When I got married, September of 2009, I was 115 pounds. I am 5 feet, 4 inches tall, so I felt pretty good at 115. Soon after I got married, I gained a little weight. In fact, by the time I got back from my honeymoon, my wedding dress was a little tight.
In January of 2010, I came down with an eye infection. After an incorrect diagnosis of pink eye, I was diagnosed with a case of Iritis. Iritis is an infection in your eye. Basically, my own body was attacking my eye as if it were a foreign object. I had to take steroid drops for a while, but that didn't work. I was put on oral steroids. I took 9 pills 2 times a day at one point. Anyone who has ever been on steroids knows how horrible they are. I had all sorts of side effects, one of which was that I was ALWAYS hungry. I ate anything I could get my hands on and still wasn't satisfied. I quickly gained weight. By the time I finally got off the steroids (about 6 weeks later) I had reach 140 pounds.
Besides a little while in middle school, I never felt like I was fat. I didn't really have to worry about my weight until I faced this battle. I tried doing little things like going for walks a few times a week or cutting out some calories from my diet, but it didn't work. I was seriously addicted to sugar and wasn't motivated enough to work it off.
In August of 2010, I found out I was pregnant. I still hadn't lost the weight, and I hadn't improved my eating habits. Like many other women, I felt being pregnant gave me an excuse to eat whatever the heck I wanted. To top it off, I wasn't moving around much because my baby was putting pressure on my sciatic nerve, which gave me some intense hip pain. By the time I went into labor, I had hit 200 pounds.
After I had my baby, I decided I needed to lose weight, and fast. I was lucky; my son LOVED to go on walks. We walked and walked and walked. It helped me to get out of the house and I saw the pounds drop pretty quickly. I was also breast feeding and I think that helped me to lose some of the weight. I got back down to about 145 pounds just by walking and watching my diet with Weight Watchers. They have a nursing mother's program that worked well for me. I was on it for three months, which really helped me to change my eating habits. I was finally on the right track.
However, in September of 2011 I had a surprise. I was pregnant again. I had a four month old baby and another one on the way. I decided that this next pregnancy would be different from the first. I ate better, exercise as much as I could (I didn't have the hip problems this time around), and I saw a huge difference. My weight when I went into the hospital was only 170.
After I had my daughter, I jumped back on the weight loss wagon. I tried Weight Watchers again but I couldn't really get into it. With two kids, I didn't have much time to think about what I ate. I realized that I needed some more life style changes in order to get my body back. I joined challenge groups on facebook to keep motivated, which really helped me. I also bought Insanity and TurboFire from Beachbody (no, I am not a coach.) My husband bought me a juicer which I use every day. I added way more fruits and vegetables into my diet. I have been seeing slow, but steady, weight loss. I have lost 1-2 pounds a week since having my little girl. She is now 8 months old and I am down to 134 pounds. I am here to tell you that it is possible to lose weight.
The key is not some magic pill or anything like that. The key is working hard and eating healthy.
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