Sarah's Story

I'm Sarah. I'm 33 years old, and I'm still technically overweight by the BMI charts, but definitely not like I once was.

You see ... as of today I've managed to lose 106.4 pounds. And just last week I actually met my initial weight watchers goal. I know the next question. I hear it several days a week. How'd you do it? I don't have any voodoo magic to share with you. Sorry! Here's my secret... huddle in now... wait for it... I strictly watch what I eat EVERY single day, right it all down, and I exercise most days a week, usually instead of doing something like going out for lunch, or happy hour. Not very fun, huh? But it is MUCH better than the alternative.

How did I let myself get to almost 282 pounds? Well.... I let it happen over many many years of being overweight, obese... fat. Whatever you want to call it, I was it. I was the fat kid, the fat teenager, the fat friend, the fat person without a prom date, the fat bride, and finally the fat pregnant lady. I loved myself, I had good friends and family, and I felt people accepted me, but it all came down around me on August 9, 2007.

That was both the best and worst night of my life. It’s the night that my sweet baby boy was born. Let's call him "L". He was born 5 weeks early, via emergency C-section, and only weighed 3 lbs 4 oz. He spent 27 days in the NICU at the hospital. He was born early because I developed HELLP syndrome - a very serious and rare from of preeclampsia that can lead to liver failure and even maternal death. L and I, we're lucky. We both came out of it relatively unscathed. Sure, he's a little small, but it hasn't affected his ability to flourish one bit. After L was born I continued my "old lifestyle" for over a year before I was finally told flat out by my doctor that my weight was likely a "contributing factor" to my pregnancy issues. He advised me to lose weight prior to any more pregnancies. WOW! I almost killed myself and this sweet little boy by being this fat. It was really hard to hear. I wanted to keep my ears closed to hearing it, but I knew in heart that it was true. Getting this fat, and keeping myself this fat was selfish. I had that sweet little boy to think about now; this wasn’t just about me anymore. And so, the very next week I walked into Weight Watchers and vowed to change myself.

I've followed Weight Watchers since October 2008. I lost my first 50 lbs with no exercise, and then in April of 2009 I started going to Curves. I loved Curves, but finally decided I needed more this past spring, and trained for running my first 5k, which I ran in 32 minutes and 15 seconds on June 12th! After my race, I found that I just couldn’t quit, and I continued to run. I recently joined a new gym that allows me to do more than I was doing at Curves. I’ve also signed up for my next race – The Great Prostate Cancer challenge, which I am running in memory of my father who passed away from prostate cancer 9 years ago.

Like I said earlier, just this past Thursday I reached my Weight Watchers goal. I have a personal goal of losing another 15 pounds, but I’m feeling very happy with where this journey has taken me so far. These days, I find myself staring at recent pictures and wondering. “Who is that person? Where did she come from?” While it seems like it has taken a long time to get to this point, in some ways it seems like no time has passed at all. I wonder… how did I make it, what was different this time? Determination, and every single day, no matter what, putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward!

I have a favorite quote. "A journey of a thousand miles, must begin with a single step"
- Lao Tzu

I live by that every day!

Visit my blog: http://fatlittlelegs.blogspot.com/

"You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
-- AA Milne