Merry Christmas Eve!! I wanted to share a weight loss story of my best friend from college, Amanda. Amanda and I were randomly assigned as roommates together our sophomore year and instantly clicked.
We were both going through weight issues at the time we met. It was right after I lost too much weight and got below 100 pounds. Amanda was 155 Ibs when I met her. She was very unhappy with her weight. 
Amanda tried to help me gain weight. She would let me know that some dessert would not kill me! I ended up eating tubs of ice cream at night to gain some weight back. I know…not the healthiest of ways but it worked. I was very into health and fitness at the time so I tried to teach her some of my knowledge. I tried to get her to come to the gym with me. She would eat a box of Cocoa Puffs in one sitting while we all watched TV. She never wanted to come to the gym. We eventually started to cook delicious, healthy dinners every night such as balsamic chicken, whole wheat pasta, and vegetable brown rice. Amanda still did not lose much weight in college. She ended up losing all of the weight once we graduated. Unfortunately it was not in the healthiest of ways……
I now introduce you to Amanda to share her story.
Starting weight: 155lbs
Height: 5’6
Age: 25
I feel like a beached whale. I can actually feel the excess weight slowing me down with every little activity that I do. Whether it’s getting in and out of the car, carrying groceries, or walking to the bathroom, I feel heavier than I’m suppose to be.
I have always been self conscious about my weight since I was 20 years old. I started noticing my body changing and all of a sudden, I went from weighing 118lbs- 122lbs in 5 years. There were a lot of contributing factors. I was never a "bad" eater, but I was unaware of how to eat. Right around when I started taking birth control pills is when I noticed the difference. It wasn’t that I gained weight from them, but my body shape and figure changed.
I was never into exercising at the gym. I have way too much ADD for that. I much rather play sports. During my sophomore year at college, I met Melissa, a health and fitness nut! She taught me everything about how to eat, what to eat, etc… From there, we created many food options for ourselves on a college budget.
I never really lost any significant weight; however, due to a rare flare up of Orbital Inflammatory Disease when I was 24, I was forced to take medication that makes you gain weight. At that point, I weighed 165lbs. Once I stopped the medication, I decided to commit myself to healthy living and exercising to lose the weight. After a few weeks, I lost the 10lbs I had gained from the medication.
January, 2009…
I felt so sick after everything I ate. I felt sick in the middle of the night, while I was in the shower, etc… Horrible stomach pains, nausea, diarrhea with every bowel movement. I was scared to eat because of the pain. My diet consisted of chicken broth, and Jell-O. Doctor after doctor, test after test, and no one could figure out what was wrong with me. I was bed ridden because I was so weak and mal nutritional. I was depressed and scared. Two months later still ill, doctors decided to perform an endoscopy and colonoscopy to see if they could find anything. Part of these tests is to drink fluid the night before so that you completely empty your bowels. Problem was, mine were already clean as a whistle from not eating. You can eat or drink before the procedures and I remember waiting in the hospital thinking I was going to pass out from the dehydration. The nurse saw that I was not doing well and immediately put me on IV fluids. I could feel the hydration through my veins. It was glorious! After the procedures which took 15 minutes, I had to wait for results. Once again, they couldn’t find anything wrong. It wasn’t until I came down with Bronchitis till they figured it out. The doctor said I had to take a strong antibiotic, but since I haven’t eaten and my intestines have no good bacteria to line my intestines, I would have to take acidophilus. Acidophilus is a pill containing live cultures of good bacteria. It is commonly found in yogurt, and measured in billions. The average person should consume 1 billion acidophilus (good bacteria) a day. That is basically a cup of yogurt, cheese, any dairy. I needed to take 50 billion so thankfully, it comes in a capsule pill form. It just had to be refrigerated to keep the cultures alive. The combination of the acidophilus and antibiotic cured me in a day and a half. The rare disorder that was causing the pain and was hard to detect was an overgrowth of bad bacteria in my intestines, and a lack of good bacteria to combat them.
The combination of not eating for 3 months and the disorder itself left me weighing in at 118lbs. Even after the whole ordeal, I continued to lose weight because I was still fearful of getting sick. My weight at 26 years old at 5’6 was now 113lbs as of August.
