Deborah lost 86 pounds

Transformation of the Day: Deborah lost 86 pounds. After being in a medically induced coma and having to learn to walk again, she made the decision to choose life over death. She is tackling obesity from all angles, with exercise, healthy eating habits and faith. Check out her story.

I lost 86 pounds and chose life over death. I had a pulse, but I was dead inside! Obesity was claiming my life. I couldn’t do nothing without wheezing and hurting! I decided to get fit or die tryin’.

Being on life support for 15 days, from December 30, 2014 to Jan 13, 2015, was my motivation. When I woke up out of the medically induced coma, I’d lost muscle mass and strength. I could not walk or hold my head up. I needed rehab to learn how to walk again. After I regained the strength to walk in February 2016, I decided it was time for a change!

I stumbled across a fitness transformation advertisement that was posted by Terril Ware, a fitness instructor and owner of Dizzo Fitness 365. He was promoting a 30 Day Challenge program to help people lose weight. I saw the before and after photos of a woman at 300 pounds and after her transformation at 228 pounds. She lost 72 pounds and inches. Seeing this also served as motivation.

I changed my eating habits. I do not eat red meat. Instead, I eat chicken, fish and turkey. I monitored my salt and sugar intake, and stopped adding extra salt and sugar to my diet. I made sure that I had healthy snacks around, like protein bars, dried nuts and fruit. I drank more water and started taking iron pills.

I attended classes at The Body of Wealth. I did Cardio Boxing, high intensity interval training, boot camp, spinning classes, Ab Attack and weight lifting. I stopped parking close to work, or any place that I went, and walked the distance instead. I always tell people that I almost died 3 times from having asthma attacks at the gym, but that didn’t stop me. I bring my medicine with me, I stop when I need to get my wind and start again!

I tackled obesity from all angles and changed my whole lifestyle! I got up every morning before work and went to the gym at 5 am. I meal prep every Sunday and Wednesday. My Mother was my biggest cheerleader. I remember getting frustrated after the first 3 months and wanting to quit because I couldn’t do a plank or run. The work seemed so hard and I was really struggling.

I walked out of boot camp, called my mom and told her, “That’s it. I quit!”

She said, “You quit what? Life?”

“No, the gym!” I said

She said, “Oh. Like I said, life!”

She told me that when you want something really bad, you fight, hang in there and never give up! Giving up is easy. When you want to live a healthy life you can’t give up. You have to hang in there, pray and ask God for strength. She said, “I didn’t raise no quitter. Now, get back in there and don’t just finish. Finish strong” I went back in there and I nailed every obstacle they threw at me. I even planked on one arm. Ever since that day, I been going hard.

There is so much to my story that I would have to write a book just to tell it all. I weighed 286 pounds when I started this journey in February 2016! I currently weight 200 pounds at 5’7″. My appearance changed so dramatically that people who haven’t seen me in years don’t even recognize me.

It has been a struggle to get where I am today, but from severe asthma to injuries I pushed through, Everyday, I put in work. It took me less than a year to lose the weight and my transformation did not involve surgery.

My advice: Don’t be afraid. Don’t worry what others are going to think or say. Start, keep going and never give up! Do not allow anyone to interfere with your journey. Also, it doesn’t matter how big you are or how far gone you think your health is. There is a scripture that helped me along the way. Ecclesiastes 9:4: “Unto the living, there is hope”. As long as you are alive and breathing, you have a chance to change your life. It’s not easy, but it is worth it. Never give up unless you are in the grave.