Showing the World what's possible: Nichole's +100lb Weight Loss Journey

Most of why I am about to open up about, not many people even know about the struggles to get myself where I am today. Ever since I was little my weight has always been up and down. I’ve been an athlete my entire life and played sports year round. Many people assume my journey started back in 2017-2018 when really it has been a journey my entire life. I have been as “skinny” as I am now before, but that was because I did many crash diets, lots of cardio, I’ve struggled with EDs including anorexia and bulimia, took so many fat burners like hydroxycut to “kill my appetite” while working an 11 hour day.

I used to get picked on in school for being “fat” when my weight was up. None of what I have today has come easy. Around 2012 is really when it all came to a head. With mental health issues I completely let myself go, suffering from the worst depression of my life and keeping myself sheltered for 2 years straight, I gained almost 100lbs and could not get the weight off. I was working out, eating, researching ways to create a HEALTHY and safe way to change my lifestyle around and get away from crash diets and swap for a LIFESTYLE change, the keyword here is LIFE. In 2016 after 4 years of working with trainers and my doctor, my doctor and I came to the conclusion of weight loss surgery.

I gasped, I couldn’t believe that I had let myself go so bad that I would struggle getting the weight I gained off. I never thought I would “resort” to weight loss surgery With the unfortunate stigma around weight loss surgery, I was embarrassed to tell even my closest friends for a while. I felt judged, I felt that people would think I took the “easy” way out. When in reality, going through that surgery has been the HARDEST thing I have done, and every day is somewhat of a struggle still. But that’s a whole different story.

What most people don’t know is that weight loss surgery is merely a TOOL, just like the gym, meal prepping, coaches, dietitians etc. those are all TOOLS to help you lose weight and help to get you and keep you in shape and healthy. And that’s what I had to continuously remind myself despite the negative assumptions about my choice with weight loss surgery. It is a GREAT tool but also a very difficult one to use. There are many people who don’t use this tool properly, nor try to really understand the true power of this surgery, that end up gaining back some, all or more weight after a certain period of time has passed, usually within 5 years if you don’t see this surgery as a TOOL not a CURE for obesity.

What people also like to do is watch and judge the food I eat and criticize me for either eating sweets (in moderation I enjoy them but I’ve gotten away from my sweet tooth) as well as judgement for NOT finishing my meal. I don’t think I would be where I am today without the help and understanding of my weight loss surgery and how to get the most out of it. Once my weight started dropping post surgery, my fire for fitness had returned. And I have set fitness goals for myself that I have now been working on for the past 3 years, my biggest fitness goal is to compete in my first ever bikini competition by 2022! Which I have been working towards since after my surgery.

I have been following @jordanke for YEARS, along with many other fitness woman who inspire and push me to work hard and push myself past my limits. Jordan has been doing fitness challenges for years and it wasn’t until April of 2021 that I decided less than a week before that I would enter her fitness challenge. The reason why I wanted to join in on her challenge was to see if I would be able to be given a regimen including workouts, meal plans and supplements and push myself to change my physique and I treated it as a “prep” for a fitness show. I couldn’t believe at the end of the 4 week challenge how my physique would change and almost cried at the difference 4 weeks made.

Now, I did not completely follow it to a T for the first two weeks of the challenge and was still surprised at the changes my physique made. I continued to follow my meal plan provided by Jordan but stopped working out and surprisingly maintained my weight from the end of the challenge until now. So here I am back for another round of @jordanke’s Sweat for the Dress challenge, and this time around I’ve followed the plan to almost the perfect T, it is only week 1 and we are starting week 2 and I can’t wait to see what changes I can make this time around.