AT her heaviest, Danitza Casas, 32, from Scottsdale, Arizona weighed 350lbs. Nicknamed ‘Gordita’ or 'Chubby girl', when she was young, the weight gain accelerated in Danitza’s adult years when she partied hard and lived on a diet of unhealthy junk food. Outwardly Danitza seemed confident and the life of the party but inside she admits using humour and a larger than life personality to mask her insecurities and the disgust she felt with her body. After going to the hospital for what she thought was a heart attack – but in fact turned out to be a panic attack, Danitza knew she needed to change her lifestyle. Starting with short walks, she progressed to spin classes, then met her personal trainer Bo, losing 200lbs.
Follow Danitza here:
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Follow Danitza here:
https://www.instagram.com/xoditzy/
https://www.facebook.com/ditzy.casas
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FunTranscript
00:00At my heaviest, I was over 350.
00:03I had to be eating over 5,000 calories on a bad day.
00:07I would eat until I physically felt sick.
00:10I was classified as morbidly obese.
00:12I wanted to feel good about myself.
00:14I wanted to go put on a dress and not feel like,
00:16what are people going to think?
00:17They're just going to think I'm this fat, disgusting blob.
00:23It took me about four years to lose the 200 pounds.
00:26I went from not being able to walk a mile
00:30to trying on skirts and dresses in a size four.
00:34I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be that size.
00:41I've always been a bigger girl.
00:42Ever since I was a kid, I was always like, you know,
00:44my nickname was gordita, which means like little chunky girl.
00:47And it's kind of like in the term of endearment.
00:50I was always a little bit thicker, you know, a little bit bigger.
00:52And I guess subconsciously I believed that
00:55because I looked a certain way.
00:57I was ugly. I was a big girl.
00:59I had double chin, belly everywhere.
01:02I was always the life of the party,
01:04but I felt like I had to be that loud, funny person
01:07because if not, they'd be looking at my weight.
01:09At least if I was like the butt of the joke,
01:11I wasn't getting laughed at.
01:13I had to be eating over 5,000 calories on a bad day.
01:17I was trying to fill a void.
01:19I would eat until I couldn't, until I physically felt sick.
01:23My favorite was Wienerschnitzel and Taco Bell.
01:27And anything fast food, anything fried, anything sweet,
01:31it was hard. Your self-worth, it takes a toll.
01:34I didn't love myself at that time.
01:36I wanted to make myself feel better, even if it was for that moment,
01:39even if that scoop of ice cream made me feel better at that moment.
01:42I couldn't control anything else but what I put in my body.
01:45When I went to the doctor, just, you know, annual follow-up,
01:48the doctor did tell me I was becoming morbidly obese.
01:52My weight gain was very rapid, and I needed to do something about it
01:55if I didn't want to die.
02:00These are the clothes I used to wear.
02:02It's a 3X. Look at that.
02:05It's like a little tent.
02:07I hated going shopping. It was a horrible experience.
02:10All my friends were trying on these amazing clothes
02:13that were trendy and cute and beautiful,
02:16and I had to go in the back where my grandma would shop.
02:19I would avoid anything that was bright-colored, really.
02:22This is the brightest I would wear.
02:24I would wear a lot of black because it was slimming,
02:26at least in my delusional head.
02:28I think the turning point for me was one night
02:31I thought I was having a heart attack
02:33and ended up going to the hospital,
02:35and I was having an anxiety attack with panic attack.
02:38I'm so young. I should be living my best life,
02:41and I'm here thinking I'm having a heart attack.
02:43That's not how anybody should be living.
02:45I wanted to feel good about myself.
02:47I wanted to go put on a dress and not feel like,
02:50does this hide my fatness?
02:52Does this hide my roles?
02:54What are people going to think when I first meet them?
02:56They're just going to think I'm this fat,
02:58disgusting blob of a person.
03:00I have tried to lose weight various times.
03:03I've tried every pill, magic quick fix.
03:06What made it different this time is that I stuck to it,
03:09and I had an amazing support system.
03:12Hey! Damn!
03:14My friends were all encouraging,
03:16and once you know you start losing a little bit of weight
03:18in every cycle, you look great.
03:20That kind of gives you fuel.
03:25Good. Good.
03:27Hold, and then out.
03:31At my heaviest, I was over 350.
03:35It took me about four years to lose the 200 pounds.
03:39Right now, I weigh 148.
03:46Bo, my trainer, was key in my transformation
03:48because he was very patient.
03:50When I met Bo, I couldn't do a single body squat without falling.
03:53Man, remember that first time you came in,
03:56all we could do was bench squats.
03:58Now look at you.
03:59I've been training Denisa for about four years now,
04:01and it's been great to see her progress.
04:03We took it nice and slow.
04:05What do you think you'll handle for 10?
04:07I'm not sure.
04:09And then progressively, we started adding more and more weight to it
04:13and doing different exercises.
04:15I call Bo my fitness father
04:17because he pretty much introduced me to working out.
04:21So when I started my weight loss journey,
04:23I could see the excess skin on my legs, on my arms.
04:26I have it on my face.
04:28I ended up having the excess skin removal.
04:30It went all the way under my chest,
04:33in between my breasts, all the way down.
04:35You can see the scars side to side.
04:38I had a lot of complications from the wounds,
04:40but you know what?
04:42I would do it all over again. I don't care.
04:44When I had my skin surgery,
04:47I went from a size 24 to a size 4.
04:51And I had ordered this gorgeous pink leather Versace skirt online,
04:56and it fit!
05:05I had a whole crying moment.
05:07I was like, okay.
05:08So I found whatever fat clothes I had.
05:10I went outside on that dirt lot and I torched them.
05:13It was like a phoenix uprising.
05:16I rose from the flames.
05:18Today I feel confident.
05:20I love myself.
05:21I feel like people see me for me,
05:23and not just a big girl.
05:25I feel really proud of my accomplishments
05:28and the way I look now
05:29because I worked very hard to get where I'm at.
05:31If I inspire at least one person,
05:34I know that I did some good in the world.
05:36Where you're at now is not where you're going to be forever.
05:39You are the only person standing in the way of what you want.
05:42If you want it bad enough, go get it.