Extremely unhealthy. I needed to weigh 130lbs as the average. I started eating more and indulging a bit. Ice cream, cakes, junk food, etc… It’s kind of funny to think when I was sick, all I ate was chicken broth and Jell-O, and all I was craving was a nice big salad! Now that I can eat whatever I want including junk food, at the end of the day, I feel so much better physically when I eat healthy. From morning to night, eating healthy will enhance your day and keep you awake and alert. Now approaching the New Year, weighing in at 118lbs, I’m happier, getting healthier, and ready to start a new year!
Thank you Amanda for sharing your story. It breaks my heart to read what my best friend went through. I am glad Amanda is back on track and motivated to be as healthy as possible in the new year. Good luck Amanda and Happy Holidays to everyone!!
Related posts:
Hello everyone! Thanks to Missy for letting me share my story. I wanted to get a different view out there on weight loss, lifestyle, and medical conditions. Aside from weight loss, balance is the most important thing to maintain. I struggle with it everyday. Now that I have lost so much weight, it is really hard for me to get on a healthy regiment because I know that a cake from Carvel won’t make me gain weight (a whole carvel ice cream cake)! I admit that I feel SOOOOO much better when I eat balanced and healthy, but sometimes it’s hard to break the cycle. Especially given my medical history, I know I need to maintain a balanced lifestyle include sleep, diet, and physical activity. Here’s a great tip that I learned from Missy*** Perhaps if you take photos of everything that you eat throughout the day and keep it in a journal, it would be theraputic by showing you what you are eating. By doing this, you are more likely to eat healthier being that you don’t want to put pictures of how many cinnabuns you can eat in one sitting!***
With all of my bizarre medical ailments, I figure that one day i can donate my body to science or I will be on one of those TV shows! Stories of normal people with abnormal medical histories! I am defiantely a medical marvel!!!
Here are some of the random ailments that I have had throughout my life as well as my medical conditions that are being treated with medications everyday…
Panic DisorderDepressionIrritable Bowel Syndrom Cronic ConstipationAsthmaB12 DeficiencyAcid RefulxPMDDADDOCD
*GIARDIA… twice!– a stomach parasite that causes such symptoms as:
•Diarrhea
•Gas or flatulence
•Greasy stools that tend to float
•Bloating
•Belching
•Stomach cramps
•Vomiting
•Abdominal (stomach) pain
•Upset stomach or nausea.
*SPONTANTEOUS PNEMOTHORAX… a puntured lung from spontaneous movement… In other words, I happened to breathe and move at the wrong time and an air bubble burst on my lung causing the lung to collapse. The pain felt as though someone was stabbkng e in the back. Luckily after 4 days in the hospital on pure oxygen, my lung re-flated itself. Had it not naturally healed, I would have had to have a tube surgically inserted into the side of my lung and had it manually pumped with air. Kind of like a balloon, or a blow-up pool float ,or an air-matress!
*ORBITAL INFLAMMITORY DISEASE A.K.A “Pseudotumor”… Mimics itslef as a tumor, the muscle behind the eye randomly inflammes and causes massive eye swelling, brusing, and pain. They call the condition the pseudotumor because when it is viewed by XRAY, it looks like a tumor. Treatments are steroids… this is where I gained 10lbs in 1 week from the meds! Steroids are awful!!!
*BACTERIAL OVERGROWTH SYNDROME*… occur when the normally low number of bacteria that inhabit the stomach, duodenum, jejunum, and proximal ileum significantly increases or becomes overtaken by other pathogens. In other words, bad bacteria take over where the good bacteria should be. It is a rare condition, and is very hard to detect. The syndrome is commonly mistaken or misdiagnosed for Colitis, Irritable Bowel Disease, Chrones Disease, etc… Symptoms include:
•Bloating
•Flatulence
•Abdominalpain
•Diarrhea
•Dyspepsia
•Weight loss
•Microcytic anemia due to iron deficiency
•Macrocytic anemia due to vitamin B-12/folate deficiency
•Steatorrhea due to lipid malabsorption
•Tetany due to hypocalcemia
•Night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency
•Dermatitis due to selenium deficiency
•Cachexia due to protein-energy malnutrition
If you have any questions for me, feel fee to email me at ACC3@AOL.COM
Have you had a medical marvel or any of these bizzare conditions??? If you are a freak like me, I wanna hear about it, so post it!!!! I need to know that there are more of us out there!!!
