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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Growing up, Heather Davis wasn't the kind of kid people would have called fat or even chubby.
Like many children, Heather studied hard, did her homework and played sports after school. During elementary school, she remembers being thin -- but things started to change as she approached adolescence.
"My bad eating habits began during my 'latchkey kid' years," says Davis. "In high school and middle school, I played sports, but with a diet of Doritos and soda for lunch ... large family dinners ... I became overweight."
During her senior year in high school, Davis, who is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 200 pounds.
"We had a meat-and-potatoes family. We had dessert every night and I was a member of the 'clean your plate club,' remembers Davis. "It caught up with me."
By the time she was 22 and attending graduate school, Davis' weight had ballooned to 250 pounds. Davis says her weight gain was caused by major life transitions -- triggered by emotional eating, a junk-food diet and lack of exercise.
Davis dreaded shopping for clothes and said she found it hard to find stylish, age-appropriate clothing for her bigger body. She says it was a struggle to look neat and put together as most of her shirts "hugged every roll." Looser-fitting clothing, she says, made her feel as if she were wearing a tent.
The additional weight also began to take a physical toll. Everyday tasks such as walking up stairs or in the shopping mall started to become difficult. Davis says she was constantly hot and any physical exertion would cause her to sweat, even in below-freezing temperatures.
Life became a constant struggle.
"I would get hot a lot because of the extra weight I was carrying. Picture yourself with a 100-pound backpack on," says Davis. "That was what it was like climbing the escalator. My knees hurt. My back [and] shoulders hurt a lot."
Davis, who lives in Washington, says she had tried everything to lose weight, such as low-carb and low-fat diets and even starvation. But one day, something clicked.
"I was on the campus shuttle and saw the Gold's Gym," Davis says, "And, I said 'I can go down into the Metro and go home and eat my Ben & Jerry's [ice cream]. Or, I can go over there and really do this. Just do this!'"
Davis remembered her grandmother -- with whom she'd been extremely close -- who had died from heart failure brought on by years of unhealthy eating and lack of exercise.
"She will never get to see my wedding, children or experience other joys in her life," Davis says.
Davis says there wasn't any defining experience or "lightbulb" moment that forced her to make a change. It was the realization that after years of failed diets and the physical toll of obesity, she'd had enough.
During her first visit to the gym, Davis says she could barely handle 15 minutes on the treadmill. But she stayed on track by reminding herself that weight loss was going to be hard work and there was no easy way out.
She did cardio exercise for two weeks and began modifying her diet by cutting out starches, ice cream and pizza. Within the first two weeks, she had lost 8 pounds. She was motivated by the positive results and gradually increased her cardio, incorporated weight training and continued to change her diet.
Davis remained determined, and over the next 12 months, with the support of her family and regular check-ins with a gym trainer, she lost 110 pounds.
She went from wearing a plus-size 22 to wearing a size 4 or 6. The weight loss and healthier lifestyle boosted the 31-year-old's self-confidence and gave her access to a richer, fuller life.
"My days of treating my body badly are over," says Davis. "I focus on things I enjoy such as European travel, language classes and beach vacations."
Staying healthy for Davis means eating in moderation and incorporating fun forms of exercise into her daily life. She no longer owns a vehicle and enjoys long walks in downtown Washington.
She's also set another goal for herself -- a second graduate degree -- which she hopes will allow her to help others.
"I'm working on my master's in public health because all of this health awareness has made me want to help other people," Davis says. "Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and I will take pleasure using both experience and scientific knowledge toward planning and evaluating programs designed to help people incorporate healthy behaviors into their lives."
Davis is training to run a half-marathon and is running up to 6 miles. She says even though she's lost 110 pounds, she's still the same person -- outgoing, and more importantly -- happy.
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She's also become an inspiration for people who desperately want to lose weight.
"If I can do it, anybody can do it," says Davis
Like many children, Heather studied hard, did her homework and played sports after school. During elementary school, she remembers being thin -- but things started to change as she approached adolescence.
