Doesn't she look great?!Wait until you see her before pictures.I received an email from Ashley and I was blown away by her story.I hope you will find motivation in her success, just as I have.And thank you, Ashley, for reaching out to me.
Hi Heather,
My name is Ashley (@xxashhh87 on IG) and this is my story. I was never concerned about weight growing up, even though my mother is a personal trainer. Through high school I knew I wasn't the skinniest girl in my class but I never seemed to be too concerned about losing weight or eating healthy. My mother would call me the carb-queen because I am so picky with foods except for carbs. LOL. Even through college I never weighed myself. Then que girl meets boy she thinks she's going to spend the rest of her life with and of course, he breaks her heart and starts to date her best friend 2 weeks later. Cue the not leaving the house and eating anything and everything because I'm so upset. Then if things can't get any worse my father passes away suddenly from a heart attack. He was 51 and no one ever saw it coming, especially daddy's little girl. :( It was horrible and even worse, 3 months later my grandmother (my dad’s mom) passes away from cancer. That pretty much happened overnight. To say this was the hardest time in my life would be an understatement. But I still had not jumped on a scale or anything, I knew I was eating horribly. I believed I was allowed to since I was so depressed. I went out drinking with friends every night to make it look like I was okay when I obviously wasn't. I would get drunk then, of course, eat McDonald's at 2am.
Finally I start to get better. I'm in a new relationship which seems to be working. We're living together above my mother. I finally decide I need to jump on a scale and at least try to make a change. It says 209.2 - ARE YOU SERIOUS!? How could I have done that much damage? UGH! Did I mention I'm only a whopping 5'0 tall? ;) Well here I go trying to work out while being a full-time college student and working as a nanny for 5 families. I tried. At least I can say that right? Things are good. I graduate with my AS in Early Childhood Education. I love children; I want to be a Kindergarten teacher.
The weight isn't changing, I'm more stressed and my relationship is failing because he doesn't want marriage and children. What do I do? I decide to change my whole life. I visit Georgiabecause they have schools with a B.A. program in my degree. I go down for a weekend and interview for jobs and look at apartments. Next thing I know I'm moving to GA in a week! I'm leaving all my friends, the city I was born and raised in and pretty much all my family (except for an aunt in FL). It was crazy, but if I didn't uproot my life I would have gone back into depression.
I've now been living in GA for over a year now. I'm now in a fantastic relationship with the man of my dreams, working as a nanny for the best family and school is amazing. I will be graduating with my degree within a year! Yes, I miss my family but I probably talk to them more now than I ever did. What's missing? How about me being happy about myself/loving my body? Between everything I had been able to get down to 200 and for the past 6 months I would yo-yo between 199 and 202 never being able to get lower but never going over.
I finally decide this is it! I went home for Easter and when I got back to GA I saw all the pictures I was tagged in and I would un-tag them because I didn't like the way I looked. Well that was it! I started working with a girl I met on IG, she made me a personalized workout program. I bought weights, a stability ball and a kettle bell. The bf and I bought a treadmill and a weight bench (he’s super supportive of losing weight too not only for me but for him also). As of today, I just finished my first month on my workout plan. I have been on point with my eating, using MyFitnessPal to help. I am proud to say that as of today I am 192.4. That number no longer defines me though because my whole attitude has changed. I'm loving the way my body is changing and I'm a much happier person since this all started.
Thanks for listening to my story :)