On a side note, Missy and I gave eachother nicknames in college…
I was DR. EVIL, because I was the oldest and I always trying to take care of everyone, especially Missy…
Missy was MINI ME, because she was my little buddy!!!
MINI ME, you complete me!!!
This is DR. EVIL, sighning off!!!
*AMANDA C.*
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Missy Maintains Reply:
December 24th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I love you Dr. Evil!! Thank you for explaining all of this! I had no idea you had so many medical issues!! As long as you are healthy now
Come back for more guests posts!! See you soon!!
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Thank you Melissa and Amanda for this story. It’s really inspiring and thought-provoking. It’s so brave for Amanda to share this and I’m sorry you had to go through so much while being so young! I’m also glad you two found each other and balanced one another out!!!
Never take your health nor great friends for granted right?
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Wow, thank you for sharing this. What you went through sounds so scary, I’m glad your finally healthier.
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Thanks for sharing your story Amanda. I’m sorry for all you’ve gone through.
You seem to have a great handle on things now. Good luck in the future!
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Thank you for sharing and being honest about your story. You are such a beautiful person, I wish you the very best of luck <3
thinking of you
bec xo
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Wow, what a great an inspirational story. Thanks for sharing!
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WOW what a great story!! best of luck girl, you are strong!
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it is so inspiring to hear how committed you are to your health
im sorry for everything youve been through & i really appreciate you sharing! it was really interesting to read.
xoxo
shelley
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Thank you for sharing such a touching and honest story. Wishing you all the best in the new year!
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amazing story! thank you missy and amanda for sharing your story, you are both so beautiful and so happy you are healthy now!
have a great night!! (missy-yes I am eating chinese with the BF and going to the movies tomorrw! LOL)
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Hi Amanda- Do you take Renew Life’s ultimate probiotic? I’ve worked for them as a broker on and off over the years, and several of their products have helped me tremendously (I used to have IBS bouts on occasion, and poor digestion).
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oops- my comment got cut off-
thanks for sharing your story! So glad you are better
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Hey Lilliah!
Thank you so much for your comment!
I do happen to take the Renew Life Ultimate Flora 50 billion… Is that what I should be taking, or do you have another recommendation?
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No, I was just curious since they’ve sort of become known for their strong formulations. Not that you necessarily want to know this, but they do use a human strain which actually stays in the gut and reproduces, instead of just doing it’s job and passing through like most strains of bacteria from food sources. Gross, but beneficial ! It’s such a big cateory in the industry now- like you mentioned the strains being measure in billions, people should figure out what they’re paying per billion, as some companies have silly marketing tactics (like the Enzymatic Therapy “pearls”) and ultimately just charge way too much for pretty weak dosages. Enteric coated capsules are the best way to go, since they survive the digestive process. Anyway, It’s always inspiring to hear stories of people overcoming their health challenges on their own!
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Thanks for sharing, hope you have a great new year!
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Thanks to everyone for your comments and best wishes! It means a lot to me that I am recieving such great praise and recognition for my the battles that I have faced. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and enjoyed all of the great holiday food (in moderation of course)! I want to wish everyone a Happy and HEALTHY new year! I hope the new year brings me better luck, more strength, and less visits to the doctor!
Keep posting!!!
*Amanda C.*
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[...] met up with another friend for dinner! Anyone remember Amanda from this guest post a while back? Since that last post, she gained about 5 pounds and looks great now. We were [...]
This post rocks!
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Might I just say what a help to search out person who definitely realizes what they’re discussing on the internet. You certainly realize how to bring an issue to light and enable it to be critical. More people should learn this and understand this aspect of the story. I cannot believe you are not very popular because you positively have the gift.
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