About
The name’s Criss. I’m a geeky 24-year-old girl hailing from southern Louisiana. I’m a card dealer, a book nerd, a cat lover, and a gamer.. and I used to be obese.
I spent my entire adult life overweight and obese. I suffered from social anxiety and I locked myself in my house, not even seeing friends and family. I grew complacent about all aspects of my life and quit dreaming. I was depressed and apathetic about life. One day, I finally found the motivation to say, “Enough.” I did my research and decided when I moved two weeks later, that I would take my first serious step towards losing weight and being healthy.
That was a little over a year ago. Since then I’ve lost 73 pounds. That may not seem much to people, but for me, it’s incredible. I have essentially lost a small child. Even more exciting is that I have shed these pounds through healthy weight loss in a relatively short period of time. I never starved myself, juiced, or did any sort of fad diets. This has been a very educational and exciting journey for me, and I hope to share it with everyone. I spent my entire adult life overweight with a pretty mild case of social anxiety due to my weight, and it’s refreshing to be able to live fully now. I feel healthier, I’m happier with myself, and most of my boundaries are gone. The few I have left are in the process of crumbling, too.
I have about 5ish pounds more fat that I’d like to lose, as well as gaining loads more muscle, but I’m worried more about body composition than silly, arbitrary numbers. Weight and pant sizes are meaningless if you’re skinnyfat (a term used to describe the body type where you have starved your muscle away, and are left with a skinny, yet flabby husk of a body). My goals are now to be fit, strong, and healthy.
This blog will be a place for me to document my progress, share my triumphs and failures, explore the emotional side effects of losing weight, and to help others who are currently where I was a year ago. Furthermore, I intend on converting as many young women as possible to the belief that you CAN lift heavy weights, that “toned” isn’t a real fitness term, that food is fuel for exercise and not the enemy, and that muscle on a woman doesn’t mean what they think it means.
Any questions are welcome, but please remember I’m neither a doctor or an expert. I can tell you what I did and recite basic knowledge regarding the science of weight loss, but I am not all-knowing. Also keep in mind that any advice I give or guides I write are written from my perspective, outlining what I did to achieve my progress. There is no single way to get fit or to lose weight.
10 Responses to “About”
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The pictures are unbelievable!! You look fantastic. What was the very first thing you did to change your eating habits? I would really like to try to follow your example.
Ooh, hi Vanadis! I’m actually planning on talking about what I did to lose weight, as well as writing guides on how to get started. I’ve got a lot planned for this guide!
You did a great job losing weight! Congrats. I’ll bet it was very hard to do, but worthwhile. I understand why you would want to lose weight (health, social reasons, “fitting the American stereotype of what a woman should be”), but you were attractive even before you lost weight. I’m happy that you’re happier with yourself. Good luck reaching your final goal
Found my way here from the Fitocracy post. I remember you from way back on the tankspot chat! Just had to say, you have done an absolutely amazing job. Congrats!
Whoa, who are you on Tankspot? And thanks!
Wow, that an amazing change! You look like a completely different person. Very inspirational, thank you and keep up the good work!
I’ve been trying to convince female friends and colleagues that doing weights is a good idea, but I get the feeling that all the workout advice I could possibly give wouldn’t be as convincing as your before/after pic.
WOMEN: DON’T BE AFRAID TO LIFT!
9gag led me to your tumblr which led me here. First off a big congrats to you, that progress you made is just amazing. You mentioned it took you about a year, but how long exactly did it take to get from 197 to 124?
Did you lose a lot when you were still ‘noob’ and doing nothing but tons of cardio? I’m asking because I previously made the same mistake (for the same reasons of being overly self-conscious too) of trying to lose weight by doing a lot of cardio.
I’m totally for the idea that females should do weights, exercise and lifting are practically unisex things (I’m a guy but I frequently hear from female friends of mine who do lots of cardio and/or ridiculously low amounts of weights that probably won’t make a difference in slimming down/shaping up, or take a ridiculously long time). Also it’ll be great if you did guides on what to eat/exercise if you had the time. I am a guy, 5’9 and 170, but I’m trying to lose weight/shape up since I too have been an out of shape keyboard slave for my whole time in high-school and earlier years of college. And it’s hard to come across a person like you who’s got progress photos/reports of actual results, and achieved in a year too! … usually it’s some already buff gym fanatic giving exercise tips and magazines/websites saying eat this, not that; I’m skeptical of both because I can’t count on them being actual people who have gone through the process and lost actual weight (Since they could well be armchair theorists/advisors).
Hi Criss!
You did a FANTASTIC job!!! How did you manage to get rid of those unsightly stretch marks…? As someone who went from a size 22 to a size 4, I’d like to know myself!
Congrats on shedding the pounds…but an EXTRA congrats on learning to love yourself <3 it's not the weight that changed, it's truly your outlook on life!
XOXO
Stretch marks aren’t unsightly! They’re perfectly normal, and almost every woman has some in some way. I actually didn’t get any on my stomach, but I have them all over my legs. They just faded naturally to a clear/white color, which is the best you can hope for without surgery. And thanks!