12/18/2017
When my sister Sparkle asked me to join her as an admin on this page, I truly know she had no idea what it meant to me. For someone to see in you that which you can’t see in yourself is a major thing. It made me really understand that this journey is not just for me. Yes, it’s my physical body that’s going through the motions of withdrawals from certain things and the aches and pains from pushing it to new limits. Although those things are truly happening to just me, there are so many, like my sister, that are taking it right along with me.
With that being said, let me tell you a little bit about me. My name is Brandi Haynes. I’m a 33 year young woman who is starting to take control of her life in a way I’ve never been successful at before: changing the way I think. As my health is concerned, I found out in December 2016 I had high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes (boo) which honestly I ignored. I was in denial. I knew I was overweight for most of my life but until then I had no health issues to be concerned with. I took the blood pressure medicine but not the diabetes stuff. I wasn’t going to admit that by taking anything for it. A good friend of mine passed away on February 1, 2017 due to heart issues and it scared me. Made me realize that if I didn’t get it together, who knows what would happen. So I did what I saw a knew few individuals had done; I sought out a bariatric practice to start the process to undergo the VSG (vertical gastric sleeve) surgery. I met with the surgeon and was given a schedule for appointments to meet with a person to evaluate my psyche and a nutritionist to work with for the upcoming 6 months.
I began working with they nutritionist and the psychologist said I was in a good enough mental state with a good support system to go through the process. While working with the nutritionist, I lost 15 lbs!!!! Yaaaaaay. However I was inconsistent: I didn’t follow all of the instructions WE had agreed I would, which included not eating in my car or my bedroom to name a few, and I didn’t do the minimum 5 minutes of exercise each day...just 5! Yet each time we met, I still managed to drop off 5 lbs.
With my work schedule, I was unable to make one of my appointments and after that I was uninterested in continuing. I knew at that moment that surgery was going to be a QUICK FIX for me if I went through with it. Even though I did a lot to convince myself that I would stick to it once I had the surgery because my body would reject it, I knew I wasn’t since I couldn’t do it right beforehand. I stopped caring about the weight loss and just kept “doing me”.
Fast forward to around the end of this past summer. A young lady I used to work with was posting on social media about this camp she was attending. I kept seeing her progress and it had me interested to see what it was about. I read and watched people’s testimonies about how this camp had done so much to change their lives with a “6 week - 20 lb weight loss challenge”. I signed up to be contacted for an orientation right away!! And when the date came for it, I ignored it. Lol i wasn’t ready.
Finally October 14 I decided to go to the orientation. I learned about the camp and many of the things they did. I left that day and was one of two people who decided they were ready to join the “Awesome Fit Family” the camp refers to everyone as.
Long story long, I started out on my 6 week journey expecting to meet my personal goal of 21 lbs so I would be able to continue in future challenges. There were so many changes I was about to have to make and honestly I was nervcited to make them (nervous + excited = nervcited). Week by week I had loss after loss of weight until I ended the challenge. My mind was made up at this point to do what was needed to hit my personal goal; I even ate tilapia and asparagus 39 times in 9 days to make it happen!! When all was said and done, I beat my goal and lost 29.6 lbs!!!!
I’m thrilled about this phase of my life and am eagerly waiting for what God takes me through!! All glory belongs to Him!!
STAY TUNED FOR THE JOURNEY!! God bless
Xoxo Brandi
