She Lost 252lbs & FINALLY Enjoyed Annual Family Vacation!

Hi,

In today’s issue:

• Erika's 252-Pound Victory at Lava Springs

• 8 ​​Simple Steps to Start Your Weight Loss Journey

Erika's 252-Pound Victory at Lava Springs

Erika is 26 years old and has never once enjoyed her annual family vacation… until this year.

Her story? One of the most inspirational we’ve found. She lost 252 pounds in two years. From 425 to 173. This is incredible!

Here’s her before and after. Her story is below.

My name is Erika, I'm 26 years old, and I have lost 252 pounds.

I'm writing this on the last night of my family's annual vacation to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. This is our 16th year and I can finally say that I have truly and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this vacation.

Lava Hot Springs is a tiny, wonderful tourist town with a huge swimming pool, natural hot springs, a fun river for tubing, and a bunch of cute shops. It's super small - everything is in walking distance! We come up every year and rent out a house for a week and have tons of fun just vegging out.

Two years ago was the most miserable year yet.

I was at my heaviest of 425 pounds. I was wearing a 6X one piece swimsuit that was so tight that I had to have my mother help me squeeze into it every time I wanted to put it on. Going to the pool and the hot springs was absolutely miserable - it was embarrassing and I was uncomfortable and hot.

The walk from the car to the pool was so hard.

There's a ramp you have to walk down to get to the hot springs - walking up that ramp was too hard. I couldn't walk down tiny Main Street without having to stop every few feet for a break.

The house we rent is at the top of a hill and I absolutely refused to walk up and down it. The town is tiny but I made us drive everywhere because I could not handle the walking. I opted out of several family activities (such as tubing down the river) because I just couldn't do it.

I couldn't fit into the chairs out on the deck - the sides of the chairs squeezed into my thighs and left marks. I needed help getting out of them most of the time. I was hot and sweaty and I wanted to have fun and relax but I just couldn't.

This wonderful vacation that I was supposed to be enjoying made me hate myself and my life even more.

This year, I weigh 173 pounds.

This vacation is everything I ever wanted it to be and more. We've had to make adjustments due to the current world situation (we did not go to the pool, spent a lot of time in our rented house, and wore masks and social distanced when going out) but I have had the time of my life.

I am now in a size 10/medium swimsuit and I don't need any help getting into it. We have walked EVERYWHERE, largely at my insistence.

I've taken walks every day, up and down some pretty steep hills that I never would have been able to manage before. The chairs out on the deck are perfectly comfortable and I need no help getting in and out. It's been in the upper 90s all week but I haven't been the slightest bit uncomfortable.

I've had no worries about missing out, no worries about over exerting myself, no worries about people seeing me and laughing at me. I've just been... happy. Content. Relaxed. And that is not something I'm used to.

I feel free.

I think that's the best way to describe it; I feel free. I'm coming up on my two year anniversary of my gastric bypass surgery and I'm grateful every day that I made the decision to take my life back.

I've made some serious life changes.

I follow a very healthy diet - 1600 calories, 100g of protein, 100-125g of carbs, less than 60g of fat, less than 30g of sugar, lots of water, yoga every day, 10,000 steps five days a week. Surgery has been a tool but it's me who has made the changes and taken my life back.

We head back tomorrow and I'm so excited to come back next year, hopefully at my goal weight of 150 pounds. I am grateful and happy and feel so lucky to be living the life I'm living now!

8 ​​Simple Steps to Start Your Weight Loss Journey

One of the keys to Erika’s success is summarized in this sentence, “Surgery has been a tool but it's me who has made the changes and taken my life back.”

You don’t have to get surgery to shed a few pounds. You can start making simple changes now to get started.

The other day we published a relatively short weight loss quick start guide.

You’ll learn eight simple steps you can follow to kick-start your journey… whether you’re trying to shed a few pounds or have a transformation like Erika’s. Check it out here.

That’s all for today,

The RLTCo Crew