Anonymous asked: Hello ;) i read through a couple pages of your q&a page but i couldn't find the answer to the question i want to ask you so i hope you can answer this. First of all I want to congratulate you on how far you have come you are amazing! secondly i was wondering do you have any loose skin? and if you do - do you think it'll end up bouncing back? Im 17 years old and I'm losing weight slowly but i won't be considering surgery if i do get it.

I answered a lot of common questions about my weight loss here. No, I don’t think it will bounce back. My skin was stretched out for a large majority of my life, so it’s lost a lot of its elasticity. I’ve been working out and running for a while now and I have noticed little/no improvement as far as my skin is concerned. I do want to have surgery in the future to remove it, but until then, I will embrace my “flaws” and love the body that I was given.

Anonymous asked: I watched your video and i'm confused... you only ate 800-900 calores per day?? If so that's so UNHEALTHY!!!

I know I didn’t make the video totally clear and I apologize for the confusion. I did everything the healthy way, eating no less than 1,200 calories per day, but after I finally dropped the weight after all these years, I was scared. I was terrified of gaining the weight back because I was at some of the lowest points in my life at 230 lbs. I didn’t want to face the old me ever again. This fear caused me to become completely obsessed with calories and the number on the scale. I knew how to lose weight the right way, but I didn’t know how to maintain my new weight.

A mere pound of weight gain used to freak me out. I began restricting AFTER I finished my journey. I didn’t reach 106 lbs until a couple of months after the 1 year mark (April 2010), where at that time, I’d lost 100 lbs. Running has saved my life and I’ve gained back 14 lbs since then. I did not lose 110 lbs by restricting. I want to make this absolutely clear with everyone! This was the rough “transition” period I went though, so to speak, between losing weight and being a dedicated runner. April 2010 marked the point in which I had lost 110 lbs. The restricting period was during the summer of 2010.

Common ?s about how I got started.

This is a post on some of my most commonly asked questions about how I got started.

HOW DID YOU GET MOTIVATED TO START YOUR JOURNEY?

Ironically enough, it was while I was sitting in front of the TV. Watching The Biggest Loser became a ritual of mine for a while back in 2009. I was fascinated about these brave individuals conquering what I have been struggling with for nearly my entire life. I couldn’t even dare to do what I usually did while watching television, which was mindlessly eating a pile of junk food. I could eat a huge bag of Doritos and it wouldn’t even phase me. I could eat an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and I wouldn’t feel sick. When I think back and realize how much I was poisoning my body with unhealthy foods, it’s no surprise that I weighed 230 lbs. I don’t blame anybody but myself. I used to eat alone to avoid the possible criticism. And certainly, nobody shoved the food down my throat. It was me who made the wrong choices. My parents sometimes blame themselves, but I never did. So going back to watching The Biggest Loser…the more I watched that show, the more I said to myself, “if they can do it, I can too.” And, I did. I started my journey amidst season 7. Tara Costa, a contestant on the show, was my main source of inspiration. She had an “I can do this” attitude the entire time she was on the show and I admired her for that and still do. She lost over 100 lbs, just as I did, and she’s also ran marathons and other races since she’s lost the weight. I’m a firm believer in the “if you change your attitude, you can change your life” outlook. If you can’t even believe in yourself, how do you ever expect anyone else to?

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Common ?s about my post weight loss.

This is a post on some of my most commonly asked questions about my post weight loss.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO LOSE 110 LBS?

It took me 1 year.

DO YOU HAVE ANY STRETCH MARKS?

Yes, I do. I was 230 lbs in high school, so stretch marks were unavoidable for me. My pediatrician (at the time), told me that I was gaining weight at a rate of 60 lbs per year. O.o At that rate, who knows where I would have been today if I didn’t turn my life around. Since I gained a lot weight so quickly, I got stretch marks as a result. Just like with pregnancy, a woman’s abdomen grows rapidly, so it’s common to get stretch marks because the skin doesn’t have efficient time to adjust. They are extremely hard to get rid of, if possible at all. They offer creams and other products to make them less noticeable (fade), but they will still be visible. Quite frankly, I could care less about my stretch marks. Like I have said time after time, my stretch marks are my battle scars. They are visual proof of what I endured, fought, and conquered to be where I am today.

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