Charlotte lost over 100 pounds

Transformation of the Day: Charlotte lost over 100 pounds. This amazing mom found herself in an abusive relationship that lead to depression and emotional eating/drinking. She got sick of her situation, called her dad to help her move and left her marriage. That was the beginning of her transformative journey. To top that off, she’s back on her journey today to be able to give her brother a kidney. Check out her inspirational story.

I always have been the biggest person among everyone that I hung out with during childhood and adulthood. Everybody had boyfriends and I never did. I felt it was because of my weight. I met someone who I thought that loved me for me, but soon that relationship and marriage became abusive. I was in a deep state of depression. My only friend was food it gave me comfort when nothing else and no one would.

At my highest weight, I was 320 pounds at 5’5″ tall. I felt sad and miserable. I was drinking a large bottle of wine everyday when I was married to my husband, as well as eating everything that was not tied down. One day, I was standing in the kitchen and my nose just started bleeding. Something in the back of my mind said, “If you don’t leave this relationship you are going to die, either from drinking everyday and eating unhealthy or he is going to kill you.” I didn’t feel like I had much longer on this earth, so the next day I called my daddy. I told him that I was tired, I had to leave and that I needed him to come get me. I left my home, left all my things and walked away from my marriage with nothing but my two kids. At that point, I knew I was sick of tired of being sick of tired.

I moved to Gastonia NC with my mom and dad and started to work on myself. I started loving me for a change. I’m not going to say it wasn’t a struggle, because it was. My mom had a treadmill and I just started out by walking 15 minutes at a time. Then I moved up to 30 minutes and so on. Also, I was raised a vegetarian so I went back to that lifestyle and began making my portions smaller. The weight just started to come off I was starting to love myself and become happier, which made my kids happier.

I got down to a size 12 from a size 24 and that was three years ago that I had this success. Since then, I’ve gained about 50 lbs back and my motivation to lose it again this time around was because of health. Also, my brother needs a kidney and I need to be at a specific weight so that I can be a living donor for him. So, the day after Thanksgiving 2015, I started my weight loss journey again and I’m now 15 lbs away from the weight I have to be to donate.

Now, I’m eating lot of fruits and vegetables. I eat a lot of kale because I’m doing green smoothies for breakfast and dinner, with a salad for lunch only because I’m trying to get the last 15 pounds off for the surgery for my brother. However, without this goal, I would still do the smoothies for breakfast and dinner and have a salad for lunch or a bean bowl with avocado. I don’t want to make the Weightloss to difficult to stick to, so I just choose things I like and that I can do daily. I workout six days a week for at 40 to 45 minutes a day. I now have a elliptical machine and I just brought a stepper from Walmart to start doing step aerobics. I do my workouts at home, no gym.

One thing I can say about losing weight is that the journey has to be yours. It’s great to get motivation from others, but you have to make it your own. Everybody’s bodies are different. What works for me may not work for you. Find what works for you and do it. Weight loss really is simple. We make it hard. Consume less and move more… there is no majic to this. You are not going to wake up and be skinny overnight. It takes work and persistence, but it’s all worth it in the end.

Instagram: @Charlottealiststylist