Tiffany Neves is 26, 5′8″, and currently weighs 157.4 pounds. Nearly exactly a year ago, she weighed 288 pounds. This is the story of her weight-loss journey
The Turning Point
I was overweight starting in elementary school. My parents were divorced and despite having everything we needed, my brother and I were on our own a lot to make meals because my mom worked overnight as a nurse. Often, we went with whatever was easiest — macaroni and cheese, Hot Pockets, pizza rolls, and, of course, fast food. My dad always said, “If you don’t eat it, ya wear it,” in an attempt to get us to finish all the food on our plates. That quickly turned into a bad habit that I carried with me throughout the years. Gradually, I got bigger and bigger. Taco Bell and McDonald’s became my best friends in high school and that stayed true all the way to 288 pounds. That was the point I decided to change my life.
When I decided to lose the weight, it was right after my grandpa — who was my everything — passed away at the end of August last year. He had tried multiple times to help me — he even came up with little competitions where he’d pay me for every pound I would lose — but I never followed through. All he wanted was for me to be healthy and happy. The week after he died, I spent a week binge drinking before something in my brain snapped. Time isn’t on our side, I realized. He passed away without seeing me healthy and happy. I needed to change that, now for myself. So when my friend started a weight-loss competition, I hit the ground running.
The Changes
I knew I had to change my habits in order to change my weight. First, I never ate breakfast — just one or two huge meals that could be enough to feed a family of four. So right away, I began eating five smaller meals. I also decided to cut out fast food entirely, because I knew that played a big part in my weight problem. I’d buy one meal a day from Taco Bell. I set a goal: no Taco Bell or hamburgers for a year. And I stuck to it!
Before I committed to losing, I’d drink multiple sodas a day. Except for the occasional Coke Zero, I cut those out, too. I went online and looked up YouTube channels of people who underwent major weight-loss transformations and watched these strangers’ videos for hours on end. They were incredibly motivating.
I joined a gym and started going four to five days a week. I had never played sports in school or had any desire to do anything active before — but I was changing that. For the first couple of months, I stuck to strictly cardio exercise, and as I got more comfortable I incorporated weights for a more balanced workout.
Tiffany at 288 pounds (left), and now at 157 pounds (right). (Photos courtesy of Tiffany Neves)
When I was losing, the things that kept me going were my own happiness and my family and friends. They all deserved to be around a happy, positive, uplifting Tiff. I remember being depressed before I started changing my life. The only thing I wanted to do then was drink and sit around in my own self-loathing and self-pity — nothing else. I was so upset by what others could accomplish, yet wouldn’t do anything to push myself to do the same. I would talk negatively about anything I could. And I didn’t realize how unhappy and negative I was until I began losing weight and changing my mindset.yahoohealth
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