I started Physician’s Plan because at 318 pounds and 50 years old, my health was starting to fail. My bones and joints ached all the time, particularly after a 12-hour nursing shift. I had to take the elevator because my knees couldn’t take the stairs carrying all that extra weight and I would become winded and sweaty from very little exertion. I was always bloated because my diet consisted of a lot of salty, fatty foods and I was eating at least three times the calories I should have been. I didn’t like the way that I looked in or out of clothes and it made me feel self-conscious.

I started this weight loss journey to be overall healthier. I wanted to have the ability to be more active in my daughter’s life and also at work. I want to be an inspiration for my daughter and show her she needs to be healthy while she’s growing.

The biggest challenge I faced during my weight loss journey was kicking the desire for fast food, junk food, soda, and especially sweet tea. The convenience of fast food was probably the hardest for me, but I overcame the urge to eat those things by always having some type of healthy snack at my side. Giving up sweet tea and soda was hard for the first week or so…I didn’t realize caffeine had such a hold on me! I overcame those sugar cravings by drinking a gallon of water a day to make sure I wasn’t thirsty.

The day I turned 40, I was the heaviest I had been in my life (other than pregnancy, and we all know that number doesn’t count).  The scales read an alarming 155 pounds. I knew it was time to do something, but I didn’t know where to start. Being a vegan made things a little harder. Squeezing uncomfortably into my size 8 pants (knowing it was time to move up to the 10’s) meant it was time to get back down to a healthy weight.