My name is Meghan. I am almost two years into my new lifestyle. I have lost 115 pounds, from my highest and countless inches. I have gone from "Morbidly obese" to "Normal". I have gone from a size 18/20 to a size 4. I lost my first 100 pounds in about 9 months, and have kept it off for a year. I am back to Spark to finish my desired weight loss and finally hit my goal. My goal is to be 120 pounds. I am nearly there. This is my story.

I've been a "bigger" girl since puberty. I ...

My name is Meghan. I am almost two years into my new lifestyle. I have lost 115 pounds, from my highest and countless inches. I have gone from "Morbidly obese" to "Normal". I have gone from a size 18/20 to a size 4. I lost my first 100 pounds in about 9 months, and have kept it off for a year. I am back to Spark to finish my desired weight loss and finally hit my goal. My goal is to be 120 pounds. I am nearly there. This is my story.

I've been a "bigger" girl since puberty. I guess it does weird things to some people. For me, my hair changed color from straight and blond to wavy and brown, and Instead of growing boobs like everyone else, I got boobs and fat. Even though I hated how I looked, I was fairly unmotivated to change my lifestyle. I stayed the same way through college. I was a good student, did extracurricular activities, but I never exercised. I blame laziness. I'm not afraid to admit that anymore. I was a really lazy kid and I ate like crap.

At my job as an Emergency Medical Technician, I sit for 12 hours a day- 4 days a week, in an ambulance. A lot of fast food, junk food, soda, starbucks, eating on the run, not getting a full 8 hours of sleep. Sometimes we go days without sleeping, and the hours of sitting are broken up by moments of intense stress. I developed what we in the field commonly refer to as "ambulance ass". Despite the escalation of calories, I still never worked out. Laziness is a factor here yet again.

Then, while working in August 2009, I was taken out of commission by a knee injury that required surgery and a long recovery. I rapidly gained weight being immobilized. (again, eating crap, and now not moving AT ALL.) I sat on my couch all day, every day for nine months. Before I knew it I was up to 250 pounds. I refused to look at a scale for a long time, so that number may actually be much higher. It hurt to look at myself. I avoided pictures like the plague. I stopped going out in public. I distanced myself from friends. I stopped riding my horses, which until now was my only outlet for stress. I hid in my house. I was very unhappy.

After I had surgery in January and did rehabilitation for a few months, I was cleared to work and start exercising in July of 2010. The doctor recommended I lose weight so i could avoid re-injuring my knee. I knew I was fat, but I didn't think I was that bad. I went back to work and to my dismay, my uniforms no longer fit. I couldn't zip up my boots all the way and my belt was too small. I had to borrow a larger jacket. I actually broke a belt trying to get it to fit. I realized at that point, I maybe needed to make a change, but I again chose laziness and didn't do anything about it.

Then a friend of mine showed me a picture she has taken of me over the summer, with my new horse. I was appalled. That picture made me face the facts. Not only was I unhealthy, I was over morbidly obese. I couldn't hide it anymore. The time to do something about it was now. I was almost 26 years old, and I knew that I wouldn't make it to 36 if I kept going down the path I was going down. All these dreams I wanted to accomplish, would be impossible without making a change.

I started exercising daily, riding my bike home from work, hiking, riding my horses more often and watching what I eat. I saw less of the people that weren't supportive of my weight loss, or that were negative influences. I started hanging out with more positive people. I joined spark, and became active in its community. I joined a gym that I have friends and coworkers at, so I would be more inclined to go. I try to get out and do things more often. The more I do, the more I want to do, and the more weight that comes off. The more success I have, the more I want to get out and do things. I want to eat right. I'm not afraid of the scale anymore. I want to work out, ride the horses, go hiking and camping, get out and see the world! I want to find that skinny girl inside of me, and let her out!

Sparkpeople has made a difference in my life, and with my outlook on everything. I stay truthful to myself, and to my sparkfriends. I now know I can do anything I put my mind to. I track what I eat, I track when I work out, and I weigh myself weekly and record it for the world to see. Spark keeps me accountable. Spark squashed my laziness bug. It is an amazing resource I am so glad I was introduced to, it has truly changed my life. Without my friends on Sparkpeople, I would not have been successful in my weight loss- because I wouldn't have had near the amount of emotional support and positive vibes that I needed along my journey.

All that being said, my best advice to people just starting out, is to have a lot of very supportive people around you. Try to ignore the negative influences. Eat less, and move more. It will work. It's not always fast, but it WILL happen. I promise you. Stick to your guns and show the world what you can do. With a lot of work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears, I have been extremely successful with my weight loss.

But i'm not going to sugar coat it for you. Losing the first 100 pounds was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It broke me down, both physically and emotionally, but I built myself back up. No one said it'd be easy, they just said it would be worth it. I've lost several friendships because of my weight loss.

Some people chose to walk out of my life because, simply put, they were jealous of my success. People do seem to get pissed when you aren't the token "fat friend" anymore. I didn't expect this to happen at all, but it did- and it caught me completely off guard. So be prepared for people to leave, but know that the ones that do weren't good people to surround yourself with to begin with. You deserve friends that love and support you no matter what. Make sure the relationships you make with people are strong ones that will be supportive of your new lifestyle and looks. Be open and honest about your feelings with people too, it helps.

