Jennifer Blogged Her Way to a 100 Pound Weight Loss

This is a great article. For anyone looking to loose weight and who needs a little encouragement, check it out.

Name: Jennifer Emmert

Age: 28

Before weight: 240

Current (goal) weight: 140

My weight loss approach: Eat healthy, be more active! When I first started my journey, I knew that I needed to do something I could maintain forever. That meant there was no banning certain foods and no doing outrageous amounts ofexercise. I try to work out four to five times a week for 30 to 60 minutes. For the first 18 months of my healthiness journey, I counted my calories -- I was so shocked at the high-calorie food I didn't even think I was eating! If you were to ask me pre-healthiness journey, I would have told you I "ate normal," but now I realize I was eating about twice what I should have been eating. Since hitting mygoal weight, I have become a little more relaxed about writing everything down, but that's only because now I am better able to mentally count calories.

Why I wanted to blog about it: I blog about my journey for three reasons. First, I was losing weight, people noticed and asked questions. Everyone wanted to know my "secret," and unfortunately, I had no secret to share. All I could share was how much I struggled every day to push through my frustrations, to battle each temptation, and to continue to fight for what I wanted and deserved. The one thing that I could and still continue to tell people was that I made the right choices over and over again, months upon months upon years. It isn't a two-week diet. There was no "I'll start again on Monday," no "new year's resolutions." No, it was me living my life.

Jennifer, after Photo: Jennifer Emmert

Second, I needed to connect with people who knew what I was going through and could empathize with my journey. True, there were many people in my life who were on a diet or who had some extra pounds they could lose. But I needed to be able to vent, kick, scream and cry -- and sometimes I needed a good smack in the face. People online are so truthful. One of the good things about the online community is that there is a relaxed set of boundaries surrounding what people are willing to say and a certain level of anonymity online that gives people increased comfort in speaking their minds. We all need to realize that thisobesity epidemic was actually caused by us -- myself included -- sugar coating everything and pretending that every bite didn't add up to one big mass of fat. My blog is sugar coating free! That means I'm not going to pretend it was easy or that I didn't make mistakes. I'm not going to pretend that now that I'm at goal, I feel like I made it. I want to share that I struggle to stay healthy just as much now as I did during my weight loss period. And to be able to connect with people who understand that is very instrumental for me. Third, I blog about my journey to let others know they aren't alone. So many times during my yo-yo dieting phase, I felt solitary, like I was the only one in the United States saying "no" to burgers and fries. This time, when I decided to make life changes, I wanted to let others know that losing weight isn't easy but we don't have to do it alone. In general, blogging isn't just about me sharing my story, but is so much more about community. There is both give and take when I blog. People stop by and read about my journey and can be inspired to not give up on their own -- and at the same time, they help me stay motivated to keep going. What could be better?!

The best part of blogging is: The relationships. I have made so many new friends because of the blog. The deep friendships I have made over the past couple of years continue to amaze me -- relationships that have proven to be full of support, encouragement and genuine sincerity. This truly is what makes blogging so worth it to me!

Best comment I've received: The best comment I've received was from my mom. She was a huge cheerleader for me, and every day, she would be one of the first to wake up and comment on my blog. As time passed, my readers began to look forward to her insight and began to comment on her comments. One of my favorites, right before she passed away in August was, "Now as we travel the road of life, we need to pick up others along the way as their loads may be too heavy to carry." Since she passed, so many of my online friends have picked me up day after day to help keep me going with life and to help me push through my grief so I don't lose sight of everything I have worked so hard for over the past two years.

What's next for my blog: I want to continue to share my story and motivation with as many people as I can. I've struggled so much to push through changing my habits and doing it while experiencing major life events: graduate school, a new job, and most recently losing my mother at such a young age. The message I hope to truly get across to my readers is that this is about making healthy decisions over and over and over again. Even at goal weight, I need to make those healthy decisions. It isn't easy to say no to fast (and convenient) food. It isn't easy to pass on the delicious desserts that people insist you try. But it is worth it. Visit Jennifer's blog Prior Fat Girl for more insight into how you can learn from her weight loss success -- and see how Jeanine lost weight to be healthy, not skinny.