"My bad eating habits began during my 'latchkey kid' years," says Davis. "In high school and middle school, I played sports, but with a diet of Doritos and soda for lunch ... large family dinners ... I became overweight."
During her senior year in high school, Davis, who is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 200 pounds.
"We had a meat-and-potatoes family. We had dessert every night and I was a member of the 'clean your plate club,' remembers Davis. "It caught up with me."
By the time she was 22 and attending graduate school, Davis' weight had ballooned to 250 pounds. Davis says her weight gain was caused by major life transitions -- triggered by emotional eating, a junk-food diet and lack of exercise.
Davis dreaded shopping for clothes and said she found it hard to find stylish, age-appropriate clothing for her bigger body. She says it was a struggle to look neat and put together as most of her shirts "hugged every roll." Looser-fitting clothing, she says, made her feel as if she were wearing a tent.
The additional weight also began to take a physical toll. Everyday tasks such as walking up stairs or in the shopping mall started to become difficult. Davis says she was constantly hot and any physical exertion would cause her to sweat, even in below-freezing temperatures.
Life became a constant struggle.
"I would get hot a lot because of the extra weight I was carrying. Picture yourself with a 100-pound backpack on," says Davis. "That was what it was like climbing the escalator. My knees hurt. My back [and] shoulders hurt a lot."
Davis, who lives in Washington, says she had tried everything to lose weight, such as low-carb and low-fat diets and even starvation. But one day, something clicked.
"I was on the campus shuttle and saw the Gold's Gym," Davis says, "And, I said 'I can go down into the Metro and go home and eat my Ben & Jerry's [ice cream]. Or, I can go over there and really do this. Just do this!'"
Davis remembered her grandmother -- with whom she'd been extremely close -- who had died from heart failure brought on by years of unhealthy eating and lack of exercise.
"She will never get to see my wedding, children or experience other joys in her life," Davis says.
Davis says there wasn't any defining experience or "lightbulb" moment that forced her to make a change. It was the realization that after years of failed diets and the physical toll of obesity, she'd had enough.
During her first visit to the gym, Davis says she could barely handle 15 minutes on the treadmill. But she stayed on track by reminding herself that weight loss was going to be hard work and there was no easy way out.
She did cardio exercise for two weeks and began modifying her diet by cutting out starches, ice cream and pizza. Within the first two weeks, she had lost 8 pounds. She was motivated by the positive results and gradually increased her cardio, incorporated weight training and continued to change her diet.
Davis remained determined, and over the next 12 months, with the support of her family and regular check-ins with a gym trainer, she lost 110 pounds.
She went from wearing a plus-size 22 to wearing a size 4 or 6. The weight loss and healthier lifestyle boosted the 31-year-old's self-confidence and gave her access to a richer, fuller life.
"My days of treating my body badly are over," says Davis. "I focus on things I enjoy such as European travel, language classes and beach vacations."
Staying healthy for Davis means eating in moderation and incorporating fun forms of exercise into her daily life. She no longer owns a vehicle and enjoys long walks in downtown Washington.
She's also set another goal for herself -- a second graduate degree -- which she hopes will allow her to help others.
"I'm working on my master's in public health because all of this health awareness has made me want to help other people," Davis says. "Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and I will take pleasure using both experience and scientific knowledge toward planning and evaluating programs designed to help people incorporate healthy behaviors into their lives."
Davis is training to run a half-marathon and is running up to 6 miles. She says even though she's lost 110 pounds, she's still the same person -- outgoing, and more importantly -- happy.
advertisement
She's also become an inspiration for people who desperately want to lose weight.
"If I can do it, anybody can do it," says Davis
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitnes...avis/index.html
Now I know its not really news, and that its a long story, but I had to read it three times to make sure that its what I really wanted to see. The reason why I'm posting this is that its finally been shown that with eating right and exercising you can lose weight.
