Join me on my journey to losing 25 pounds

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Hey fellow Steemians, I am trying to get back on my health kick and want to start losing weight again. It is super hard to eat healthy when the holiday is around the corner. I told my partner that we should start our healthy diet after the holidays.

A little bit about myself growing up...
I was always considered the "chunky child" in my family. Some people would call me “big boned” or a “very healthy” girl. In the first grade, my teacher discriminated against me because of my size. This however did not end well for her because my mom came to school the next day to report my teacher based on her actions. My teacher was failing me on purpose because of my size and the funny thing was, I was always helping my classmates finish their classwork after I completed mine. I was a high achiever growing up so my mother could not believe I was failing the 1st grade.

I had a hard childhood because I was being judged for my weight even when I tried to lose weight. Growing up in my American-Filipino culture , there was a lot of judgement of how much you've either gained or lost every time you see someone you have not seen in a while. The worst critics were my family. I grew up having a low self esteem which made me very sensitive about hearing about my weight. When I got older, I've learned to ignore the comments and used these to motivate me to work on myself for the better.

During my first year in high school, I was able to join the women's basketball team. I was the first freshman ever to make it to the varsity team. I felt like it was mostly because of my body type, which made it great to be the center or forward. I was sort of the backbone to the team because I was their last defense and supposedly the first one in line to take a hit. During this time, I was constantly in the gym which helped me stay physically active.

During my sophomore year, I lost more weight and was able to gain a lot of lean muscle along the way. Our coach introduced us to weight training and combined it with a lot of cardio. This helped me get faster and stronger on the court. It also helped my parents realize that I can lose weight and keep it off naturally.

During my junior year however, I started my first game and got into a bad accident. I was in midair when a girl that was twice my size had boxed me out (pushed me with her body) and it forced me to land on my ankle the wrong way. When I landed, I heard and felt two loud cracks and pops and immediately started yelling for help. The girl that injured me wanted to help but I was in too much pain to accept that she was sorry for what she had done. Half my team had to stop the game and carry me over to the bleachers. It was the worst night of my life!

Oh no!
I couldn’t believe that I injured myself during the start of my junior year in high school. I trained so hard to get to this point and it was gone just like that. After the game, I was brought to a nearby clinic. The doctor performed an x-ray which determines that I fractured a part of my ankle and needed a cast. I was in a cast for over a month and it was painful. It took me four times as long to get to class and it was hard to bathe and do anything that required you to stand. My sister who was in junior high at the time was so sad for me because she knew how much pain I was in and how much I loved playing basketball. At the end of my junior year, I eventually recovered and was able to play one last game. We ended up winning the game and fortunately I was able to get back on the court.

At the start of my senior year, I was back on the court and I was able to train harder than the last year. Being injured made me more motivated to be a better version of myself. I enrolled myself into Physical Education 3, which was one of the first hardest physical education class in our high school. My P.E. teacher knew about my injury and helped me work on getting back in shape.

During my last high school basketball game, we lost the game. We won second place but deep in our hearts we still won the game. Our team worked so hard to get to where we were and learned a lot along the way. As you can see from my high school career, I was an athlete.

Throughout my undergraduate career, I was able to find a job and stay moderately active in exercising. When I got busy, I did not have enough time to workout, which led to me gaining more weight year after year. I was over 200 pounds and did not realize how big I got until I saw my picture on my 23rd birthday.

After I saw myself, it hit me that I was risking my own life by being unhealthy. This motivated me to get back to eating healthy and exercise again. After 4 months I was able to lose a lot of weight. Here is how I looked after changing my diet:

This just motivated me even more to keep striving for my weight loss goal. In August 2013 I met the love of my life that helped me realize that the better version of myself starts with being healthy.

In 2014, I made it a goal to do my best to lose weight before I finally meet up with my girlfriend. We were long distance for over a year until I decided to go visit her for the summer. When I got back, I kept working towards my goal and was able to lose more weight and maintain my healthy lifestyle.

As you can see with the results, it takes a lot of time and effort to meet your goals. Three years later, I am doing my best to maintain my healthy lifestyle. I want to lose 25 more pounds to get my high school body back and maintain it. I have definitely changed for the better (I still get asked to show my I.D. so that means alot huh).

For anyone that is struggling with their goals, look at where you are now and think about what you want to accomplish in the next year or whatever timeline you want. The best first step is to write down what you want to accomplish and do some research.

Stay tuned for more posts about my weight loss journey. Thank you for stopping by.

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This is an amazing support group for women: