#7) My ‘Before & After’ ~~ How A Single Act of Kindness, Lime Bubly, and MyFitnessPal Helped Me Lose 77 Pounds in One Year

Well I never thought I would have a weight loss “before and after” — but here I am with my very own story to tell. Including the photos that I am now plastering onto the internet, with no shame, no remorse, no guilt, and no regrets. I share it with the hope that it reaches even one other individual who may benefit from my journey in some positive way.

I never thought this would be me at 38 years of age, having a personal weight loss success story, mostly because when I was younger I was always very athletic during my entire early and young adult life. I was a runner, and played lots of different sports in school and all the way into college with two-a-day practices. Weight was nothing I ever, and I mean never, ever, needed to worry about. I did not gain what they then called the ‘freshman fifteen’ at college. And I ate ice cream every darn day in the university dining hall. Sprinkles ALWAYS included.

After college I started working, and still my weight was just fine. Then, at about thirty years old, everything changed. I fought the change hard, and even tried to run through it, literally. My entire life had changed, slowly by the day, and yet, overnight as well. Running came to a dead halt - in fact, I honestly thought I would never run another step in my entire lifetime. I had some extremely complicated health issues come up; and I no longer felt in control of my own life. And on top of it all, I started to gain weight.

​The weight slowly crept up and up for most of my early thirties. I watched all of this change happening to me and felt truly and completely helpless to it all. It wasn’t a good life change. It was bad change. And change is the singular reason I gained weight. I could be ashamed of it and regret it and hate myself for it… but I’m not ashamed, and I don’t regret it, and I definitely don’t hate myself for it. ZERO shame, ZERO regrets. And ZERO embarrassment either. Because if I did I wouldn’t be able to get past it all and change my life for the better. No regrets, because if I didn’t live through what I lived through I wouldn’t be living my very best life — right here, right now.

​Below = Me - Before (at my heaviest):

Weight gain and weight loss is as simple and as complex as any and all change really. It can happen fast; it can happen slow. And how an individual responds to any change can help develop their character... Their character that can continue to mold and change and grow a person further into who they are meant to be.

In August of 2018, my family in Chicago came to visit me and my husband down in Florida. They took the long two day drive down, and with that drive came their car stocked full of supplies for the road, including a cooler and snacks of course. On the first full day they were down here, we all went on a wonderful mini road trip up north to Amelia Island for the day. And not getting to see my nephew very much, since our move away from Illinois had occurred just before he was born, I embraced riding in their car with them for the day. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with my newest family member; every time my nephew said ‘hi’ over and over again on repeat, and ‘big truck’ for every large vehicle he saw on the road, I laughed.

While enroute to Amelia Island and taking the car onto the auto ferry and out across the St. Johns River, my brother-in-law was kind enough to offer me a can of Lime Bubly to drink that they had stocked in the car. This one pure and simple act of kindness and generosity really can ripple effect and change someone’s life forever. I had never found a sparkling water brand that I liked. And I LOVED Coke. I always knew if I wanted to be really and truly healthy I needed to say goodbye to Coke and soft drinks from my life. I gladly took the Bubly from him and embraced trying this different brand of carbonated water for the first time.

Later that weekend at the grocery store I stocked up my cart with Lime Bubly. I devoted an entire shelf in my refrigerator to those bright green and happy looking cans. The cans have the words ‘oh hi’ printed on their cap… I thought of my nephew… oh ‘hi’ on repeat. Every time I wanted pop or that distinct feel of carbonation and bubbles in my mouth I took out a Lime Bubly. I stopped buying pop. I promised myself that much… that I could stop drinking pop. Even if nothing else changed regarding my health, I was going to be healthier for that one singular change.

And with that one act, between August and into September, I lost seven pounds. I was utterly and truly amazed! I was absolutely fascinated that I could lose weight — even if it was just a few pounds in the bigger picture — without pills or any other strange and unnatural concoctions. I was truly shocked with each pound that had come off... And with that initial accomplishment, the thought then entered my mind that maybe I could actually lose the weight I had gained during this tumultuous past decade of my life...

I became determined. I had given myself the momentum I needed, and was ready to take massive action. You see, momentum doesn’t just occur, or happen on its own, it has to be propelled by your very own initial movements. And once momentum is gained, it then becomes ever and increasingly difficult to stop once you’ve taken off and started the ride. I had the keys in my hand, I had started the engine, and now I had just hit the gas.

I accelerated… it had just taken me a very long while to know that I was the one who was sitting in the driver’s seat all along.

Being a very visual person, I knew if I stood any chance of success that I would need a way to track my progress, and track my food. I needed a way to see those seven pounds and the unknown number of future pounds in a graph format. I wanted to see the speed and rate of pounds lost. I needed to see it written down or visualed somehow to grasp the concept of the weight lost. And most importantly, I needed to understand how much energy (calories) to take in every day for success with both weight loss and weight maintenance. I had started traveling down the road; I now needed to know what lane was best for me to get into for safe travels on the journey.

