Losing It
My Journey to Weight Loss and Health:
By : Joselyn Dumas
I fi rst became conscious of my weight in 2004, aft er giving birth to my baby girl. I had family members who would some- times ask when I was looking to “lose the weight”. Th is was mainly because I wanted to pursue my dream of being a television host/actress and at that time, it was very rare to see a plus size person on TV.
W
Th is became a nightmare. I’ll never forget moments when I’d enter public places and people would give the side eye with an expression like “Girl you’ve got to lose that weight!” At that time I weighed 320 pounds and wore a size 22 . I decided to go on a mission to lose the weight and chase my dream.
As a small town girl with a limited budget, I couldn’t aff ord the “Jenny Craigs” and the “Weight Watchers.” I visited the internet, researched and decided to do this my way. I looked in my kitchen cabinet and used what I had. First of all, I cut out saturated fats, alcohol, red meat, etc. I replaced car- bohydrates with lots of vegetables, drank freshly squeezed juice, grilled my fi sh and
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eight wasn’t always something I struggled with. I was of normal size throughout my childhood and beyond.
chicken whilst controlling my portion intake.
I started a jogging routine and regular walking aft er work while chatt ing with my friends on the way home. We’d pray while walking and, without even realizing, would walk about 5 miles! I made this a lifestyle. “I joined a fi tness program and won a coupon to train at a certain local gym for only a week. However, I quickly made friends at the gym and trained with them for more than 6 months and no one was the wiser that I wasn’t actually a paid registered member! I don’t know what you’d call that, but I called it “being smart!” Hey - I had a goal to achieve…
I watched an Episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in which she and an expert talked about doing away with your scales, just seriously training and sticking to your routine. Th e logic was that the scale can be both misleading and discouraging. I added this to my routine and began to ignore my scale. I continued seriously training and checking my diet without stepping on my scale. I continued this for a year and I
started seeing undeniable changes! Soon I reduced to a size 18 and this propelled me to continue.
Months later, a friend invited me to his wedding. Aft er work, I decided to go win- dow shopping and fi nd a nice dress for my friend’s big day. I went to Dress Barn and found a size 18 dress I really liked; it was so nice! I pleaded with the sales girl to keep it for me until the following month when I’d come and pay for it, and she agreed. A month later, I passed by to purchase the dress and to my amazement, the dress I chose was now far too large. I miraculously ended up fi tt ing into a size 14!
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