When Victoria Bowen, from Red Cliffs, Australia, became pregnant with her first child, she started eating…a lot.
But even after giving birth, the 28-year-old didn’t go back to her pre-pregnancy eating patterns.
This caused her weight to balloon, which made her unhappy, which caused her to do comfort eating in a vicious cycle. Victoria even refused to leave the house at one point.
Watch her inspiring story below.
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Video credit: Rumble
She was also afraid to weigh herself because she was scared of what her actual weight was. But finally, she stepped on the weighing scale and was shocked by what she saw. This prompted her to immediately start eating healthy and exercising regularly.
Victoria said: “The first time I got on the scales, I was 120 kilos [264lbs] overweight. That was obviously quite shocking to see. I definitely didn’t ever want to see that number ever again, but I also didn’t think that I was that big.
“I just remember getting off the scales and crying. I went and laid in my bed and I just cried. It was a really awful moment, but I think it was a real turning point to actually see that number on the scales.”
Going through two pregnancies only contributed to her weight gain.
She said: “When I fell pregnant with my first child, I had this mentality of eating for two and I literally took that and ran with it. There were days that I ate a block of chocolate after dinner, every day or every second day or however often I wanted it.
“If I wanted it, I had it. And then I think those eating habits, which were never my habits before they kind of crossed over into after having the baby after having my first and then they just continue then I just continue to balloon and balloon.”
Because of her weight, Victoria was in constant pain. This caused her to miss out on family activities and that extracted its own heavy emotional cost.
“I never left the house at my biggest. It was kind of stay home, don’t let anyone see you; I was ashamed, embarrassed. I didn’t want to go on dates with my husband.
“There was this day, where my husband and my kids were at the park having a picnic. And my husband was running around at the park playing with the kids, going down the slide and just enjoying being a parent.
“I was sitting on the picnic rug, and I went to get up to go and play with them and I couldn’t physically get up off the ground – it hurt. My knees were hurting, everything it was just physically impossible for me to go and do what my husband was doing with the kids.
“And I was missing out and it just wasn’t fair. Not just on me but also my husband and my kids.”
Stepping on that weighing scale was Victoria’s moment of truth. From that point on, she began eating vegetables, lean meats, and whole foods and drank water instead of soda.
She said: “I completely overhauled my lifestyle 100 percent Throughout my journey, I have lost a total of 55 kilos [121lbs].
“I never thought that I could lose the amount of weight that I had. I obviously wanted to lose weight but I never in my wildest dreams that I think that I would lose like a whole person.”
Because of the huge amount of weight she lost, Victoria had a lot of excess skin around her stomach. She said it wasn’t “the body that I thought I would have at the end.”
That’s why she decided to undergo skin removal surgery.
Describing the moment when she opened her eyes after the surgery, Victoria said: “I remember I was so out of it. But I remember just running my hands down my stomach and it was just flat and that was the most amazing feeling.”
Now bursting with confidence again, Victoria has even entered bikini competitions. But for her, just knowing that she can achieve anything through determination and willpower is the biggest win.
“My confidence level has gone up so much.
“I’m really proud that I have achieved what I have because I had that mental barrier of something in me saying that that was too much to achieve. That makes me feel really proud like I have achieved more than what I thought I would achieve at the start.”
Replaced!