Chelsea Brannan, a Sinclair Community College student, remembers her life before her weight loss.
“I was a mess,” said the 22-year-old Communication major. “I’d been overweight pretty much my whole life.”
In August 2010, Brannan and her sister, Heather Newland, decided to try another diet. Until that point, Brannan said she had tried everything, including diet plans such as Atkins, with no success.
Brannan said her sister encouraged her to try again.
Brannan began by cutting fast food and sodas from her diet and adding whole wheat foods. She said she also started walking outside every day.
“It was little changes,” she said. However, these little changes led to what she calls a lifestyle change.
“Everything changed for me,” she said.
She has lost 130 pounds from her starting weight of 310 pounds.
“It’s a huge achievement,” she said. “It becomes pretty real,” she noted, when the doctor told her that she had added 15 to 20 years back onto her life.
However, Brannan said that she remembered a time when she had reached a point where she was feeling discouraged.
It was close to Thanksgiving and she said she had gone a month and a half without losing any weight, despite continuing to follow the changes she had made. She said she felt as if she’d reached the end of her journey.
“It’s easy to get discouraged when you don’t see the numbers moving on the scale,” she said.
It was a difficult month and a half for her. However, it was around that time when Brannan realized that maybe she just needed to switch it up a little. She said it was at that point that she joined the YMCA in Beavercreek.
She now has a personal trainer and takes part in different classes, such as Zumba, which she attends three times a week.
Zumba is a dance exercise class that includes Latin and Hip Hop music, among other styles, said Brannan.
Brannan emphasized that she lost 115 pounds on her own before joining the YMCA, and said that others could do so too.
In order to maintain her present weight, she said that she continues to practice the lifestyle changes she has made.
“If you can change the way you think, you’ll be set,” she said.
This September, she said she is planning to run in the Wright-Patt Air Force Base’s half marathon. Brannan works at the base and said that the annual marathon is an important event there every year.
Brannan said that her goal is to be 150 pounds, which she said was the ideal weight for her height, by her birthday on May 5.
After Winter Quarter, Brannan said she will be graduating and transferring to Wright State University where she will pursue a dual degree in Communication and Sign Language.
Brannan advised those who are trying to lose weight to make small changes in their lives.
“Those small changes add up after a while,” she said. “You can’t make excuses for your life anymore.”