Achievement:
Before:
After:
Height:

Soldotna, Alaska
TOPS AK 0164 Soldotna

"Now, I have so much energy and strength. It’s funny being called the “little girl” at work."

In high school, I was active with skiing, swimming, and hiking, graduating at 135 pounds. After graduation, I worked in fast food restaurants, where food was abundant and available any time. My weight slowly crept up.

This, combined with a medical condition, led to my eventual weight of 225 pounds in 1997. Amazingly, I met a wonderful man, Roger, who looked past my weight. By the time we married I was up to 250 pounds. Matrimonial bliss added another 100 pounds.

Due to my medical condition, I’m not able to conceive, so we decided to adopt -- only to have the adoption fall through. I fell into a deep depression gaining more weight, ballooning to over 360 pounds.

Finally, the time came when I decided to get it together. My dietician recommended that I join a support group. I contacted Don and Peggy Edwards, and they connected me with their TOPS chapter. They run Edward’s Boot Camp for the chapter, and told me if I missed one day, I had to make it up. After the first day, I was so sore; I knew I didn’t want to do double sets. I faithfully went to exercise class six days a week. I lost 48 pounds in the first three months.

I added biking, hiking, and Wally Ball games to my routine. By the end of 2008, I lost another 99.25 pounds. Last summer I ran a 5K and walked a marathon, running almost half of it.