The first picture was me Christmas of 2001 at my heaviest weight of 334.25 pounds. The second picture is me and my family on vacation July 6th of 2003. I am weighing around 174 at this time.
Christmas of 2001 was the breaking point for me, I was so tired, sick, and unhappy with myself and everyone around me except my loving husband and beautiful daughter. The weight was taking it's toll on my complete mind, body, and spirit.
From Christmas of 2001 to February of 2002 I lost 9 pounds due to being ill. But February 21, 2002 I made an appointment to see my doctor about gastric bypass surgery. My doctor reccommended me to try the diet drug Xenical so I did. I signed up for the Xenicare program where you are assigned a personal nutritionist in which you learn how to count calories and fat grams in order to get the maximum results from taking the Xenical. I started out eating 1500 calories and up to 45 fat grams a day. This plan started working for me from the start. I was too big to start exercising right away so my loss from the start was strictly from taking the Xenical and watching what I ate.
I started exercising in April of 2002. It was hard to get moving from the start. I would walk at least 20 minutes 3 times a week. We are fortunate that our county got the funds to build a new Family Wellness Center and the membership cost is only $35 a month which is very affordable for us. So the first of July me and my husband became members. We look at the $35 a month as a great investment in our health and well being. I started exercising 7 days a week doing treadmill for 36 minutes and weights each day. This has helped me to tone and lose in my sizes much faster. I used to be a size 30W and as of June 2003 I am wearing a size 14 in jeans.
At week 27 from February 21, 2002 I decided to stop taking the Xenical. I wasn't having any problems I just wanted to see if I could continue to lose without the drug. And I did continue to lose at the same rate. That week I lost 2.75 pounds which is a great loss for a week. I have been going without the Xenical every since. So I'm not promoting the drug at all because I know it can be done without it. The drug was something that got me started but I didn't want to depend on it to get all my weight off.
This is one of the best pictures I've taken of my daugther Felicia so I wanted to let everyone see. I think she is beautiful, of course.
These pictures were taken of me in March of 2003. Everyone gets a laugh out of them. I hope you do too.
I will be adding more pics as I get them. As of June 26, 2003 I have lost 159.5 pounds making my current weight 174.75 pounds. My goal weight is 164 pounds. February 21, 2003 made my year anniversary of living a healthier lifestyle and really working on the impovement of my weight and overall well being. I would love to hear any positive comments or if you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at alicia1492@peoplepc.com.
We had thse pictures taken July 15, 2003. They are the first ones that we have had made in a long time.
