Successful Weight Loss Stories

Natalie's story of weight loss is somewhat different in that, unlike most women her age, she decided to lose her goal weight in a more organic way, with a heavy emphasis on exercise. During her six-month metamorphosis, she admitted to being a bit addicted to her morning workout, feeling guilty at times if she missed a day and telling herself to go extra hard to work off that slice of cake she had eaten at the office birthday party. The motivation began with fitting into a wedding dress, but the motivation continues with the notion of living a healthy life.

History

• Natalie was 30 when her fiancé got down on one knee and proposed in the same restaurant where they had their first date. After the euphoria of hearing the question evaporated with dessert, Natalie realized she had better lose some weight--and fast. She almost immediately decided against a crash diet consisting of a combination of diet pills, regular gym workouts and starving herself. Instead, she set about changing her lifestyle in earnest.

Potential

• With six months to lose 30 pounds, Natalie decided to ease into a workout regimen. She introduced a series of yogic stretches into her daily routine, focusing 30 minutes of her morning five days a week on breathing and long, deep stretches. Her strategy involved little change to her diet of fried chicken and French fries in the hopes that having loose muscles would help when she did step up the intensity of her workouts. Through the first month of doing nothing but stretches half an hour a day, Natalie saw a negligible change in her figure, but her body felt stronger and more flexible.

Theories/Speculation

• "My best friend's uncle is a nutritionist, and he once told her that anytime you can exercise first thing in the morning, before eating anything, before drinking anything, you will see the best results from your workout," said Natalie, a resident of Washington, D.C. "She told me that if you run for at least 30 minutes, according to her uncle, first thing in the morning, that your body burns first the last fat you consumed, and then burns the reserves your body keeps in store. Her uncle says you don't even have to change anything you eat, and the pounds just start melting off." Natalie made that the cornerstone of her workouts.

Time Frame

• During the second month, Natalie introduced a jogging schedule to her daily stretching regimen. She began the morning with an abbreviated bout of stretches to squeeze in a 30-minute jog, so she would not be late for work. By the third month, she found herself waking up earlier and earlier in order to stretch her muscles for a longer period of time, sore from the previous day's run. She also found herself jogging farther and faster than she had the day before. By the fourth month, she caught herself picking up a box of doughnuts at the grocery store, only to put them back because she could not justify the calories. By the fifth month, Natalie sought the peace she felt in running 6 miles in the morning before work, away from the stress of the wedding and work and weight loss.

  She noticed a gradual change in her physique, having added a few push-ups and abdominal crunches to her routine, but the true test of her progress came with each compliment she received from her co-workers and friends, from strangers staring at her just a little bit longer, and from her fiancé, who seemed to be especially impressed.

Effects

• "I cannot say it was easy," Natalie said. "In fact, one of the ways I got out of bed on some of those mornings was by telling myself this would be the hardest thing I would do all day, and that if I could get through it, the rest of the day would be a breeze. There were shin splints and sore muscles and a lot of sweat and a lot of sacrifice, but when I think back to the way I was and the way I looked, I know that I can never let myself get back to that again. I'm healthy now, and all it took was getting into a wedding dress to get me here."

Benefits

• All told, within a six-month period Natalie lost 23 pounds toward her goal of 30 leading up to the wedding. Although she fell just shy of her goal, she is proud of her larger accomplishment of achieving a healthy lifestyle and has discovered a desire to compete in local marathons and triathlons.