Strive & Revive

My name is Andrea. All my life I have been fat. I remember back in elementary school thinking that I was fat, wondering why the other girls were skinny and I wasn’t. All through middle school and high school, I was fat. In high school, I started to change and not really care about what other people thought of me. The truth is I still don’t. Lol. The problem is that I didn’t like the way I looked, but I tried to hide all that. I really didn’t have a clue about how to change my lifestyle. But as a teen or young adult, you don’t really think about that stuff. Over the years I had tried to lose weight only to give up and gain it all back plus some. So here I was 23 years old and 300 lbs. I started down the path to weight loss surgery (WLS). By this time, I lost some weight and was weighing 270 lbs. I did all the lab work, the test, the evals, and jumped through every hoop. My insurance approved me to have surgery. I was REALLY excited. I felt like for once I had a chance to get this weight off for good. Surgery day came. I had the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (VSG). I lost another 110 lbs in less than a year. I went from a size 22/24 to a size 10. I felt ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!! I weighed 160 lbs. I felt “skinny” for once in my life. My overall goal for my self was to get down to 145 lbs. That might not be skinny to some people but to me, it would be a dream come true. But I felt good and I actually liked the way my clothes fit for once. I became sort of lax with myself. I was happy! As usual, life just happens. I was living with my boyfriend and his 2 kids. Next thing you know years have gone by. We bought a house, moved, got married, and immediately we were adding a little bundle of joy to our family. Our son Caleb was born in January 2015. I chose to breastfeed because it supposedly helps you lose weight after having a baby. Yeah, I’m sure it would but what I didn’t know is that it makes you feel like a starving bear that just came out of hibernation. I felt like I was starving for months. After he turned 1, I felt like I could start to get this weight off. We started doing the Paleo diet which I actually really liked. I got back down to 175 lbs. Caleb was 16 months old and fully weaned off of me (thank goodness). When Caleb was 18 months old, we found out that we were expecting again. I kind of gave up on losing weight. I was pregnant and knew I was going to gain weight anyway. In March 2017 our daughter Rylee was born. I had trouble breastfeeding her from the get-go. I had started a part-time job which didn’t help breastfeeding at all. She was completely weaned off of me at 4 months. I was sad and happy at the same time. I decided to start again on losing weight. I would lose and gain over and over. I became depressed. How did I get back here? I fought a mental war with myself every day. I was not very nice to myself. I was in a very dark place mentally. I tried not to let that show. I don’t know how well that really worked. Once again, I was overweight and unhappy with myself. Something had to change. Obviously, that was me. I had seen “the Keto diet” floating around for some time. I did my research and decided to go for it. I found a group on Facebook for keto after WLS. I jumped in!!! I started bariatric keto on Nov. 5th, 2018 at 212 lbs. I followed the plan and as of now, I am down 50 lbs. I am currently 162 lbs. I am really happy with my weight. I am however still working on my mind. I still would like to lose another 15-20 more pounds. I want to work on my “mom bod” because I may weigh basically the same, but my body is completely different after my babies. I know all you mommas out there know EXACTLY what I’m talking about. I hope my story helps other women. I want my story to inspire others. As women, wives, and mothers, we owe it to our families and ourselves to be the best versions of us we can be. We need to make time for ourselves. How are we supposed to do for others if we don’t take care of ourselves? We can’t pour from an empty cup. I hope you all stick around and share my page with your friends and other ladies that might need a support group. I plan on sharing recipes, exercise routines/challenges, and making videos. I appreciate each and every one of you.