“My story starts January 1st, 2015. I made a New Year’s Resolution to get healthy. I know, that’s cheesy, and everyone says it, but I meant it. I was so tired of being overweight. I was fed up. I was only 25 and my body was falling apart. I always felt sick, exhausted, and even doing small tasks were so hard for me to do. It was not only the physical challenges, but mentally I had become a very negative person. When I got my wedding photos back, I saw how heavy I was in them. That was a huge wake up call. I was not supposed to be at my biggest I have ever been on my wedding day, but that is exact what had happened.

I was miserable and I knew I couldn’t allow that to continue. Change needed to happen, and I made it happen! My motivation was me. I knew I had to do this for me, and my entire future.

I started using MyFitnessPal to track my calories and nutrition. This taught me exactly what I was putting into my body, and that was eye opening. I learned so much about what is put into the food a lot of people are eating. I also incorporated working out. I started out slowly and gradually increased. The weight started dropping off SO fast. I was thrilled. I thought, if it keeps coming off like this it will be easy. Well, it didn’t stay that way. I know now, it is better to lose weight slowly, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating when the scale slows down. I pushed through though. I kept watching what I was eating, trying new and delicious healthy recipes, and staying active. I was enjoying my lifestyle so much and doing so well I decided to start a Facebook page called Getting Healthy with Eden. I started this to share my story and help others. I share what I eat, motivation, and workouts I do. I want to show everyone that it is possible!

In 10 months I lost 135 pounds! I was so proud of how far I had come. I was now around 170 pounds. We received life changing news in November. We were expecting our first child. Words cannot explain how excited I was. I had waited my entire life to be a mom. I was healthy, happy, and my life was falling into place! I continued my healthy lifestyle as my pregnancy progressed.

We went in for a routine ultrasound on January 21, 2016, and found out our son had anencephaly. This is a condition where the skull and brain do not fully form, and unfortunately, they are unable to live outside of the womb. I was crushed. I went from on top of the world to hearing the worst news any parent could hear. I will never forget that moment when they told me my son was not going to survive. On January 27, 2016, my son was born. I like to say that was the best worst day ever. I met and lost my son on the same day.

I now had big choices to make. Old-Me would have gone and stuffed my face, wallowed in depression, and allowed this terrible situation to crush me. New-Me had other plans. I decided I would continue my healthy lifestyle. Not only would I continue but I would live my life for Wyatt. I would enjoy everything to the best of my abilities for him and I would help others who were struggling in life. I pride myself in helping people who have lost children and also people who are looking for help with their health. Helping other people helps me to cope with the pain of losing my own son, and also helps keep me on track for my own health journey.

Months went by and in May 2016 we received huge news. We were again expecting. I was cautiously excited. I wanted this so bad, but I of course was worried. We were blessed with a completely healthy beautiful Rainbow baby February 3, 2017, Joseph William. I could not have been happier to have that little boy safe in my arms. I unfortunately had let myself eat more than was needed during my pregnancy and needed to lose about 60 pounds to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was not going to let that get me down though. I had a lot to live for at this point, and needed to be healthy doing it!

It took me about 9 months to lose all of the baby weight. Once I hit my pre-pregnancy weight, I kept going. I am at about 160 pounds now. I started at 305 and had to re-lose 50 pounds of pregnancy weight. In total I have lost about 200 pounds! I am beyond proud of how far I have come. This journey was a wonderful growing experience for me. I love sharing my story to help others. I want to show that anyone is able to do this. I am living proof.

I recently wanted to take some progress photos. I got out my wedding dress, because I knew that was something I wore when I was at my biggest, and I have decided to donate it. I am donating my gown to Anencephaly Hope. They will be turning my dress into angel gowns for babies with anencephaly. I wanted to try it on one more time before mailing it out. When I put it on I was literally shocked. There was no way it was going fit, it was falling off of me.

When you lose a ton of weight sometimes it takes time for your perception of yourself to catch up with what your body actually looks like. This showed me in-person how far I have come. I could fit two of me in the dress, I was in utter amazement.

My journey does not stop here. I will never stop living this lifestyle. I love how I feel now. I am a much happier person and I have a new lease on life! I not only do this for myself now, but for my whole family. My son, Joey, is only 1 and he already mimics me when I work out. It brings me so much joy to be passing on these healthy habits to him.

I know how hard it is to be overweight. I know thinking that you will be that way forever, but it does not have to be that way! I am living proof. I did this with watching what I ate and free workout videos on YouTube. I did not do any special diet, no magic pills, no surgery. I promise you that if you find the motivation and you are willing to put in the hard work, you can do this as well! I have learned that I love helping people on their health journey. One day I would love for this to become my career. I have firsthand knowledge that this can be done!

If you are struggling find your motivation, put aside all the excuses, and put in the hard work. I promise it will be worth it. I never regret how far I have come. I am so full of joy, pride, and excitement for life now and I want to share that with everyone!”

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Eden SanBoeuf, 28, of New Oxford, Pennsylvania. Submit your story here, and subscribe to our best love stories here.

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