Hi! My name is Estelle Wheeler I am a 27 year old mommy of 2 beautiful girls and wife to an awesome husband.
This is my story…
Early Life:
I was never an overweight child, growing up I was always average size and in my teens I would describe myself as curvy.
Growing up in a house where you are the youngest of 4 daughters, you look up to your older sisters and when they try a new diet or diet product you want in on the action.
Body confidence was never a huge thing in our house, someone was always on a diet or complaining about their weight. I wasn’t the most active teenager, never did any sports as I felt like that I wasn’t the “sporty” type.
To me being beautiful equalled being skin and bones, that was what was beautiful.
Throughout my childhood/teenage years I was always dieting, starving myself and afterwards I would stuff my face with anything and everything that was around the house and so my weight was always yo-yoing.
My childhood home wasn’t always the most relaxing and happiest place to be.
There were a lot of family and financial issues and that started to stress me out and at the age of 17 I had a nervous breakdown. After that I had panic attacks for every little small thing that upset me. Never knowing that the things I experienced were also affecting me emotionally and that I would carry it around for years to come and it affected a lot of aspects in my life.
At the age of 15 I started dating my now husband, and he was and is my safe place, he made me feel that I was good enough…
Early 20’s:
After school in 2009 I moved in with my boyfriend (now husband). I was happy and I had no more anxiety or any panic attacks, life was good and so was the food.
I was on a birth control pill for most of my teen years and after school I stopped using it.
Within the year of moving in together I gained 16 kgs. I stopped getting my period (Because of the weight gain and PCOS) and my hormones were crazy. The doctor diagnosed me with PCOS and told me that I will never be able get pregnant naturally, to say I was heartbroken would be understatement.
We got engaged in March 2011 and January 2012 we both started our wedding diet. By our wedding, March 2012 I had lost 13kgs and I felt awesome and 3 months after our wedding I was pregnant naturally and in April 2013 we welcomed a beautiful baby girl, I gained 17 kgs with my pregnancy and lost all of it within 2 weeks after I had my baby and I felt amazing.
Miscarriage:
When our little girl was a year old we decided it was time for baby number two, and after another year of struggling to get pregnant we were finally expecting baby number two in April 2015.
Sadly nine weeks into the pregnancy our little one went to heaven…
I was devastated, angry, confused and very depressed.
Where I would usually watch what I eat I just didn’t care anymore and my diet existed out of energy drinks and chocolates.
August 2015 my husband woke up to me sitting in the living room eating cake and drinking glass of coke for breakfast, he lost it and I couldn’t understand what the issue was. Later that day he sat me down and had a long talk with me, he told me that he loved me and that I have always been beautiful to him but what I am doing to myself was not healthy and that my weight was getting out of hand he also said that I was starting to look very bad.
At first I was hurt and then I was angry, I could not believe that he actually said that to me but it also made me sit back and re-evaluate my lifestyle.
New Beginnings:
That Monday morning I woke up with determination and I had this fire in me to get back to my old self. I got on the scale and the number that showed on the scale was a scary 96.4kg at the age of 24.
My diet consisted of bread, pasta, lots of chocolates and energy drinks.
I started following a High Protein/ Low Carb eating plan and I also decided to get healing in other areas in my life.
First thing I had to do was get healing and find peace with losing my baby, it was so extremely hard but with my husband and God’s grace I finally made peace with it.
The second part was all the things that happened in my childhood home, I had to let it go and I had to forgive the people that did things that left emotional scars. The moment I decided that I was done with carrying around the bad memories and hatred that was the moment that I was free.
After getting the healing I needed, my journey was so much easier.
I stayed on my healthy eating plan and did a lot of different exercises like Zumba and Hip-hop Abs.
By January 2016 I had lost 18kg’s and a few weeks later I found out that I was pregnant!
In October 2016 we welcomed another healthy baby girl in to the world.
Right after my pregnancy I started working on my body again to date I have lost 21kgs and when from a size 40 jeans to 36 (almost 34) and XXL shirt to M/S
Life Today:
I am extremely grateful that my husband loved me so much that he decided to be honest with me because that was the kick in the butt that I needed.
I started to share my journey and progress on my Facebook profile and after numerous requests I started my own page on Facebook (Curvy Mom Fitness) and I share my daily life and struggles there.
Today I have women that come up to me or message me to say thank your inspiring us and it is still weird each time it happens because 3 years ago I would never have thought that I would be the one inspiring and helping others.
My husband and I both follow a high protein/low carb lifestyle and we try to also introduce the healthier versions of Chips (Sweet Potato Chips) and Cauliflower Rice to our little ones. It is my mission to make sure my 2 girls grow up loving themselves and to always make the healthier choice.
I want to be someone my daughters can be proud of!
It is so very important to have an awesome support system and my husband is my biggest cheerleader he has celebrated each gram lost and has picked me up when I haven’t felt very good about myself. He has held my hand through everything this past 12 years of my life and I want to thank him so very much for that.
People tend to ask me what Diet product I am using and when I tell them I do it the old fashioned way, healthy eating habits and exercising, they don’t believe me and that is just sad that people today think that you can only lose weight through diet products and let me tell you I was one of those people.
You can do it the old fashioned way, but you first have to get your mind healthy, that is where all the strength is and as soon as you have sorted through the emotional issues nothing will be able to hold you back.
Somedays I eat salads and other days I eat pancakes for dinner, it is not about being perfect it is about being consistent in what you eat 90% of the time.
Hope that my story can inspire you to change your life for the better.
My top 10 tips:
- You have to be committed 24/7 – You can’t use excuses like I had dinner at family and I had to eat everything that they offer. NO!!! You don’t you can say No Thank You.
- Make it a Lifestyle and not a Diet.
- Be Consistent, you don’t have to be perfect.
- Enjoy the journey and celebrate every little progressed made.
- Definitely do before and after photos regularly it helps to see how far you have come.
- Love yourself enough to live a healthier lifestyle.
- Get moving, get off the couch and break a sweat.
- Don’t wait for Monday, do it now!! How many Mondays have passed since you said I will start Monday?
- If you tend to fall off the wagon a lot, rethink what you are doing? Because as soon as you get something that works for you, you will be able to stay on track.
- Healthy Mind + Healthy Body = Happy Life
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