The Lifestyle
I've always been big. I remember when I was
little, my grandma took my sister and me Easter
dress shopping, and she told the sales lady that
her granddaughters were in the dressing rooms.
She said, "The skinny one is in this one, and the
chubby one is in that one." That was the first
time I really saw myself as being different
because of my weight. In high school, I was
really active. I played softball and volleyball on
top of being involved in band. I just assumed
that my weight was caused by genetics, despite
the fact that I was drinking Mountain Dew and
having a cupcake with lunch every day.
When I got to college, I weighed about 230
pounds. I tried really strict "diets," which
consisted of skipping entire meals. Though I
would lose somewhere between 10 and 20
pounds at a time, I just put it back on by binge
eating. The vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting lasted
throughout those four years.
A photo posted by Kelly Sorah (@3sorahs) on Jul 17, 2014 at 1:33pm PDT
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I met my husband in graduate school, where I
was pursuing a degree in music. On our first
date, he asked me where I wanted to go to
dinner. I told him that I didn't care, and he said
he wanted to go anywhere he could get a good
salad. I thought, "What man requests a
restaurant that has salad?" I later found out that
he had also been overweight most of his life and
used the South Beach Diet to lose more than 100
pounds and keep it off. At that time, I was still
at about 230 pounds and was looking to lose
weight. He suggested that I give the diet a shot,
so I did. The diet eliminated certain food groups
for weeks at a time and wasn't enjoyable. But it
didn't require a lot of working out—which was
great because I didn't think I had time to
exercise. I ended up losing about 30 pounds on
the diet, but my weight still fluctuated because it
was hard to stick with.
After I graduated, my husband and I got
married and I started my career as a band
director. My schedule was packed, so I just ate
whatever I could whenever I could. A lot of the
time, that meant hitting up the drive-through
window at fast-food restaurants after work. As a
result, my weight started to climb again.
When I got pregnant, I basically threw caution
to the wind. I decided to eat whatever made my
body feel good in the moment. After gaining 50
pounds during my pregnancy, I weighed 280
pounds. I thought, "How did I get to this point?"
Not long after giving birth to a healthy baby
boy, I weighed 267 pounds. Everyone told me
that when I breastfed, I would easily go back to
my pre-pregnancy weight, which was 230
pounds. But when that didn't happen, I got
really frustrated
I tried doing the South Beach Diet again, but it
just didn't work for me. I was too focused on
my new baby to worry about all the phases and
cutting out food groups.
A photo posted by Kelly Sorah (@3sorahs) on Sep 18, 2014 at 6:42pm PDT
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The Change
A couple of months later, one of my friends
called me and said that she was about to head to
the local track to start this Couch to 5-K app
program and invited me to come with. I had to
make a split-second decision to go or not, and I
decided to just go for it. When I got to the track
and started running, I was hooked.
After starting the program with my friend, I
realized that I shouldn't counteract the work I
was doing burning calories by continuing my
poor eating habits. I didn't want to lose a ton of
weight; I just wanted to hit 230 pounds, or my
pre-pregnancy weight. So I downloaded the
Lose It! app and started logging my calories and
activities. Keeping track of my calories and my
runs started to pay off. I loved being able to
compete against myself to run faster, and Lose
It! helped me stay on track with my
energy intake. It was actually surprisingly easy
compared to the crazy diets I had tried before.
Nine weeks after starting the running program,
I ran my first 5-K—and I crossed the finish
line nearly 60 pounds lighter than when I'd
started training for it. And get this: My race bib
happened to be the same number as my weight
(206)! I finally felt like I was doing something
good for my body by losing weight the right
way.
Since I was already below my goal weight of
230, I decided to keep setting goals to lose five or
10 pounds. Every time my app said I'd reached
a goal, I would set another one. Two years after
I'd started my journey, I'd lost about 80 pounds
and decided to do a triathlon. I trained really
hard and ended up losing 20 more pounds in
the process. By my birthday, I had lost 100
pounds total. The last time I weighed that much,
I was probably in middle school.
Today, I've lost 115 pounds and have
maintained my weight of 152 pounds for two
years. In this phase of my journey, I still track
my calories and have done three more
triathlons since my first. Now, I'm working
toward completing an Olympic-distance
triathlon to keep challenging myself.
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The Reward
I teach band at the middle-school and high-
school level, and I love it when kids see an old
picture of me on my desk and ask if that's really
me. I'm so proud to tell them that I used to look
like that. And of course I love wearing clothes
that I would have never thought I could look
decent in, like dresses. I hated wearing them
when I was heavier because my legs would stick
together and I just felt so uncomfortable. Being
comfortable in my own skin feels so good.
A photo posted by Kelly Sorah (@3sorahs) on Jan 11, 2015 at 5:16am PST
Kelly's Tips
Set attainable goals. My weight-loss journey
worked because I set small goals that I knew I
could accomplish and rewarded myself with
clothes when I hit them. Immediately after that,
though, I'd set another small goal. It eventually
snowballed into a big accomplishment.
Find an accountability partner. My husband
has been so helpful throughout my weight loss.
Since he knows my goals, he encourages me to
stick with them, which helps me stay on track.
Be consistent. Before I started the Couch to 5-K
program, I really didn't have a routine. I didn’t
pay attention to what I was eating, and I wasn't
active. I was just all over the place. But by being
consistent with my workouts and tracking my
calories, I started a good routine and the weight
started to come off.
Kelly Sorah is 5' 6" and is a band director in
Wise, Virginia.
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