Being a runner, while growing up I had counted and logged every mile I ran throughout high school. I logged so many darn miles run that when I graduated my parents put that crazy number on my graduation cake written into the frosting: 2,551 miles run in high school alone. If I can track thousands of miles run over the course of my early life, without the internet, then I can track the calories I ingest every day, today, with all the technology of the world at my fingertips, no problem.

I remembered my dear friend talking about MyFitnessPal a couple years ago. My perception was that she really embraced the use of that app and had molded it into her lifestyle very nicely to help her track her calorie intake, accurately, and with great success. In the back of my mind and in the front of my mind I knew whatever I was going to do from there on was going to have to be a lifestyle change. Not a short stint. No 21 Day Fixes for me. I needed routine and craved routine and needed to make gradual lifestyle changes, nothing abrupt.

So on September 12, 2018, and seven pounds down, I went ahead and downloaded the MyFitnessPal app. For the first time ever I typed my own weight into a digital database. It was NOT a good feeling. But I fought the horrible feeling and continued onward. I followed all the prompts. I read all the articles. I read all the notifications. I did what it said for me to do, and in my own way.

I wanted MyFitnessPal to be a tool, and not in any way for it to ever become a necessity or a hindrance in my life. And by this I mean I wanted to utilize MFP and other such tools to help me reach my goals, but for these tools to not become something I depended on for the rest of my life.

Unless I really wanted to, I didn’t want to need the app to be successful in my journey. I didn’t want to become addicted to it for the physical changes to happen or stay with me. If the Internet ever went down, I wanted to still be able to know how to eat and intake a healthy amount of fuel each day. I told myself whatever change I made had to be a change I could do every day no matter the circumstance. No matter what technology provides us in the future, and no matter what food inventory was being sold at the grocery store on any given day. I never once told myself that I needed the app or that I would gain a ton of weight without access to that app. Thus, I chose to remain on the free version of the MFP, and still have never once enrolled and paid for premium access. The only thing I truly needed - was me… Me, and my knowledge, and experience, and the correct use of tools, to appropriately help me get where I wanted to be.

I logged everything into MyFitnessPal for one single, solitary day. The next day the app suggested I take a picture of myself. Aghhhh!! The picture, it emphasized, would be to show my progress. At this stage I was absolutely mortified of a starting picture. Or a ‘before’ picture. Before WHAT??? I thought. Before. What. What is going to happen to me that I would progress from that point? I was honestly scared. The thought was almost too much to handle. I nearly quit the app right then and there. I could barely even stomach the thought of telling my husband that I had joined what I thought was a calorie-counting app, let alone take a photo of myself at the beginning of this - whatever ‘this’ was.

So I was about to log out of the app and not take the photo. Go ahead Christine! - Delete your newest online account. Unsubscribe. I had horrific, fearful thoughts of not succeeding in any way. It would kill me, I thought, to not succeed at such a large and monumental task. I was on the verge and ready to give up. As I was contemplating these actions, I remembered that I had already given what I deemed at the time the most important of important information into the app the day before. I had already told MFP my current weight! If I could do that, then I could take a picture of myself, right?

Movement. Action. Momentum. Action. Massive action.

So, before going any further in either direction, I decided to do some initial and brief reading on weight loss before and after photos. I was absolutely and positively mesmerized! Wow! People took photos of their weight loss journeys and posted them online?! It was shocking and very motivational. There’s an entire online industry of weight loss and health and fitness individuals who inspire people to change their own lives! This is a big, and I mean BIG, industry! I just didn’t know how big, and was never even aware of it, because I was never needing to even be aware of it before then in my life. So after some initial perusing online, I said, omg, what the heck, I’ll take the photos. Go ahead Christine, follow the prompts. Take the darn photo.

ABOVE = Before: 9.13.2018

My God in Heaven, what in the world was I doing? What was I getting myself into?!

One photo can help change your life. Take that photo. Do it. Embrace it.

On September 13, 2018, one solid day into MyFitnessPal online, I took what would become my official ‘before’ photo.

And that initial photo now stands in contrast with me, present day, September 13, 2019. And a loss of 77 pounds. My very own “Before & After” weight loss success photo.

ABOVE = After: 9.13.2019

How did I lose those 77 pounds? Through much patience, discipline, routine, and logging. I also got over my fear of even talking about the process and told my husband right away when I got started. For some reason I thought he would be mad at my attempt - but he wasn’t. Quite the contrary - he has been immensely and extremely supportive. And this entire past year of the process he has been with me and encouraging me every step of the way.

