At her heaviest, Bianca weighed 282 pounds but after changing her diet with Weight Watchers, she now weighs 182 pounds! Doesn't she look great?
Bianca dropped from a size 22 to a size 12 and is determined to “never gain the weight back.”
“I’ve battled my weight ever since I could remember,” confesses Bianca Oros, a 24-year-old graduate student from La Habra, California.
Although generally a happy child, Bianca used food as an emotional crutch; she ate to calm her anxiety, ease her worries and solve her boredom.
A professed lover of carbs, Bianca would eat “unlimited amounts,” to the point where she would sneak food to her room to avoid her family’s constant protests. Her addiction to unhealthy, high-calorie snacks (specifically muffins, doughnuts and chips) evolved into a late-night secret-snacking habit that left her feeling disgusted and out of control.
From the time she was a little girl, she was always slightly chubbier than her skinny older sister. Although the two sisters were close, their vastly different bodies caused bitter rivalry at times. “I remember at one point during high school when my sister and I had a fight and she brought up my size,” Bianca said. “I hated speaking to anyone about my weight, and when she flippantly told me to get my stomach stapled, I remember feeling such shock and anger. I cried that night for a very long time, hurt that my sister would ever say that, but not understanding that she was honestly thinking of a way to help me.”
In high school, Bianca was 5'10" tall and was considered to be "a big girl." She played sports but by the time she graduated, she weighed just under 200 pounds.
In college, Bianca was always the life of the party and had many friends. “I was the girl who felt the need to be funny in order to be accepted.” Due to a knee injury, Bianca could no longer play sports. The effects of her inactivity combined with overeating eventually took it's toll, and by the time she graduated college she weighed 282 pounds.
Years of suffering from the physical and emotional setbacks of her weight left Bianca utterly exhausted. At 282 pounds, she was tired of waiting for her “life to begin.” She kept believing her eating was uncontrollable, a hurdle she couldn’t overcome.
It was not how she had envisioned her 20's. Although she graduated college proud of her academic and scholastic achievements, Bianca felt her weight held her back from pursuing her career goal: broadcast journalism. In her professional life as well as her dating life, she considered herself too heavy for anyone to take seriously. “I felt like I was going nowhere, that my weight was holding me back... It was a feeling of hopelessness.”
Bianca's eating continued to spiral out of control. Then one day, a friend told her she had joined Weight Watchers. Bianca joined the program shortly after her.
When Bianca first joined Weight Watchers, she focused solely on changing her poor eating habits and learning portion control. She adhered strictly to the program and attended weekly meetings, which paid off quickly. Bianca lost 9 pounds her first week on the program!
“Accountability with family, friends and the weekly meetings was a huge part of my success,” she said. After every weekly weigh-in, they’d call to ask how much she lost and cheer her on for the next meeting.
Eventually, Bianca incorporated light cardio into her daily routine, focusing on long, brisk walks. After a few months, having lost approximately 60 pounds, she joined a gym, where she worked out “hard” for an hour and a half, five times per week. Bianca’s gym routine included cardio for 45 minutes to an hour, then weights and isokinetics to strengthen her core muscles.
Today, Bianca has the tools to approach any new situation, and takes a head-on approach to difficult ones; no longer wallowing in self-pity, she faces each day with the best possible attitude. And though she once shied away from fully pursuing broadcast journalism, she is now enrolled in a master’s degree program in communication studies.
“I always believed that I had the smarts and personality to be involved in media, but now I finally feel that my outside matches what I’ve always felt on the inside.” Bianca doesn’t need to doubt her looks or capabilities anymore; she knows that if she could lose 100 pounds, she can accomplish anything.
Bianca has also returned to her favorite childhood pastimes, enjoying sports and physical activities she shunned for more than a decade. “I now enjoy exercising and see the importance of being active,” she said.”And it feels so good when others now come to me for advice on losing weight.”
Although Bianca still wants to lose a bit more weight, she is realistic about how to do it in a healthy way. To keep on track, she monitors everything she puts in her mouth and makes sure water and fiber are key components of her diet.
“I’m finally living my life and living it abundantly. I am a 24-year-old woman who no longer feels that she is missing out on her life.”
Check out the video of Bianca Orso appearing on The Today Show here.
Source: here
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7 comments:
Wow! Just what I needed to read at 4:30 in the morning after a weekend of nibbling with a group of 8 year olds. This is really a inspiration. Life sometimes does get busy and looking at the positive makes things better. This is great.
Thank you for sharing.
Wow! That is very inspiring!
Wow! that is quite something! Just the kind of inspiration one needs. My Christmas to myself is to cut 10 Kgs within these 4 months. I need such testimonies. Thanks and congratulations to Bianca.
Wow...I was back over again to get the inspiration.
This is a very inspiring story to those who want to slim down..i'll surely share this to a friend of mine hoping will make her more determined and not give up on slimming down..thanks for this nice story =)..
I love stories like this because it goes to show what you can do if you are motivated and educated...which is what my site, and yours, is all about.
peace,
mike
livelife365
These weight loss stories inspire me too... a bunch! It just confirms to me over and over again that losing weight and keeping it off is possible.
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