I am one of those people that agree (alike Howard Stern that says what I am about to say about losing weight) that the best way to lose weight is not by going on some crazy diet, or getting some type of surgery to lose weight, but by eating a healthy diet of food and limiting your intake as well as excercise properly to lose weight. I think its a bunch of crap when people that are overweight and has obesity say, "I can't lose the weight, there is nothing I can do to get ride of it, bla bla bla, oh poor me, feel sorry for me, I can't help it and bla bla bla".
I agree that a lot of the foods that are out there is extremely unhealthy and is hard to walk away from since it tastes so good. But, if you really want to lose that weight, you have to dedicate yourself to doing the right thing and not do some desperate thing in order to lose weight. Yes its hard, yes it will take time. You can't expect to lose a shit load of weight in like a month, it takes time, dedication, patient, and more.
There are people that are misguided (thanks to things like Jenny Craig and Subway) on how to lose weight. Yes subway is healthy and has low fat and can help you lose weight. However, just by eating Subway is going to help you lose weight. Deep down inside, Jared ate a Subway diet AS WELL AS EXERCISED IN ORDER TO LOSE WEIGHT.
Another thing that gets on my nerves is the misguided diet companies like Jenny Craig. I know people in my family that paid a shit load of money to Jenny Craig. The truth is, they did great! They lost that overweight. The bad side was, in order to keep that weight off, they had to stay on that Jenny Craig thing. These same family members of mine unfortunately had to stop doing Jenny Craig cause they needed the put their money on other things like house payments, children, bills etc. Well guess what happened? They ate properly and healthy, but man did they gain that weight back. In fact my uncle gained about 20lbs more than what he had on him before Jenny Craig. Now, I know that some of you are thinking that this may not be the case with all people, but unfortunately it is. There are a lot of people that I knew that went through the same thing and had the same outcome. If you research on it, you'll find the same complaints/problems. Its unfortunate.
Now for surgeries, thats not really the greatest thing to do in my opinion which I'll tell you why in a minute. In its defense I will say that I have another family member that had that gastric bypass done on them and it did great for her. She lost the weight, lost the weight and so on. She was able to lose weight in the past with Jenny Craig and exercising all the time; however Jenny Craig was costing her too much than what she wanted to pay (hence what I said about other family members that needed to pay bills, children, house payments etc). As for exercising, she did it all the time; however she got to the point where it took so much of her time to where she couldn't do it anymore for various reasons.
Now the bad story. A friend of a friend of mine about 8 years ago who was my age (currently 25, back then 17) had a gastric bypass done on her. She wasn't really overweight, she was just a big girl. She was beautiful, just a big girl. So her mom convinced her to do the gastric bypass. After the surgery, the doctor said that everything was fine, but it really wasn't. Somehow something was done wrong to where she was vomiting bile and ended up suffering from a serious septic infection. At 17 years old (Jessica) passed away due to the septic infection from a botched gastric surgery. Now I know its a very rare that this happens; however ever since then I never agreed with it too much and I find it horrifying even though there are so many people that have done it and did just fine. Unfortunately for Jessica's family, they were unable to sue the hospital for what happened, because they signed a waiver before her surgery saying that these things could happen and that if something were to happen to her due to the surgery then they would not be help responsible. What also sucks is that they didn't have life insurance on her, so her funeral set them back...a lot.
Anyways, overall all of the things that I have just talked about is this: if you want to lose weight, the best way to lose that weight is to eat healthy and exercise. Put the McDonald's down or whatever fast-food you eat and rather than sit and watch tv and play games all day, go for a walk or something.
If anything I said offends anyone here, let me say that I am extremely sorry. This was not my intention at all. I just want you to read this story and know that there is hope to lose weight the right thing rather than do some shortcut. There is no miracle fast weight-loss thing that you can do, it takes time, patient, dedication, and strength. Just think about when it comes to quitting smoking cigarettes, every single doctor in the country and most likely the world, say that they best way to quit smoking is to do it cold turkey and not by using patches or gums or pills or whatever they have out there. Yes they will help; however most people go right back.
It all takes time, and its all hard, but if any of you here that have some overweight, look at this woman's story and use it as an inspiration to what you can do when you focus your mind on something that you really want to achieve
. lol
