Meet Our Celebrate Success Winner: Michaela!

In Michaela’s words:

I’ve been overweight most of my life. At age five I started getting bigger and bigger. Once I was old enough to make New Year’s resolutions, I’d vow the same thing every year: to lose weight. But two weeks in I’d give up, saying, “I’ll try again next year.”

My breaking point came in my 20s. I was a medical student, and I started recognizing some symptoms of diabetes: I was overweight and always tired. At first I ignored it because I had exams coming up. The cliché is true: med students are bad patients. When I finally went to my doctor, she diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes and hypertension and put me on medication for each. I couldn’t believe I’d let my health deteriorate so much. I just broke down crying. I was mad at myself for letting it get that far.

Accepting a challenge

My doctor told me that only one of her patients had ever made the necessary changes to completely go off their medication. I took that as a challenge and told her I’d be the second. I’m not sure if she believed me, but she was supportive. I started following a diabetic diet and lost a good amount of weight that way. But eventually I hit a plateau. That’s when I subscribed to Weight Watchers Online. My mom had been a meetings member in the past, so I knew it worked. That was the boost I needed to lose another 30 pounds.*

Healthy choices

Before I started trying to lose weight I ate lots of snack food and fast food since I was always on-the-go and up late studying. And I never drank water, only soda. I’d drink three or four 20oz. sodas a day. My friends and I laugh about this now: One day it was so hot outside, I said, “It’s too hot for water, I need to have soda.” It was ridiculous.

Soon after I started the Weight Watchers program, I also realized portion control was a major thing for me. Even when I was making healthy food, I was just eating too much of it. Weight Watchers revamped my whole way of thinking, and I truly learned how much food I needed to feel full.

The fitness factor

Before Weight Watchers I didn’t do any exercise whatsoever. When I decided to change my lifestyle I started walking or speed-walking on an old treadmill my parents had at home. Then I tried biking outside and realized I like trying new types of activities. I’d played some basketball in high school so I got back out on the court to run and shoot. I also tried fitness videos and started running sometimes, too. Now I have a boyfriend who’s a personal trainer, and he’s gotten me interested in a class-weights-cardio mix.

eTools addict

I love that the entire program is available online and on my iPhone, so I can essentially track anywhere I go. No excuses. The Barcode Scanner app is especially helpful while grocery shopping when I don’t want to spend a ton of time calculating the PointsPlus value of every item. Even with more unhealthy items, it’s nice to be able to scan it and decide if it’s worth the splurge or not.

Gaining a social life

My social life is so much better now. Before, I’d be ignored. People just weren’t as friendly to me. I wasn’t confident and my clothes reflected that. Now, people are a lot nicer. I’ve noticed that when you carry yourself confidence, people notice that and it rubs off on them.

I’m also more active now. I’m in the prime of my life. I’m not supposed to be tired all the time like I was when I was bigger. Now I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing!

Celeb twin

Meeting Jennifer Hudson at the Celebrate Success photo shoot was so much fun. She’s just so sweet. I remember I walked up to her and she started playing with my hair and said, “You look just like me!” I couldn’t imagine Jennifer thinking I looked like her! I also got to interview her and hear how Weight Watchers changed her life. It was an amazing experience just being in her presence.

Going off her meds

After six months, I went back to my doctor and she hardly recognized me. She was in awe! That day she cleared me of all my medications. I said, “I told you I’d be number two!” It was a fun day because I knew I’d made a change that would affect the rest of my career. I never want to be the doctor that tells people they need to lose weight while needing to lose weight myself. If I were my patient, I wouldn’t listen. But now I have a story to tell – and it makes me feel proud that my patients will see me and believe it can be done.