Coventry’s Journey
Written by Lifer: Coventry H.
When I was asked to write a post about my weight loss journey, I was lost and didn’t know how to begin. I have never ever done anything like this before but was willing to give it a try and learn more about my hidden abilities. I never would have thought I would ever be considered an inspiration to others.
Ten years ago, after having my son, my journey began when I started gaining weight at a crazy rate. Shortly after my son’s birth I was having a lot of health issues that nobody could figure out, until one day when my doctor ordered a blood panel that included thyroid testing. The test came back and said I had Graves Disease. This affects your body by making your thyroid become overactive. So I started taking medicine for it and it was working. In fact, it had put me into remission until one day I started to notice my face and body gaining weight. I went back and told the doctor the pills were not working anymore and that I needed another treatment option. The only two options were radioactive iodine or surgery to remove my thyroid. We decided on radioactive iodine as treatment. After treatment, my thyroid no longer was working thus being underactive. While dealing with this, my depression got worse and I lacked motivation to get out of bed to do anything. I just continued to eat nonstop, until I weighed 244 pounds. I knew I needed to change but was never motivated to do so.
January 2020, I was asked to set a monthly goal instead of a yearly goal and a word to describe my goals for that month. I wanted to reinvent myself and start eating better. My husband said he would help me if I was serious about it. I knew I had to get serious because I already was already wearing almost a 6x, dealing with kidney stones, and been through a miscarriage, which I thought was due to my weight. So, my journey began of tracking my weight on February 6th, 2020. There are a few disclaimers I would like to pass on to you all first: Do not do diet changes without a doctor’s input, if it’s as dramatic as what I am going to say. And what works for me may not work for you all. Don’t give up and stay with it no matter how hard it seems in the beginning.
First thing I did was switch from drinking soda to water. I kept a close eye on portion size and started watching my daily calorie intake. It might be pretty dramatic for most people, but it works for me. I don’t eat more than 500 calories a day, even though I can eat 1700 a day. It was hard to know how much I was eating and drinking, so I downloaded an app on my phone called MyFitnessPal. It tracks exercise, the amount of water I drink daily, and total calories for the day. I set myself to a goal weight of 120 pounds when all said and done. The app was set up on February 6th, 2020 when I weighed 244 pounds. I enter each and every day what I ate and how much water I was drinking.
For the first 30 days I was still getting used to portion control, amount of calories, switching to low calorie foods that were healthy, getting rid of sugar and sweets, and not drinking soda. Any time my app said I was over 500 calories I got on myself for eating too much. By the time day 45 came around I had already lost 14 pounds. I was eating lots of salads, tuna, and making sure the food was a good calorie choice or was I better off eating something else to stay at 500 calories a day.
Then I decided that I would start to exercise to speed up the process. Within the first week of walking I lost 12 more pounds. I already had a Fitbit that I used for how many steps I did at work, so I synced my Fitbit data with MyFitnessPal data.
As I write this today, I have lost a total of 26 pounds and going strong.
The foods I eat most are tuna, salads, pickles, hard boiled eggs, and anything under 200 calories per serving so I don’t go over 500 calories a day, but they are all healthy options. When I go shopping I check calories with the serving size and decide if it is worth it or am I better making a different choice. I do this even with the days I exercise which allows me to take in more calories. However, I still keep it at 500 calories a day.
Inserted by REAL LIFE: Coventry has been a member of REAL LIFE for over a year and has made incredible progress. She is an inspiration to many and we are so proud of what she has accomplished and look forward to seeing what her future holds.