Learn How Losing 70lbs Helped Me Launched a Business
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Is there something that you have always wanted to do but have never done it? Well I did too, until this summer.
I have always wanted to lose weight because throughout my entire life I have always been a “bigger girl.” I have been bullied, shamed, and oddly praised occasionally because of this label. There were many times as a bigger girl that society told me I was not good enough. It was like society was saying the only way I was going to accomplish certain things was to be skinny. I was very insecure about myself for a long time. I would bully and tell myself the same lies that society told me. “You will never get a boyfriend at your weight.” “If you are skinny, people will like and accept you more.” “2XL is too big. ‘’ These lies constantly swirled in my head until one day, I realized that I was made by the one true King. Psalm 139:14 says “I believe that God says I am beautifully and wonderfully made in his image.” This newfound truth helped me to embrace who I am and who God made me to be with confidence. Confidence in knowing that no matter what size I became, I was made beautiful on the inside and out. Don’t get me wrong, I still have insecurities and bad days but overall I stopped listening to what the world said and started listening to what God said.
God not only said that I’m beautiful and wonderfully made, He also said my body is a temple. Meaning that I should take care of my body and honor it for Him. Believe me, I’ve always wanted to lose weight but I just didn’t think I could do it. I thought it would be too hard to give up all the foods and spare time to exercise to take better care of myself. However over the past year, I felt like my weight was becoming unhealthy. I also felt like I was missing out on some amazing opportunities to serve God because I did not have energy to do it. I then realized I was at a point in my life that I no longer wanted to lose weight for attention, acceptance or approval. But rather I wanted to lose weight to glorify God more. I began to realize that thanks to Covid, this is the perfect time to focus on myself and my health. So on May 11, 2020, I decided to move in with my uncle, who had already lost 20 pounds at this point, to help me gain a healthier lifestyle. For the first 30 days, I cut out all of the foods that I thought I needed or that I relied on to get through the day such as; bread, cheese, chips, chocolate, sweet tea etc. Along with the healthy diet, I decided to do two low impact workouts a day. At the end of the 30 days, I saw major results. My skin was clearer and I had lost over 15lbs. From that point on, I believed I could do it, so I just kept going. I have now lost 70 pounds. I have dropped two pants sizes and three shirt sizes. I still have more I want to achieve on my weight loss journey. I would like to lose a total of 115 pounds and maintain a healthy lifestyle for the rest of my life. I feel amazing and I want to continue feeling amazing.
Because I have lost so much weight so far, I have a lot of fashionable clothes that don’t fit me anymore. Therefore, I came up with a business idea to sell all of my old clothes on Instagram to make money for the new clothes I now needed. Yet I wanted it to be more than just getting rid of my clothes. As a plus size woman, I wanted to empower others to know that they are beautiful no matter what size they are. One way I plan on spreading positivity is by the sizing chart on my page. As a bigger girl, sizing is one of the most shameful parts of trying on and buying clothes. It was hard when I had to shop in a completely different area than my friends at Target. I was also disappointed that they could always borrow my clothes because “wearing big T-shirts were in,” but I could never borrow theirs. While it might be unconventional, I want to post all of the clothes without traditional sizes. When I create a post, I want the size label to be affirmations such as “beautiful,” “gorgeous,” “powerful” and many more. I also want to create funny and encouraging captions that make my customers laugh while also envisioning themselves in my clothes.
Overall I am proud of what I have done in my weight-loss journey. I want to empower others to embrace who they are and who God made them to be. I believe I will thrive on customer experience and I plan on that being my first focus. I would rather sell confidence than clothes.
P.S If you would like to purchase some of my clothes, please check out my instagram page @caseys_closet_of_positivity
