Hi, I’m Laura 🙂  Thank you so much for stopping by my blog, FitFinancialFree.com! I’m thrilled you’re here. I want to take a moment to share a bit about my story—my struggles with health and weight, and how they led me to start this blog—so you can better understand where I’m coming from and, hopefully, feel inspired on your own journey… 

Like many, I’ve struggled with my weight my entire adult life.  My struggles actually began in my late teens when I started balancing dinners between my house and my boyfriend’s (I was, in essence, eating at 2 households — if I didn’t like what my mom was cooking for dinner, I’d eat at his house instead, and sometimes even both😟).  My eating habits were bad from the start but when I was young, things were very different.  I might gain a few pounds but I could shed them off quickly with some exercise and a little dieting, no biggie.  Well, unfortunately, over time this worked less and less and those early bad habits set the stage for the difficulties I would experience later in life.  

Fast forward into my 40’s, I experienced first hand how when we age, our bodies start playing by an entirely different set of rules. 😟  I always thought I knew what I needed to do to lose weight but everything I was taught to believe was actually WRONG.  And let’s face it, the “low-fat” era did us NO favors.  I thought that I just needed to work out vigorously, count calories and have the willpower to eat less; however, that doesn’t work – not long term anyway.   After years of this vicious cycle of dieting, losing some weight, gaining it back plus some, I eventually ballooned to just under 300lbs with very little lean muscle!!!  I felt like crap, had absolutely NO energy, embarrassed in public, difficulty moving, struggling just doing normal everyday activities and when I thought I couldn’t get any bigger, there I go having to buy an even bigger size.   It was a freakin’ nightmare that I seriously thought I would NEVER, EVER wake up from.  Eventually, I found myself at a crossroads where I was running out of time and if I didn’t turn things around soon, I would be facing a very dire (and probably shortened) future; however, no matter what I did, I just could not turn it around.  I felt SO helpless… NOT a good feeling!!!!!  

The power of a medical scare…  seriously, it’s amazing how something can jolt you into action when nothing else could.  I failed a pre-employment physical due to sugar in my urine and a dangerously high blood pressure.  I’ll never forget the fear I felt that day – things got REAL!  I hadn’t been to a doctor in over 10 years so that alone was stressful, going to see a doctor.   It was a friday so I wouldn’t be able to get into a doctor right away so I stopped at the pharmacy to get a glucose monitor and the pharmacist helped me test my blood.  The look on his face said it all… I hadn’t eaten since before the physical but my blood sugar was still 371!!! 😟 I got into the doctor the following week and received my official Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis along with other health issues identified that I needed to address.

This was my crossroads and was actually a MAJOR blessing because it forced me to take action.  The shock and fear of how bad things had gotten FINALLY sunk in and drove me to wholeheartedly roll up my sleeves and delve into learning the science of getting healthy.

Long story short, I got to work and my A1C plummeted from 11.4 to an incredible 5.2.  As of this writing, I’m down 82 lbs and I feel and look like a brand new person.  I’m more than a survivor though; I’m a conqueror!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!  I still have a way to go to get to my ultimate goal but it feels SO good to finally be on the other side of it! I’m sharing my story as a lesson that if I can do it, ANYONE can!  My journey proves that it’s NEVER too late to rewrite our story.