An inspiring story by N. Rodriguez about her journey to a healthier life and how she lost 80 pounds!
During my younger years, I was a physically active person and did not have an issue with weight. I ate the right foods and did not care for sweets, pastries just occasional birthday cake. I never put any emphasis on ever struggling with weight.
My life took a turn when I divorced. I had to carry most of the responsibility for my children. Soon I was working two jobs and gave to my children the only time I had available; there was no ‘me’ time. Because I held two jobs, I never had a day off for years and found myself ordering out more to make it easy on myself and get the kids fed quicker. I gained about 20 lbs during this time.
When I became an empty nester, I had a little more time for myself so I began to work out at home for an hour each day. The 20 lbs melted off and I felt great. I maintained my weight until I moved to FL.
Once in FL, I no longer worked two jobs but I did travel much for my company and dedicated time to my grandson. I soon found I had no time to work out and my job for the most part became sedentary when not traveling. I started to gain weight. When I met my fiancé, our outings consisted of eating out. I believe I was in denial regarding the weight I was packing on because I did not notice how severe it was. I would buy clothing to cover my weight and for some reason thought I was succeeding. Late 2017, I began to have health issues. My lab work was not good and I had several episodes of gout in my knee that affected my being. My thyroid was acting up and it was not until my lab work revealed that I may have fatty liver that I realized the problem is not just my Doctor’s findings it is my weight….it was me.
I would look for weight loss programs online, but funny enough I did not consider myself obese.
In early 2018, I was still seeing my doctor for gout and my weight kept increasing. Then one-day my daughter visited me to show me her wedding album. When I saw what I looked like in the pictures, I was mortified and cried. For the first time I really saw what I had done to myself and to my health. I was horrified and ashamed. So much, I could not bring myself to ask for help because I was embarrassed and did not know if I could handle anyone in a weight loss center telling me the same. I had fallen into a feeling of despair and doom but I had to do something because I was not helping myself at the time. I visited the website for Florida Aesthetics and Wellness many times but never had the guts to call.
In 2018 I felt it was time. I need to do this. For the first time I accepted I was obese and had lost control with food. I scheduled my consultation.
My first visit was very pleasant. I was greeted in a very friendly environment and the person assigned to me, Olympia Griffin, was delightful and made me feel comfortable from the beginning. We discussed my goal, but what I especially liked was you do not start the program until they have your lab work and medical history to insure it is safe to do so. That was important to me.
I set my goal to lose 60 lbs. I must admit it was not easy to break away from the bad food habits. However, I can say I felt so good on my second week because I was eating good foods and detoxing from all the junk I probably had in my system. Each week I lost weight, sometimes 4 lbs, other times 2 lbs but maintained an average of 10 pounds per month which inspired me to continue. When my knee could withstand workouts, I began to work out again. I started with 2 days a week increasing a day every two weeks, until I was working out 7-days a week. If I needed to change things up in my menu plan, my coach was always happy to assist. This helped because I was never bored with the food I was eating and did not feel deprived. I continued to follow the plan to meet my goal. I remember in November when I hit the 50 lb mark, everyone in the clinic made me feel so accomplished by celebrating my success. I was only 10 lbs away from my goal! I continued to work at it, increasing to weight training and continuing to explore new foods within the guidelines I was following for healthy eating. After a year, I actually lost over 80 lbs. I feel great, I have lots of energy, and am motivated….I also reconfirmed I can accomplish what I set my mind to do.
I cannot believe the weight I put on and the fact I was able to lose it. The most important lesson in my journey was to recoup the discipline I had lost. I did much introspection too. I had to understand why I gave up on myself and well- being, learn new eating habits and recondition my physical being. My journey is not over though. I am now learning to maintain this weight loss by educating myself on increasing calories without gaining the weight. I believe I will accomplish this too. Meanwhile, it is a blessing to know that I can count on the team at Florida Aesthetics to help me through this process as well.
N. Rodriguez
July 17, 2019