Hey guys my names Nat and the amazing weight loss stories and journeys of so many people here have inspired me to share my own experiences:
Being an overweight teenager is hard in any circumstances but for reasons I cannot really explain, being an overweight teenager who was once training for the olympics is harder.
I was always a very active child. From the minute I could walk I was practically playing any sport with a ball in it as well as roller blading, Taekwondo and of course, swimming. Taekwon do was special to me and I was very good at it but my real talent lay in swimming and more specifically the 100m backstroke. I was so good in fact that from the ages of 10-14 I trained with a world renowned coach to get me fit and ready for the 2012 Olympic trials.
If I had continued that would have been next year.
Sadly though, I didn't continue. the pressure to always be better became so much that I began to resent the sport and the fact that my seven days a week traing had made me give up Taekwondo and my social life. I was a 14 year old girl craving social contact. I had to get out of the pool. So I did and I quit. Cold Turkey.
For the next two years I indulged my social butterfly, blind to the fact that I was slowly gaining weight. That was until I went to my doctor after having an asthma attack and he told me I had late onset asthma brought on, most likely, from being overweight. Overweight? Me? I thought. The thought was ridiculous. Sure I had gained a little weight since I stopped training but there was no way I was overweight. As it turns out, I was. The scale read 174 pounds. I was so far in denial that not only did I demand he remesure, but when the result was the same, I insisted the scale was broken.
My last straw came when the doctor became so fed up with my refusal to see reason that he took a photo of me and showed me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I went from being a 5"7", 125 pound 14 year old to being a 174 pounds. I had gained 50 pounds in two years. I walked out of the doctors office in a daze and dully reported the results to my mum. As she drove me home, reality finally set in and I cried for the first time in a year.
After my short lived pity party I decided to take action and joined my local gym. Not only did I not lose any weight, I gained it. I had never dieted before and I had become so use to my exercise being my traing that I wasnt doing the right thing and for the next year I fell into depression, considered suicide and lost a lot of my friends.
My real last straw moment came when I realised that my mother who had always been at least 20 pounds heavier than me was in fact losing weight and was now 10 pounds lighter than me. I was mortified, ashamed and hit rock bottom, hard. I was a 17 year old athlete by nature and my 47 year old, scoliosis riddled mother was losing weight and I wasn't? It was ridiculous, so ridiculous, I actually laughed.
So two months ago I began my weight loss journey. I rejoined Taekwondo, went on a calorie controlled diet and starting today i started the couch to 5k program by cool runnings. In 9 weeks I 'll be running 5ks
I started my journey at: 184 pounds
Now: 174 pounds
Goal: 145 pounds
Thanks for listening and I'll see you guys again in the goal section at 145 pounds!!!
17 and one BMI point away from obesity
