Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Success stories: Part 2 of many

In my on going attempt to motivate myself and others, I am putting together a sort of montage of success stories. We've already met Naomi, Kari, and Michael...today we'll hear about Eileen and Mandy. 

EILEEN

Eileen at her heaviest, on the left.
Eileen grew up always a little bit bigger than the rest of the girls in her dance classes. She never really let it get to her and accepted the fact that the women in her family always ran a little bit bigger.

It wasn't until she was 21 years old that she realized this was going to be a problem. At 21, Eileen was diagnosed with a condition called PCOS, otherwise known as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. The doctors couldn't tell her much other than it could cause weight gain and obesity. She had to do a lot of research on her and found out that things like sugar and carbs were not going to be her friends.

For a while she put her health on the back burner. Instead of living like someone who really needed to care for herself, she was living like most of us did...like an irresponsible kid. She was 21. She was eating pizza as her well balanced meal. She was finally legal to have alcohol and hang out at bars. So, she decided to live it up. She says at the time one of her biggest accomplishments was being able to drink the men under the table.

After college the side effects of PCOS started to really hit her. She was gaining weight, losing hair, and finding herself incredibly depressed. She moved back home and decided it was time to start taking care of herself! At the time she was at her absolute heaviest, 227 pounds.

Eileen sought out an endocronologist. This doctor basically told her that she needed to make a change. She had become insulin resistant, borderline diabetic, and had only a 25% chance of becoming pregnant. He suggested that instead of starting her on medications to bring down her weight that he wanted to her to give it a go on her own first. He taught her how many carbs were healthy for her in a day and she was on her way.

Eileen, on the right, 60 pounds lighter and happier!
With a healthy diet, exercise, and membership to Weight Watchers she was well on her way. She is crazy about the Leslie Sansone Walk at Home videos.

Eileen is currently down 60 pounds since 2002 and is keeping them off! She says she has 10 more pounds to go, but is so proud of what she has accomplished. She has brought her chances at having a baby up to 50% and is no longer insulin resistant. Not to mention, she looks HOT!

Mandy

During college, Mandy was a tiny thing. Much like myself, she was dancing 5-7 days a week and walking all over town to get to the store or the Playhouse or wherever. Metabolism was her friend.

After college, she moved to CA, didn't have to roll out of bed and go to a high energy jazz class and gained some weight. She got up to 200 pounds. This is not a great thing for someone who is 5 foot 1.5 inches tall.

She says she did a little Weight Watchers and Curves and lost about 30 pounds, but then just stopped. Nothing happened, no major crisis hit her, she just stopped. Some of the weight came back and she was comfortable.

In January 2010, Mandy got engaged to her long time sweetheart and vowed that for their May 2011 wedding she was going to slim down for good.

Much like myself, Mandy is not big on the whole idea of dieting and absolutely hates calorie counting. So, instead of being prisoner to a spreadsheet of calories and fat grams, she just made major changes to her eating habits. She has cut way back on eating sweets and fast food and practices portion control. Mandy has also discovered the magic of the walk at home program. She has a serious sweet tooth which she calms down with 100 calorie packs and dried fruits. She does enjoy the occasional bean and cheese burrito, but she will only have half and will pair it with a salad.

In January of this year Mandy was 181 lbs. She is down to 159.8 and plans to lose 20 more pounds for her wedding!!!

Mandy's secret: "This is a lifestyle, You can't deprive yourself of foods that you love, if you do your lifestyle won't work" Well, it's working. Go Mandy!!!



Thank you Mandy and Eileen for sharing your stories. There are more to come!! Do you have a great success story? Please share with me. 

3 comments:

  1. Love that you are posting these, Amy! They really are a huge help.

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  2. saw eileen a few weeks ago. add me to the 'eileen looks dynamite' crowd. makes me wish i was nicer to her in college. haha.

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  3. LOL!!! Lumpy, you're the best! Thanks for all the compliments and support, guys!! Love you!

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