I wasn’t always overweight. Believe it or not until I had my first child I weighed 104 pounds. After I had my son, I went thru postpartum depression. I didn’t know it at the time and my doctor certainly didn’t clue me in. I gained 50 pounds, it just seemed like I couldn’t stop eating. Fast forward about 10 years, the military sent us overseas. I spent 4 ½ years eating my way thru Europe. Overseas, no family, no support, my husband deployed leaving me in a place that seemed like it was always raining. I gained another 50+ pounds. I was unhappy, no.. I was down right miserable.

Once we got back to the states, I could not deny my problem anymore. I sat on the couch staring at my treadmill. My excuses ran out, not enough time, not enough energy, my work out equipment was in storage. All that came to a halt the day my household goods arrived.  I was a stay at home military spouse, my kids were suddenly teenagers and didn’t need me like they did when they were little. I let that be my excuse for years. Time was up on all that, I made a doctors appointment with the intention of getting a gastric bypass. I qualified for it but the the thing I kept hearing was you will never learn how to eat right or lose the weight and keep it off if you go that route. I left the doctors mad as a hornet. What do you mean I couldn’t keep the weight off? Why was my doctor working against me? Those were my thoughts as I was driving home.

That evening I sat down and really thought about what it was that I really wanted. Did I just want to lose the weight? Did I want to go the easier route? Or did I want to not only lose weight but to learn how to be healthy? After much soul searching, I decided to go back to my doctors a few days later and discuss how to start to lose weight and how does one go about eating healthy. Well for me it started with Phentermine for about 2 months, I did lose the first 20 pounds that way. You see it took away my hunger, it took away all thoughts of eating. I would take a nice pill and not eat until 6 or 7 pm. I figured it out much later that I was barely eating 800 calories. Then after about 2 months, my magic pill quit working. Back to the doctor I ran and fast. His words were a wake up call. He told me” the rest is up to you”. I had to do the rest COLD TURKEY, no way!!!

I figured I’d eat the same amount of calories that I was eating with the pill and the weight would still come sliding off right? WRONG, again. So off to the internet to figure this whole eating thing out I went. I tried various diets but never once felt myself. I tried Atkins, South Beach, the eat 800 calorie diet. I tried so many crazy diets. I would lose a few pounds here and there, but it seemed I was always hungry. After coming off those diets, I would almost always gain the weight back. I needed to start somewhere all over. I needed to get my weight off this roller coaster ride. I started walking, eating 1200 calories, I have to admit that the weight really started to fall off when I combined the two. It seemed the advice everyone was giving was right.. an epiphany.. the key to weight loss was a healthy diet and exercise. Could it really be that simple? Yup that worked until it didn’t any longer. I kicked my exercise way up and my foods way down. I was exercising 2-3 hours a day everyday and only eating 1200 calories a day. I was STARVING, raving hungry 24/7. I was doing everything I thought was right but wasn’t losing, my weight loss came to a screeching halt. I researched, I asked for advice, I did everything my nutritionist said to do, and nothing.

I was out of luck, completely frustrated and ready to just give in again to the food issues. I was searching for advice, looking for that one shred of advice that So happened to be surfing the MFP community, I ran across the EM2WL group. Everything I read made perfect sense. I gradually upped my calorie intake. I got scared spitless the first time I ate over 1600 calories in a day. I was so very afraid that I’d gain, but amazingly after about a week or two, I lost 2 pounds. I’ve lost weight every week since I’ve increased my calories. I can safely eat 1800 calories and not worry about gaining. I am within 6 pounds of my goal weight. All my numbers are positive. For the first time in almost 17 years, I am at a normal BMI, my body fat percentage is within normal range, and for ONCE, I am NOT starving. I couldn’t have done this right without EM2WL.  I took the last 20 pounds off with advice from this group. I am proud of my body, proud of what I’ve done. Thanks to EM2WL! I’m eating healthy, eating foods that are right for me and not feeling the hunger so bad, I’d down a half a chocolate cake. Those days are past and here I am now 126 pounds!

Have an EM2WL transformation to share?  Willing to let us tag along on your journey? We’d love to see it!  Be featured on our Transformation/Journey page by submitting your story to Success@EM2WL.com