Aimee Smith of Janesville, Wis., knew she was overweight, but had no idea her exact size due to her scale not recognizing anything that registered past 300 pounds. When she finally found a scale that can handle her weight she was shocked to see that she weighed a whopping 427 pounds.
"My knees hurt, my back hurt. I had high blood pressure. I was pre-diabetic. I was going down a bad path. I'm sure carrying around 400 pounds wasn't doing my health any favors."
Instead of letting her size get the best of her, Smith decided to do something about it.
In two years since that fateful day she has undergone gastric bypass surgery and embarked on a complete reconstruction to her lifestyle choices. As a result of her hard work, she has successfully lost 222 pounds.
Now you can find Smith training and competing in triathlons and 10ks. As of now she is currently training for the Wisconsin marathon that's coming up in May, and she has dreams of one day competing in an Iron Man triathlon.
"You've got to change your relationship with food. Start thinking of it as fuel rather than a friend you can rush to whenever you're having an emotional problem," she says.
Her journey through her weight loss weren't all cookies and ice-cream, no pun intended, and she admittedly expressed how discouraging it was to shed the pounds.
"It's not always helpful to look at the big picture," she says. "Start small and if you can only do two steps at a time, do that and then do it again tomorrow. Progressively build on what you can."
