My Story With My Weight Loss
by Sarah Spaulding
It occurred to me tonight that I have never put my story out for all to hear. My battle has been a long one. I’m still fighting. I hope that everyone can take something away from this story and apply it positively.
I was always a “thick” person. I was a size 6 in women’s at 11 years old. I was also in all of the gifted programs and had been accepted to Magnet Schools and pushed to the front of the waiting list. Unfortunately “nerd” and “fat kid” were not easy burdens to bear. Together or separately. Not only was I made fun of, I was randomly assaulted. Once I was stabbed in the arm with a pencil and another time I had my head slammed into a metal vice in shop class. Awesome times.
Around 9th grade I had started to get taller and had thinned out a bit. I was 145 lbs at 5’6″. I had massive stomach issues and had to have surgery during the summer after 9th grade. I couldn’t eat solid food for two weeks and combined with some other emotional b.s. I started using food to make me feel good.
I failed my first year of high school despite my I.Q. I didn’t like homework but did great on tests. I was persuaded to drop out by a certain parental unit. I got my G.E.D 4 months later and found a guy I loved. I got on the depo prevera shot (for obvious reasons). We spent a lot of time at concerts, we drank a lot, and ate out every day all day. We worked at McDonalds together. Every single time I walked by the nugget tray I ate one. I ate everything they had. I also worked at UPS moving 1000 packages between 5 and 60 lbs an hour for 15 hours a week. I also worked at UPS with the boyfriend.
At 230 lbs 2 1/2 years later, I asked my clinician at the OB/GYN if I could get on something else for birth control because I thought I had gained weight. Depo is A LOT of hormones at one time. Granted, that’s not an excuse. Anyway, said I was just fine. I went from 145 lbs to 230 lbs. I also had high blood pressure at 19 years old and SHE THOUGHT IT WAS FINE!!!
It was around this time that the guy I had loved cheated on me with our McDonalds manager. I had to quit BOTH of my jobs being as he was my ride and worked with me. Even being larger, I sure as HELL wasn’t gonna put up with getting cheated on ( and nobody else should either!), but I wish nothing but the best for that guy because it was one of the greatest things to ever happen to me.
So now I was broke, obese, unhealthy, and heartbroken. I had no friends at the time. After about a month of crying (leave me alone, I was young and dramatical lol) I got wildly and severely PISSED OFF!!!!! I couldn’t think, I couldn’t eat, all I wanted to do was kick his ass and vomit all over myself.
I decided I was gonna kick ass in life instead. I didn’t know a darn thing about losing weight other than I should exercise and not eat out. I only knew how to cook meat and spinach salad. Prior, I had only eaten things that could be microwaved, deep fried, or picked up at a drive through. So I ate steak and spinach salad pretty much exclusively for a month. Side note- not something I recommend doing being as it was horribly unbalanced.
I also walked. I didn’t say “I’m going to Crossfit, or I’m going to run marathon.” I didn’t spend hours looking through Muscle and Fitness magazines for “a killer workout,” RAWR. I went for a good, old fashioned, low impact, easy to do, walk. For those of you who don’t know me, I love heavy metal, throwing on the headphones with some up-beat music and walking was heaven. I walked up hill, I walked down hill, I walked in the woods, I walked on sidewalks, I even walked with 4″ of snow on the ground. I was going in the right direction. 1 mile turned into two turned into 5. After a few months I was walking 25 to 30 miles a week. Cardio alone takes forever to burn fat and I wish I knew that at the time but never the less I lost 30 lbs the first month. My determination had never wavered for a second.
Short version of the next years- went to technical collage, graduated with a 97.5% average, continued to drop weight slowly, got a job with animals, worked at a phenomenally run Animal Hospital, (where I learned a lot about business) and moved out on my own. I found a new boyfriend and gained back a lot of fat. Gotta love the blame the boyfriend for making you gain weight thing. Nope, I got lazy as hell and ate crap. I actually broke up with that guy after 2 years because of the issue. He was lazy and wanted to eat crap. I didn’t want to live that way ever again. It was way worse the first time to the point of health issues and come hell or high water I was gonna lose this weight and lose him if necessary.
Walking was no longer effective because I had done so much of it my body had grown accustomed to it. I needed help. I had once worked out with a friend who was training me in Capoiera and had good results in strength and weight loss (on top of the ability to whoop booty!) so I decided to look for a trainer. One day on MySpace (yep, MySpace) I searched “personal trainer”. I had just bought a new car, got a new apartment (sans the man to pay half the bills) and a new job. I knew I couldn’t afford personal training but I knew what had to be done. I tried MySpace first because it was less threatening than walking straight into a gym. I found Steve Long. He liked the same bands so I figured he might be cool (LOL) I paid for like 2 weeks of training at a huge discount (thanks again!) and I still couldn’t afford it. I was losing weight and getting strong and was not going to stop. Don’t get me wrong, I meant precisely what I said. I WAS NOT GOING TO STOP.
Steve saved money on rent if he cleaned the gym. Guess what I did. Yep, I cleaned up nasty toilets, mopped pain-in-the-ass-to-clean rubber floors, and wiped down equipment on top of my 45 hour a week job, to make damn sure I wouldn’t fail.
Steve had decided to do boot camps and was going to need help and I was working at Animal Control (which i hated). So I up and quit my job, took a massive pay cut, moved into a one-bedroom apartment with my mom, and dedicated the vast majority of my waking hours to continue to workout hard and eat right and learn how to help others do the same.
Every single day STILL, I am conscious about what I eat and when. I still work out hard. I still try and spit excuses at myself. I still have moments of weakness. I am still determined to be healthy for a long time.
