Motivational Story of Anapaola Rincon                                           

This is a brief story of when my life changed and I decided to lose 26 kilos.

Hello everyone, my name is Anapaola Rincon Echeto, I am 22 years old. Since I was a kid I was always overweight, I was the "fatty girl of the house." For some people I always looked good for my age, everybody said I was so pretty no matter how fat I was. I was only a kid; however, as I was growing up, insecurities about my body and such started growing in me.

I remember clearly that when I was 10 years old I was size 14 and that's when my mom started worrying about my weight. I was always the kind of girl who would prefer to eat three ice creams instead of eating healthy food. I always ate bad, I remember. Years passed by, and I reached puberty, teenage years and I was overweight. Some days I would wake up and worry about how I looked, and how fat I was, and some days I would get up and start my day without thinking or caring about it at all. Sometimes I would say "whatever" to how overweight I was, and the reason why I felt that way was because I never had an issue socializing, and people always complimented me about how pretty I was, so that was a self-esteem booster right there for me.

When I turned 15 years old, I decided to start my very first diet. Because of how bad I ate and the amount of weight I had in me; I decided to take this step just because of the fact that I was developing health issues such a gastritis, colon inflammation and so on. I started exercising and eating healthy, but that didn't last very long because as soon as I lost 3 kilos I stopped this routine, I gave it up. Time went by and I was still overweight and on my way to University.

At 18 years old, I weighted 88 kilos and at that very moment is when I realized that I looked like a "whale," I would look at myself in the mirror and the only thing I saw was a deformed and fat person. Not only I had emotional issues about the way I looked, but I also had issues with my hormones, I had hormone imbalance due to my weight.  One day I went to the gynecologist, and the only thing she said was "Ana, your problem is that you are 19 years old and you are 26 kilos overweight. You are beautiful, what you are doing is not benefiting you. Don't you see the damage you are causing to your body and to yourself?." I was then referred to a nutritionist and I started my second diet in which I followed strictly. I started working out again; I would go to this huge park and walk or jog around it twice, and I joined two classes such as Tae Box. I gave up what I loved the most, candy, chocolate and pop; my nutritionist made it very clear that I had to reach my ideal weight, which was 59 - 64 kilos. For me was impossible to lose that much so fast or just to maintain my commitment to change my eating habits, so 5 months later I lost 12 kilos, meaning I was weighting 76 kilos, and again...I quit. I forgot about my diet, I really felt like I couldn't do it anymore; therefore, I gained 3 more kilos back, so I was a 19 year old girl weighting 79 kilos. It is important though, to highlight the fact that I am not tall, my height is 1.64 cm and I should be weighting around 57 - 62 kilos.

When I was close to my 20's, I was weighting 79 kilos still, but my family and I went through the most difficult time in our lives, my mom was diagnosed with stomach cancer and she passed away 3 months later. During this period of time, I lost 4 kilos due to the distress and the loss of my mom, which I loved dearly. This was a wake up call for me, it was important to me to get healthy, to start fresh, so I was paying close attention to my body and my diet and I lost 13 kilos. My hormone imbalance was no longer imbalanced, I didn't feel fat or deformed anymore, but I wasn't happy. I started trying out some clothes and I felt fat, it just didn't fit right. I would look at my legs before and see how fat they were, and in that moment I saw that they slimmed down quite a lot, but then I asked myself..."Why can't I do this?" In reality what really held me back from reaching my goals was myself, I would cheat my body a thousand times. You are your own enemy.

At 21 years old, I went for another consult to see where I was at in terms of my body weight and such. To my surprise, my hormones were imbalanced again and they diagnosed me with Insulin Resistant. I cried so much, I cried a lot actually, I said to myself "What did I get myself into? I'm basically diabetic." Then started understanding that concept a whole lot, I realized that a lot of overweight people would go through this because they live sedentary lives just like me and they would have really bad nutrition for long periods of time. What happens in people suffering from this syndrome is that glucose doesn't process very well, which generates insulin resistant resulting in an elevated sugar production. This large amount of sugar production would restrain you from losing weight and gives you hunger attacks with no control whatsoever. Again, I was referred to a nutritionist, and this time I was very determined to do anything in my power to lose the extra weight and remain healthy. I was prescribed with 50/500 mg of galvus met, one after every breakfast, along with a low fat diet and exercise. This time I had to follow this diet and exercise routine strictly, the idea was to reach that ideal weight approximately around 57 - 62 kilos.

On February 23 of 2011, my diet started changing, with an exercise routine of walking or jogging around that park I mentioned earlier, and I joined two classes such as Tae Box. On August of that same year, my weight went down to 65 kilos, when I saw that number on the scale I was so proud of myself, I said "I DID IT, I MADE IT. THE PATH I HAD TO WALK ON WAS REALLY TOUGH, TIRING AND SLOW, BUT I MADE IT." It wasn't easy, there were days I would cry desperately, I desired the best foods, foods that taste so good, but are really bad for your body. I just wanted to eat the whole world in one sit. I wished to lose all that weight in a month, but every time I would go on the scale I would only lose grams, it got tedious at some point, it was hard. I spent 3 months not knowing how a candy tasted, including the ones made with Splenda. I had to understand that this huge change, this long process wasn't only for my looks, but primarily for my health. My life, my body, my overall health was at risk; diabetes runs in my family, it is in my genetics, and it terrifies me to only think about me developing it.

I'm almost 23 years old and I PROUDLY weight 62 kilos, but this hasn't ended. I have new goals, I started another diet to lose 5 more kilos and reach my perfect weight which is 57 kilos. I decided to be better with my nutrition, to control my food intake A.K.A portion control; also, decided to get a membership at the gym as well. I'm telling YOU, it is not easy, and HEY! at the end of the day I love food, yes the food that you also LOVE, the one that makes you fat, I won't sit here and lie to you though; sometimes I do treat myself, I eat what I LOVE such as cookies, chocolate and candy, but with limitations of course. Believe me I try really hard not to treat myself during the week, instead I pick a day during the weekend to treat myself freely, but always limiting the amount, I don't drown in chips, chocolate and candy in a day, I do enjoy having a bite of everything I like though. Another thing is that it is really hard to maintain your weight, you have to control yourself, and control those cravings for sugar and think about your goals and what you want for yourself.

Like I said before, my goal is to weight 57 kilos, I think losing those extra 5 kilos will look very good on me. Even though, right now it is really hard to get back to my healthy regimen, I would give my all in this new challenge I put myself into to proudly tell you my next story of success. I'm telling you again, I DID IT so CAN YOU! It is definitely the best feeling in the world, to see yourself in the mirror and tell yourself "Damn I look so good, I look beautiful. Everything fits, everything is in the right place." It is PRICELESS!

People you have to understand that even though it hurts, it's tough, it is worthy at the end. You have to try it, you have to do it for YOU. I decided to do this for myself, primarily for my health, then my body and my looks. I gave love to my body because it was sick from all the junk I consumed, for all those years of not exercising and eating right.

My advice to you is TRY IT. Believe me you will feel better, you will love yourself every single day of your life.

 Thank you for reading my story,  now what's yours?

This is the old me!

This is me NOW!

Anapaola Rincon Echeto.