SIMPLY tying her shoelaces or walking up a flight of stairs used to leave Catherine struggling for breath. At her heaviest, the childminder from Oklahoma City, weighed 420lbs, wearing a size 6xl pant size. Being treated for numerous medical issues including polycystic ovaries, immune disorders, high blood pressure and diabetes, doctors repeatedly warned Catherine she was putting her life at risk if she didn’t lose weight. Only after multiple warnings and doctors’ insistence that she needed to have a gastric bypass did Catherine discover within herself the reserves needed to lose 260lbs entirely naturally. But Catherine’s weight loss journey is far from over – now awaiting skin removal surgery to remove the estimated 20lbs of excess skin from her body, health complications have meant she has had to delay having the surgery while her body heals from invasive vein removal procedures.
Catherine's GoFundMe page: https://uk.gofundme.com/f/6x5bbiw
Catherine's GoFundMe page: https://uk.gofundme.com/f/6x5bbiw
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 I was weighing in at my heaviest, 420 pounds.
00:03 I feel sad I'm gonna eat.
00:05 That emotional connection that I had with it,
00:07 literally I knew I had to break up with it.
00:09 Being told that I should have gastric bypass surgery,
00:12 I had told them over and over again,
00:14 "No, I can do this on my own."
00:16 I have lost 260 pounds naturally.
00:19 It still shocks me when I see pictures that I'm like,
00:22 "Is that really me?"
00:24 When I started, I didn't even think about the loose skin part of it.
00:27 I mean, it affects you mentally, the way you look at yourself.
00:30 You've done all this hard work, and then you look in the mirror,
00:33 and all you see is all this loose skin.
00:37 We really do have a strong emotional connection with food,
00:44 and it was bad.
00:46 Like, I was sad.
00:48 It was something I ran to.
00:49 Food, comfort food, mac and cheese.
00:51 But wouldn't a pizza make you feel better?
00:53 You get to the point where I had such a relationship with food
00:57 that it was kind of like a second soulmate.
00:59 Being 420 pounds, I was being held back from so many things.
01:03 And just the simple things like tying your own shoe,
01:05 like being out of breath, or going upstairs,
01:08 I'll never forget it.
01:09 I left the doctor's office again.
01:11 Being told that I should have gastric bypass surgery,
01:14 I had told them over and over again,
01:17 "No, I can do this on my own. I can do this on my own."
01:20 And I remember realizing more than anything that I wanted this.
01:24 It was not just going to be a diet that would change me.
01:27 I have lost 260 pounds naturally.
01:34 I am so glad I stayed the course and do it on my own
01:38 and opted out of having surgery.
01:40 After a year had passed and she had lost her weight,
01:43 and then just how much better and how much more life she had,
01:46 it helped remind me of, "Okay, well, this is actually what life is supposed to be like."
01:51 He has also started his own journey as well,
01:56 which makes it amazing to have somebody doing this with you.
02:00 It was really just learning portion control
02:08 and staying away from a lot of processed foods.
02:11 Hi!
02:15 All right, you got your goodies?
02:17 We like to keep it natural, and it's really taught me.
02:20 I was not a vegetable eater, so I learned those flavors of vegetables,
02:23 which are amazing.
02:25 And the thing was, it was getting my body used to those.
02:27 Okay, so last week you told me to get some of these white sweet potatoes.
02:31 They were so good.
02:32 You were, "Yeah, so I want to get some more of these."
02:35 I actually put some oregano, garlic powder, sea salt on it,
02:39 and then I baked it in the oven, and it, like, roasted perfectly.
02:43 My favorite salad mix.
02:45 Eat this almost every day.
02:47 When I first started, I didn't think I was going to be able to, like, finish.
02:50 And now, looking back three years later, 260 pounds, it's crazy.
02:54 There are days when I have major down days
02:58 where I don't want to get up and go to the gym
03:01 or maybe a food type that I miss or I want to eat.
03:04 Yeah, of course, we're all going to have slips up.
03:06 But, I mean, that's just part of the journey.
03:08 That's just part of life, and you just got to keep on going.
03:10 This skirt is a size 30.
03:13 I got up to a 38.
03:15 And when I wore this, it was so tight
03:18 that afterwards, the front button popped off.
03:23 Like, you could fit a whole 'nother person in there.
03:26 Maybe two.
03:27 There's lots of space in there.
03:29 This is a reminder of me to never go back to where I was.
03:32 When I started, I didn't even think about the loose skin part of it
03:36 because, in my mind, I didn't even know--
03:38 I mean, I was hoping just to lose 20 pounds at that point.
03:41 And then when I really started to tell that it was affecting me,
03:44 affecting my workouts, I mean, it affects you mentally,
03:47 the way you look at yourself.
03:48 You've done all this hard work, and then you look in the mirror...
03:51 and all you see is all this loose skin.
03:56 They told me that I have a good at least 20 inches
04:00 that will be taken off around this whole area.
04:05 My legs, I know, like, it makes me kind of tear up just thinking about it.
04:09 I wore almost a size 6X pants.
04:13 So I knew this would be something I would struggle with afterwards.
04:17 But what I didn't realize is that I would be left with not really a knee.
04:21 Like, all this skin that holds over it.
04:24 And I just can't imagine being able to have a knee.
04:28 I am very nervous about this surgery.
04:31 I know it's a risky surgery.
04:34 [Cancer Surgery]
04:37 Why did you not have the skin surgery? What happened?
04:40 Why I did not have the skin surgery?
04:41 So we were good to go, and then the surgeon actually noticed
04:46 that there could be something wrong.
04:47 I was having, you know, lots of pain always in my upper legs.
04:50 I assumed, like, obviously some of it's going to be from
04:52 all that loose skin pulling down on my knee.
04:55 When I saw a vein doctor, and she was like,
04:59 "You have very, very bad veins, and we need to get these taken care of
05:02 before you go under and have any surgery like this."
05:05 It took over 12 weeks of sessions of having veins being stripped and pulled,
05:12 and it was super uncomfortable, super painful.
05:14 But I just kept having in my mind,
05:16 "You're going to have your skin removal surgery.
05:17 You're going to have your skin removal surgery."
05:19 So then, when I found out that was taken away from me,
05:22 it is a confidence thing that I've had to work on,
05:25 because mentally it can get inside your head like,
05:27 "I was supposed to have my skin removal surgery,
05:30 and now I have 400 scars on my legs from being poked so many times."
05:36 This was supposed to be my victory story of the loose skin being gone,
05:41 but instead, now I get to show off the scarrings
05:44 from something that I did not want, was not supposed to happen.
05:48 My sister and my mother-in-law wanted to do something special for me,
05:53 so they had this necklace inscribed for me,
05:57 and it says, "Lost 260 pounds."
06:01 And on the other side, it says, "Gained a new life."
06:06 I hope that next year that I am going to have that skin removal surgery.
06:10 I just want to get back and be able to go back to my surgeon.
06:13 I can't wait for that day where he can evaluate me again and be like,
06:16 "Okay, let's get this scheduled."
06:18 I guarantee you, anyone can do this.
06:21 They just have to want it. They have to find that fight.
06:24 (upbeat music)
06:26 you