A Little Background!
Hey there! LeAnn here. I’ll start off by giving you a brief biography of myself and why I decided to blog in the first place. I’m 19 years old and currently in pursuit of a career in physical therapy. I’m also in pursuit of becoming the person I know I can be.. the healthier, and thinner me. I know I’m not alone on this journey and I’d love to be able to share my goals and successes with all of you.
For as long as I can remember, I have battled with my weight. I came off as the happy-go-lucky girl, but deep down I hated the way I looked. I always felt so uncomfortable. Whenever my mom would take my two sisters and I back-to-school shopping I never fit in the clothes that my sisters did. It was embarrassing having to wait my turn to go shop in the plus-size stores. I would cry every time.
On top of that, I was picked on throughout grade school for my size. I pretended that their words didn’t hurt me and that I was perfectly fine with the way I looked, but it was just an act. The truth was, I agreed with every word they said about me. I was extremely hard on myself about being heavy because I thought that was the push I needed to do something about it.
It didn’t help. I ended up gaining even more weight instead. By this time, I was a junior in high school and at 5’6” weighed 260 pounds. I was a terrible dieter, I would stick to something for about a month tops and then cave. My family would try and help me when I asked, but I’d end up getting upset or angry with them. It was something I had to decide to do for myself and I obviously didn’t want it bad enough just yet.
Finally, the summer after my junior year, something clicked inside me. I had a picture in my head of how I wanted to look at my senior prom and that was exactly the push I needed to get myself started. That entire summer I was eating a lot less and working out for an hour to two hours everyday on the treadmill. By the beginning of my senior year I had lost 40 pounds and by my senior prom I lost a total of 80 pounds. I weighed 180 pounds on my prom day! I felt so amazing and I surprised so many people. I knew I wasn’t finished on my weight-loss journey. My goal was to be around 140-150 pounds. But I had still come a long way and my senior year was a truly fantastic year for me. The summer after my senior year was also one of the best ones too. I had a new found confidence and there were so many people continuously giving me compliments on how I looked. Something I’ll never get used to!
Unfortunately, I got to the point where I stopped being strict on myself. I would say, “Oh you can eat that LeAnn, you deserve a treat for all of your hard work.” and then when I’d weigh myself I didn’t see a change so that gave me more reason to splurge. Eventually, there was a change on the scale though. I was finished with my first year of college and I had put on the “freshmen 15”… and then some. I was so angry with myself. I never wanted to see 200+ on the scale again and I’d let myself get up to 225.
Instead of having the the coulda, shoulda, woulda argument with myself, I just got back on the diet/exercise train and told myself you’ve done it before, you can do it again. So I did. I got down to 201 pounds and for some reason I’d hit a wall. My weight wouldn’t budge. I decided I needed to try something else. So my brothers girlfriend asked me if I’d be interested in trying WeightWatchers with her. I figured what the heck, I had nothing to lose. So, on February 23, 2012 I joined and it’s been a success ever since.. I’m also still Today, I am smaller then I was at my senior prom and still getting smaller. I know that eating healthier and exercising will be something I have to do for the rest of my life. It won’t always be easy, but it will be so worth it. I chose my difficulty, and my hope is to inspire others to do the same!