My long term relationship of nearly 4 years failed once I was close to my goal weight. I was desperate for answers as to why he'd want to drive me away now that I looked and felt so much better. Ultimately, I discovered that it was because my new size wasn't how he "liked me". He was into chunkier girls, and when I wasn't that person anymore, he went looking for, and subsequently found, someone who was.

It sucked, yes, and it was hard to deal with a separation after being with someone for that long, but I didn't let it break me down. It made me stronger, emotionally, and taught me to have more respect for myself. I deserved better than what I had and how I was treated, and god clearly has a plan for my future that is better, brighter, and happier. This breakup actually taught me to not ever give up on your dreams, even if others want you to. Let the haters hate. Be the you that YOU want to be. Not the you that THEY want you to be.

And you know what? I may have lost that relationship, but shortly thereafter I found REAL, true, yet completely unexpected love in a friend that had stood by me and supported me my whole journey. My soulmate and chance for happiness wasn't very far from me at all. Fat and skinny, he had always embraced me for being me, He loved me all along and was just waiting for me to realize it. He saw how hurt I was, and he gently scooped up the broken pieces of my heart and made it whole again. Sometimes Mr. Right is Mister Right there and you just don't notice at first. But I'm glad we figured that out!

My life, in all senses, began again at 27. I started everything over. And I wouldn't trade a minute.


It's never too late to be what you might have been!

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Weekly Weigh In
09/01/10-250 BMI 40.3- "morbidly obese" for my height
09/15/10-245 BMI 39.5- "obese" for my height
09/29/10-239 BMI 38.6
10/06/10-232 BMI 37.4 Joined Sparkpeople! Woohoo!
10/13/10-225 BMI 36.3
10/20/10-222 BMI 35.8
10/27/10-218 BMI 35.2
11/03/10-215 BMI 34.7
11/10/10-213 BMI 34.4
11/17/10-208 BMI 33.6
11/24/10-204 BMI 32.9
12/01/10-200 BMI 32.3
12/08/10-197 BMI 31.8
12/15/10-194 BMI 31.3
12/22/10-191 BMI 30.8
12/29/10-187 BMI 30.2
01/05/10-184 BMI 29.7 No longer "obese" for my height!
01/12/11-181 BMI 29.2
01/19/11-178 BMI 28.7
01/26/11-177 BMI 28.6
02/02/11-174 BMI 28.1
02/09/11-171 BMI 27.6
02/16/11-168 BMI 27.1
02/23/11-166 BMI 26.8
03/02/11-166 BMI 26.8 Became a Sparkpeople Motivator!
03/09/11-164 BMI 26.5
03/16/11-162 BMI 26.1
03/23/11-160 BMI 25.8
03/30/11-159 BMI 25.7
04/06/11-158 BMI 25.5
04/13/11-155 BMI 25.0
04/20/11-153 BMI 24.7 No longer "Overweight"
04/27/11-152 BMI 24.5
05/04/11-149 BMI 24.0
05/11/11-On Vacation, no weigh in...
05/18/11-149 BMI 24.0
05/25/11-148 BMI 23.9
06/01/11-146 BMI 23.6
06/08/11-146 BMI 23.6
06/15/11-144 BMI 23.2
06/22/11-143 BMI 23.1
06/29/11-141 BMI 22.8
07/06/11-141 BMI 22.8
07/13/11-141 BMI 22.8
07/20/11-140 BMI 22.6
07/27/11-139 BMI 22.4
08/03/11-138 BMI 22.3
08/10/11-137 BMI 22.1
08/17/11-136 BMI 21.9
08/24/11-135 BMI 21.8
08/31/11-135 BMI 21.8
09/07/11-135 BMI 21.8
09/14/11-135 BMI 21.8
09/21/11-135 BMI 21.8
09/28/11-135 BMI 21.8

Spark Start Over
06/20/12- 145 BMI 23.4 (only ten pounds up from my lowest, I got this- stupid medication gain!)



Goals 2010-2011
To be 210 November 1- (Goal made 11/12/10)
To be 200 by December 1 (Goal made 12/1/10)
To be 190 by January 1 (Goal made 12/25/10)
To be 180 by February 1 (Goal made 01/14/11)
To be 170 by March 1 (Goal made 02/12/11)
To be 160 by April 1 (Goal made 3/22/11)
To be 150 by May 1 (Goal made 4/30/11)
To be 140 by July 1 (Goal made 7/18/11)

2012 Goals:

To be 120 (my final goal) by 9/11 (my 28th birthday!)


Weight Loss Per Month
September 10'- 11 lbs
October 10'- 23 lbs
November 10'-16 lbs
December 10'- 13 lbs
January 11' - 11 lbs
February 11'- 10 lbs
March 11'- 7 lbs
April 11'- 10 lbs
May 11'- 4 lbs
June 11'- 5 lbs
July 11'- 2 lbs
August 11'- 4 lbs
September 11'- 0 lbs
OCTOBER 11'-APRIL 12'- SPARK BREAK- Life happens.
May 12'-

Read More About PUNKROCKCOWGIRL (Updated June 23)

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