I also lost the weight through the use of great tools. I successfully molded MyFitnessPal into my newly embraced ‘Lime Bubly Lifestyle.’ The cool green cans and the app were great TOOLS for me. Tools I could utilize, but tools I made sure I never NEEDED to survive. I would go days or weeks WITHOUT the Lime Bubly just to prove to myself I didn’t need it to lose weight. But gosh, the weight was falling off me. I tracked my calorie intake with MFP and ate the amount of calories it told me to eat.

And yes, I made plenty of mistakes. I just didn’t let those mistakes derail me or my progress. I embraced each mistake and learned from it. This made my drive and determination and motivation grow even further to succeed. I read. I watched videos. I listened to podcasts. Lots and lots of podcasts. Some of my favorite online health and fitness humans are Corinne Crabtree of ‘Phit & Phat’ on podcast, and John Glaude of ‘Obese To Beast’ and Alan Roberts of ‘Every Damn Day Fitness’ on YouTube. I really resonate with these three amazing individuals the most, and highly recommend listening to them or watching them or following them if you want to lose weight for real, for good, and to help you change your life for the better. They are as real and as raw as me and my story. They are honest and truthful. They can act as that extra ‘push’ you might need every day to keep going.

With the help of those weight loss rockstars, and many others, I really educated myself on the process of losing weight. I came to understand that weight loss is math. It’s mathematics - and it’s science - and it’s physics. Weight loss is simply eating less fuel than your body needs to maintain its current weight each day. So with MFP helping me add up the daily math, and my grasping and understanding of that simple scientific concept, nothing could stop me from succeeding. I lived and breathed and ate and logged and ate and logged. Repeatedly. Repetition. Routine. And now today I have reached a one year milestone achievement of this newly embraced, and most welcome, healthier lifestyle.

It’s all real. It’s untouched. And it is my sincere hope that this story, and with associated visuals to coincide, may help you, or someone you know… Someone who may be in the initial stages of weight loss; someone you know who is well into their weight loss journey but isn’t finished yet, or someone so lost and so far back behind the starting line that they’ve never even seen the internet world of “Before & After” yet - someone just like I was a year ago when I didn’t really know that there was a whole world out there of people who struggled with weight gain just like I did.

The weight has been coming off for over a solid year now, falling strategically and healthily into a range I am so very happy with. I loved myself before, but I love myself more now. It’s not because I look different; I love who I have become and am so very happy with ME. The physical pounds coming off my body have changed my life both physically and mentally. I have made lots and lots of life changes since I moved across the country a few years ago, but so very many of them have grown and magnified and developed into a life all their own during this past year of weight loss. My confidence is intact and strong and growing stronger every day. I spend money differently now, and am very strategic and responsible with every penny I spend (and I had kept a budget for years before this change too). Plus, I’ve really embraced minimalism, even more so now than when I started seeking a minimalist lifestyle a few years back.

Below = Me - During ~~~ Enjoying the ride...

Sweat. Rinse. (Repeat)

And finally, I’ve joined the 5am Club. Yes, that dreaded nightmare of a club, where I wake up every day at five o’clock. And by doing it every day, I am an official card-carrying member. I recommend it highly — Do it. Join it. It may just be the single best card you carry in your wallet. And yet, gosh, I tell you, it’s not an easy club to join. And the membership fee is pretty steep. But if you join, it will change your life in ways you never dreamed of.

A typical meeting of The 5am Club.

In this past year of journeying through seventy seven pounds leaving my body, and waking before the sun rises, I am happy to report that my health is improved, I published my website, started my very own Etsy Shop, make tee-shirt designs, have a fully functioning art studio in my home, and am writing my own lifestyle blog. But joining the 5am Club gets a big bold bullet point of emphasis all its own. Waking that early - on purpose - and even many days before five in the morning, is literally the swift kick in the BE-Hind that I have always needed to push myself beyond my limits. And at 38 years of age, I love that push, I embrace that push, and I love who I have become because of that push. I love challenging myself every day, and I wouldn’t change a thing… Although I do fully embrace any change coming my way.

​And yes, I still do eat ice cream — sprinkles included — just not every day.

So with all that being said, I do hope by sharing with you the story of my journey, that any one part of it may have resonated with you in a change you have made or are looking to make in your life? Please let me know in the comments down below your thoughts, and what steps you are taking daily to improve your own life? But most importantly, let me know if you also like a nice, cool green, icy cold can of delicious Lime Bubly.

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Author:


Christine Pieper is an artist and lifestyle blogger, living and painting in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, with her hubby and eight year old puppy. She made a major life change in 2017 by uprooting and moving from Illinois to the Sunshine State, and has been living her best life in Florida since - detailing all her many and varied adventures living and traveling the Deep South to share with you. Her mission is to help you live YOUR best life - by getting out there, going for it, and making that big change you always dreamed of. Christine will inspire you to get over yourself, show up for yourself, and get out of your own way. The only one stopping you - is you.