Written by: Tamika

I’ve been thinking to myself all day if I had a story or something encouraging to share. Simply because I have not reached my goals just yet and I am still a HUGE work in progress. But when I think about where I’ve come from and how far I’ve come the answer would be YES I do have a story.

Not that I haven’t always struggled with my weight because I have. I’ve yo-yo dieted for as long as I remember. Loading up on cardio, tried barbie weights once didn’t like it so I went back to cardio. Lost weight, gained weight….yada yada yada. Same story different actress.

Let me take you to 2 years ago, when I found the magic potion. It gave me the satisfaction I wanted quick weight loss, a step by step eating plan, NO exercise. Just wake up and BOOM the weight was gone. Hello HCG!!!!! The answer to all my prayers, or at least I thought. Yeah I lost weight about 18 lbs in a month and believe it or not I struggled to eat the measly 500 calories after the first 2 weeks on the diet. I had a plan honey, oh yes I’d lose this weight FOREVER!!!! Kept it a secret because I wanted to blow people away with my dramatic transformation and mostly wanted them to think I was doing it on my own. Silly right, I know. I lost…they noticed… and then…

I gave up my gym membership, fired my trainer. Because after all I was a member and paid the trainer for a whole year and lost a whopping 4 lbs! I’d lost the weight so what did I need them for? HCG did what I was paying them to do, and did it in 1 month. Boy was I silly (I was skinny though) I kept the weight off for a few months. Then slowly without me noticing I gained the 18 lbs back +12 more.  And let me tell you it must be angry fat because it wont budge!!

Fast forward to this year I joined MFP in February fell in love with it. Put my info in and started doing Insanity. I’d log my food and calories everyday met some nice encouraging people. I was on top of the world!!! NOT REALLY! Everyday I’d log MFP would warn me saying in those red letters “you are not eating enough…its hard to lose weight if you don’t EAT” well not those exact words but you get the picture. SO I made a comment on a status stating that MFP was telling me to eat more and ALL my pals said ignore it, MFP is stupid, you are doing great. SO I listened to my pals after all they knew what to do. About a month into insanity I decided to read the book that came with the program, did the calculations to figure out my calorie intake and it said 2600 calories. I was like no way!!! How is this even possible eating a lot is why I’m here. However I did up my calories to about 2000 a day but I then added 5 more hours of workouts to my schedule. Talk about counter productive!! So that’s about 12 hours of working out at a strenuous level. And I thought I was doing something eating 2000 calories. I lost a whole 4 lbs in the beginning and nothing else. After all that work NOTHING!!

I was surrounded by bad advice, on MFP and in my life. A trainer told me 2000 calories was to much and that I was eating more than he was. And that it takes 3500 calories to make a pound so I need to eat less than that and burn more in a week. Basically eat 3500 calories and burn 6000. So I dropped my calories again. Felt weak, short tempered, frustrated, had crazy binges (on hot dogs, who binges on hot dogs??), no urge to workout and wanted to quit.

Then comes EM2WL!!! They told me to basically eat, exercise and repeat. I’ve learned so much from everyone here and have still made mistakes. Because I didn’t understand the reset process I cut too early during my first round and had to start over. During the first reset I still hadn’t fully wrapped my brain around the whole process. I was still possessed by the scale and eating more scared me half to death. I had to take a step back and look at the big picture. I knew I wanted long term results and I had to work for it. Once it clicked, I put the scale away started heavy lifting and stopped starved myself. Now the scale doesn’t mean a thing, I lift, and I eat. I’m happier, I don’t miss out on family gatherings because of some ridiculous fad diet. I’m stronger and look forward to my cut and seeing where this journey is going to take me. I still struggle with the microwave mentality from time to time. Thinking I should be lifting crazy amounts and have a six pack already.

If I could say anything to someone who is struggling and skeptical I’d say keep going this is not a cookie cutter journey you have to find your numbers, find you workout and stick to it. Put away the scale, pick up some weights, and LIVE!!! Add patience into the equation and success will come. I’m still waiting, learning and have no plans to quit. Happy I’ve found my EM2WL family, I’d still be lost without you guys!