The Lifestyle
Although I 've been concerned about my weight since middle school, it never bothered me enough to do something about it. As I reached my early 20s, I started eating a lot more fast food—sometimes twice a day—and picked up a serious Diet Coke habit.
During that time of my life, I found myself in a physically and verbally abusive relationship. I'd never felt so low before. And like a lot of people, I compulsively ate to cope with my emotions. When I was sad, stressed, or tired from sleepless nights, I would eat. It was a vicious cycle. By 2010, I was 22 and weighed 401 pounds.
The Change
On my way home from work one day, I passed a gym near my office. For some reason, something just clicked and I thought, "I need to get a gym membership so I can try to change my life for the better." I did a U-turn, pulled into the parking lot, and signed up.
After getting the membership, though, I was too self-conscious to actually work out there. So after work the next day, I started walking around the block. Over time, I added more laps to my routine until I was walking three miles every day. It really became an addiction.
I also began researching foods that would fuel my weight loss and the ones that were totally wrecking havoc on my body. I immediately dropped Diet Coke and juices and started drinking water. That was extremely hard for me. First off, I rarely drank water. Seriously, even when waiters would bring it to the table at restaurants, I wouldn't touch it—and I sure wasn't drinking it on my own. Plus, quitting my 48-cans-a-week Coke habit was not easy. Yes, that's four 12-packs of soda every seven days. I get a sugar high just thinking about it.
Cooking became a major part of my life for the first time ever. I swapped my fried fast-food meals for grilled or baked protein and filled my plate with tons of produce.
Going out to eat or even to the mall was a mental challenge. I wasn't sure how to handle the temptation at restaurants, so I just completely avoided them for a few a while. When I went shopping at the mall, which was harder to avoid, I always brought a protein bar to keep myself from giving in to the food court. I was so focused on my goal that I didn't anything to mess it up. Eventually, I started allowing myself a cheat meal. I knew that if I didn't indulge in the foods I craved in moderation, I would end up eating them anyway and going overboard.
About one month into my weight-loss journey, I ended my abusive relationship. I felt so much better about myself. Nothing except my health really mattered to me anymore.
Two years later—after losing 190 pounds—I weighed 211 pounds. Unfortunately, after reaching that weight, I was in a car accident that severely injured my neck and back. Those injuries kept me from going to the gym for a whole year. I was truly devastated because I missed the way my workouts made me feel. And even though I was keeping up my healthy eating habits, I gained 45 pounds back.
About a year later, my doctor gave me the green light to head back to the gym. Today, I've lost all of the weight I put on after the accident and little bit extra. Though, I have to be honest, it was so much harder to lose it the second time around. Now, I'm looking forward to getting my excess skin removed at the end of this year.
The Reward
My Instagram account @weightlosswithannamarie—which I launched as I began losing weight—now has over 20,000 followers. I love that I have so many people looking to me for encouragement. The fact that people don't give up because I didn't give up means so much to me.
Right now, I'm studying to become a certified personal trainer, and that's something I would have never been interested in if I hadn't lost the weight.
Annamarie's Tips
Give yourself some variety. One thing I learned is that if I committed to eating the same healthy meals day after day, I would be really tempted to binge on foods that wouldn’t benefit my weight loss. So I used recipes from cookbooks and Pinterest to spice up each meal.
Don't deprive yourself. When my family has pizza on Saturday nights, I let myself have a slice. It really gets that craving out of my system.
You need to exercise and work out to lose weight. After my car accident kept me from working out, I learned that exercise is as vital as eating healthy for losing and maintaining my weight.
Annamarie Rivera, 27, is 5' 8" and lives in Connecticut.
More from Women's Health:
100 Things You Can Do Instead of Eating Mindlessly
I Didn't Let Cancer Stop Me From Getting to a Healthy Weight
11 Incredible Weight-Loss Transformations You Have to See to Believe
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