Alethea From Stockholm Sweden Doesn't Qualify For Lifestyle180

Alethea from Stockholm wrote me recently and shared her personal story about her Leanness Lifestyle body-transformation journey. It was so awesome I wanted to share it with all of you!
But why doesn’t she qualify for Lifestyle180?
Alethea no longer qualifies to do Lifestyle180 because she doesn’t have enough weight to lose! Bummer huh? Not! We certainly aren’t perfect but we are always striving to increase our permanent weight-loss success rate. Alethea lost the weight last year in the 2012 Lifestyle180 and has kept it off!
Even so? You’ll see as you read this that not being able to participate in Lifestyle180 this year is a bit of a bitter sweet for Alethea and I’ll let her explain why–she does it better than I ever could.
by Alethea Renzi
I was just thinking that about a year ago, right at this time, I was looking through pictures from a work trip to Costa Rica I was on.
It was short – just four full days but in that time we went white water rafting, ziplining, horseback riding, on a crocodile safari and to one of the most gorgeous beaches I’ve ever been to.
You’d think seeing the pictures from that would be fun?
Well at the time the only thing I COULD see in the pictures was how fat I was. How chunky my legs looked in the raft. How big my arms looked in my tank top. How wide my ass was from behind….and I had spent a lot of mental
energy during the trip feeling bad about myself and self-conscious. Hiding in a corner on the beach from my colleagues. Watching from a distance as everyone was playing around on the beach and in the water.
The hot springs was hell – walking around in a bathing suit for two hours? Ugh.
And the thing was – I was exercising a lot. I was known around the office for my physical activity – people saw me at the gym each day, running after work, they knew I did taekwondo….by far I exercised way more than anyone else. I also ate healthier than anyone else at work….so why was I the porkiest one?
What was the point of working out so much when….I just stayed around the same weight?
I had been a member of LLU since 2006. Always sort of lurking in the background. When I first signed on I lost about 20 lbs…great! But after that it stalled for a few years. I watched the bootcamps happen but money was always the big excuse for me to not do it. My membership would lapse and I’d join again periodically. I tried many other free websites for food logging/exercising logging but found them all a bit flat.
When a few years had gone by without any other weight loss I decided to come and try again to what had worked before – and bootcamp was about to start. I remember being so nervous when I was signing up….so many doubts….
It was so different than what I expected….I never expected to learn so much or to meet so many people who had the SAME THOUGHTS in their heads about food struggles and exercise and the same doubts and fears as I did. Or even more – to have COACHES that had been through it and completely understood what I was going through.
I also didn’t expect I would lose as much weight as I did. I thought maybe I’d lose 15-20 pounds. Instead I went from 172 lb to 139 lb in those 20 weeks. It was exhilarating. Shit it STILL is when I think about it.
And it wasn’t about making drastic major changes – at least not all at once – I found that the smallest of changes could have a big impact on my weight loss and health, both physical and mental.
A year later and I am at the same weight I was when Bootcamp ended in June. I am stronger than I’ve ever been and doing some physical challenges that I would have thought impossible for me a year ago (doing a ski marathon + a
running marathon before June this year.)
A part of me is sad to miss out on Lifestyle 180. I don’t have enough weight to lose to join – but that is a tiny part of me in comparison to the part that is thrilled to have kept off the weight and to be living a better lifestyle.
For my part I will still be here….checking in and posting on the Lounge, practicing my daily gratitude, keeping up my management score 80% or higher, logging my meals (because that is what works for me), logging my activity and cheering everyone on from the sidelines.
A LOT of people have been asking me “how did you do it” and “what can I do” and I know they want to hear “well I ate X and did these workouts” and blah blah blah….instead I just tell them, signup for Lifestyle 180, and find out.
It just WORKS.
Alethea Renzi
Stockholm Sweden