Shellie lost 68 pounds

Today’s featured weight loss before and after story:  Shellie lost 68 pounds and went from a size 20 to a size 12.  She did our smoothie challenge, used MyFitnessPal and changed her eating and exercise habits to lose the weight.  Here is what she shared with us:

I’ve always been a pretty active person. I’ve been playing golf since I was 8 and played soccer, ran track and stayed outside all summer throughout my childhood. In college, I played golf for Michigan State University, so we were always walking and training year round. I have never been traditionally “small” – in high school, I wore a size 10. However, I was never considered “fat” either. I can remember not feeling particularly self-conscious in a bathing suit well into my 20’s. So I think when I started noticing that I was getting “fat” was around 2007 when I was 26. I started trying different methods – Weight Watchers, Nutri System and when those didn’t work, I tried to exercise it off through bootcamp classes, playing tennis and walking the dogs. The problem is, I was never consistent with any of it – dieting or exercising. I would do really well for a week or two with my diet and then decide I had it all figured out and start back slowly eating large portions of spaghetti, fries, burgers and sweets.  I would go to bootcamp twice a week and then do nothing else until the next week when classes started again.

Most people I talk to about my weight loss journey can usually identify a breaking point where they say to themselves “Enough is enough”. Mine was on a plane ride to New Orleans last July. I usually ride Delta Airlines but this time, tickets were cheaper on United so we flew with them. As I sat down and went to buckle the seat belt, it almost couldn’t close! I mean I was in that seat TIGHT. That had never happened to me before or even been a concern. So I ate super well (translation: all the fried food and sweets I wanted) knowing that when I came back, things would have to change.  On the next day, after I got home, I started my journey for good this time. I read several books, recorded my food in myfitnesspal (a food diary app) and pledged to work out at least 4 times a week. Month after month, I would adjust my food and workout goals: one month I wanted to eat veggies three times a day, another one I did the BWLW smoothie challenge and had 2 smoothies a day, another month I vowed to work out for an hour 5 days a week. By the end of the year, I had lost 50 pounds. Currently, I have lost 68 pounds and would like to get to that magic number “100” before the end of the summer.  I was a size 20 when I started my journey last July and now I’m a 12.  I am so proud of myself and how I stayed committed this time to make a change. My friends and family have been an AMAZING support system and I definitely could not have accomplished this without them! So I say to all of us BWLW members – keep working hard and making better choices each day for a better tomorrow!

If you want to visit my blog, you can find it at urbanphoenix115.blogspot.com.