5’2″ tall and 348 pounds, she was facing not only the challenge of weight loss, also depression.  She’s still on her journey, but her success over the last year is awesome.  The stories of others have been encouragement to her and now she wants to inspire too.  Here is what she shared with us about her journey…

I want to share my journey with others so that they may be inspired. Black Women Losing Weight was apart of my inspiration. I’ve been working out and I’ve changed my eating habits for a year now. I am so much happier. Thank you for being a huge part of my inspiration.

My motivation: I always wanted to lose weight. A year or so ago I went to the doctor and he weighed me. I was 348 pounds and when he said those numbers, he continued to talk but I heard nothing after that. Over and over again those numbers played in my head. After that visit, I went into deep depression, couldn’t sleep and had thoughts of suicide. I HATED me.

At that time, I didn’t know but my sister who was also overweight was working out and getting fit (I learned about your page through her). She lost 100 lbs in a year and that inspired me to do something about my weight.

I joined a gym, got a trainer, got up every morning at 4:00 a.m and walked. I lost 20 or 30 lbs and then we moved to Kentucky because of the Army. I sunk back into depression, gave up and ended up in a mental hospital. I was on a grocery bag full of medicine. After a year in Kentucky we moved to Memphis, Tennessee. I threw out all the meds and said no more. Then my wife was deployed to Kuwait and depression tried to set in again.

I started looking for gyms in my area and came across a fitness group called “Fit Nation”. I along with my children joined. We worked out everyday and Fit Nation also taught us how to eat healthy.  It wasn’t a diet, it was a life style change. We started in April 2014 and in June I won a biggest loser contest. From that day, I continued to fight to live and get fit.

I use to eat recklessly, having chips, soda, candy, cakes etc. Now it’s been over a year since I drank a soda. I no longer indulge in sweets, except healthy sweets like fruit, yogurt and things that are 5 grams of sugar or less. I walk 4 miles a day with Fit Nation and do full body workouts 6 days a week. Got a membership at Lifetime Fitness in Memphis where I do water aerobics, treadmill, etc.

My starting weight was 348 lbs and my current weight is 270 lbs. I’m 5’2″ tall. It took a year to lose the weight but I’m not done. I’m still on my journey. My advice for others is to fight, never give up, stay focused, if i can do this…ME…I know they can too.