Then..... and Now

Karma,

You look amazing now! Go girl! You are very inspirational to a new T-vixen like myself. Thank you for all your posts,…I enjoy reading them.

I’m sorry if you mentioned this before and I never saw it, but can you please give me some of your stats…height, weight, bf%, etc.

thanks again.

I’m a little low on coffee this morning and so at first I thought it was an even more radical transformation, from a really cute little boy to a really hot young woman. On second glance I picked right up on it though.

It may not be the true “after” pic but you’ve done a remarkable job to get to this waypoint on the way to after. Very impressive indeed.

This is one sexy female.

Dare I say, beautiful?

I dare.

:wink:


Thanks for all the comments, guys (ladies included). I do have more fatty pics (ick) to put up along with some of the diet/training stuff but it was pretty late last night by the time I was able to get to it.

The next pic is from that infamous thread “The First Penguin”. I posted this November of last year after an insane amount of debate over whether or not I was a female (seems chicks can’t be as blunt as I am without it pissing a lot of people off and making them think I’m really an old, greasy, fat, disgusting dude typing away in his mom’s basement). This pic was taken in 1999, after I’d lost about 60lbs in about 9 months and then another 10lbs over the next 3 or 4 months. I didn’t keep any sort of record of things so this is going off memory.

As you can see, I may have been thinner but I had about zero muscle tone/definition. Since I’d been in the depression for years, my typical day consisted of moving from the bed to the couch to watch TV all day, eating processed, packaged food (Hamburger Helper was 5+ times a week), and then going back to bed. When I made the decision to remove myself from the situation that was causing the depression, I joined a gym with a similarly overweight friend. We did an hour of water aerobics (because I could enter/exit the gym in sweats and spend the rest of the time hidden by the water) 3 times a week for the first few months. Simply moving felt so good to me. I started seeing some positive changes and up’d my sessions to 6 times a week.

Around this time I also got a job at a local discount retailer so I started getting the socialization (and income) I so desparately needed after 3 years of being a shut-in. Working retail, you end up walking a bit and I’m sure that was conducive to losing weight as well.

In January of 1999, I moved my son and I out of the ex’s. I’d never lived on my own, let alone with a young child to support. It was pretty damn scary - both financially and in terms of simply growing up. That year I grossed 17 thousand dollars. Anyone ever try to live on 17k, with a child? Not an easy thing. I learned a lot about myself: strengths, weaknesses, the things I’d be willing to do to feed my child. I stopped working out because I had to focus on generating a living for us. Over the next 3 years, I gained about 45lbs back.

Next pics…


This is scary, but here it is. Taken June of 2002. I weigh ~165lbs and am a size 14/16. I know it looks like I must be inside a doll house or something, but I really was that big in comparison to the door. Since I had lost so much weight before (a lot of muscle from what I now understand), I was primed for the yo-yo effect. That certainly happened as you can see. I had spent 3 years focusing on my finances and decided to focus on my health.

I’m motivated by ‘fear of loss’ a good deal, so I decided to use liposuction to jumpstart my journey. I am genetically an “apple” bodytype, storing a disproportionate amount of fat on my midsection. The lipo helped me with that so now I store it relatively evenly over my body. I lost a whopping 6lbs from the lipo so if anyone wants to think it has much to do with my weightloss, think again. It merely recontoured and minimalized the disproportionate distribution. The next several pics were also from around June 2002.


This is another ick pic. Lovely gut on that one, eh? No, I have no idea what that thing on my hip is… scanner artifact is my guess.

Most of my diet and training knowledge had come from Muscle and Fitness type mags. From January to June, I didn’t log anything because I didn’t realize the importance of that. Unfortunately, I don’t have any idea what my macro ratios, total kcal or any of that was. I was “training” (loosely applied term) doing the stereotypical pink dumbell for 1,000 reps stuff and recumbent bike. You can tell it didn’t do much good.

I found T-mag around this time and started reading everything I could. Yes, I participated in a few interesting discussions here in the OT forum but only during the time I wasn’t reading back issues. Some of you may recall those early days… I started doing a modified Meltdown I routine (didn’t have the strength to do it properly) but dropped all cardio. I hate cardio. It’s the Devil’s work. I remodeled my diet to resemble the T-Dawg diet but I dropped my kcals way, way too low. As I became more aware of how dieting (food choices, not just calories) affects your body I changed my calorie sources a la “Foods that make you look good nekkid”. I also started using LowCarb Grow! shakes, Surge and Methoxy7. However, I wasn’t terribly consistant with either the diet or training. I was seeing some results and I figured that was about all I could expect. Oh, I wish I’d realized the time I was wasting…

Sorry…swing on the back porch.

Incredible transformation…nuff said.

On to some of your posts:

IronMaiden: I don’t have any diet or training logs from the first weightloss or the start of this one. I can certainly speak to what I’d do differently - and that’s what I am doing now. I’m logging like there’s no tomorrow. I’m pissed at myself that I wasted so much time half-assing it. What’s the point in taking MRPs and the like if you’re not consistant in the gym and at the table?! Because I wasn’t being consistant, I’d alternate between Meltdown and 5x5. When I was just getting back from a layoff/backsliding, I’d do the Meltdown. Several weeks of that and I’d feel “up to speed” (and bored of Meltdown) and change to the 5x5. Then would come another layoff…

I’ve only become truly consistant in the last 3 months. And in that time, I’ve seen more progress than in the last year. I’m currently retooling my program. I’ve recently incorporated ham-pull throughs, reverse hypers, GHRs, the extended gymnast lat routine and sprints. There’s more changes to come but I’m not sure what at this point.

For diet, I follow JB’s nutrient combining deal with the T-Dawg approach. I’ve played with my macro ratios and find I feel best and seem to respond well to 50P/20C/30F…but this also may change soon. If it does, I’ll post all changes here.

Antiliberal: Ya know, I didn’t socialize as a fatty so I don’t know anyone from that time period who could see me now - except my ex.

And on the marriage thing, I actually got a PM from an individual that broke the mold. He just wanted to let me know that sometimes the brief courting/shotgun wedding situation can work. Yeah, I suppose it can. There’s a world of difference between POSSIBILITY and PROBABILITY. I’m glad for him that his situation worked well.

corey: Hopefully, some of those questions were answered above. To summarize, initially - 60lbs in 9 months then 10lbs in 3.5 months with a wretchedly nonexistant diet and no sups. Recently - Close to 35lbs in 12 months (Aug 02-Aug 03 with most of it happening in the latter 6). Sups I’ve used are LCGrow! MRP and bars, Surge, Methoxy 7, T2 and HotRox. I had an odd reaction to the Methoxy and T2, so I don’t take them anymore - but they did do what they are advertised for. Great stuff, just my body didn’t tolerate them well.

Fantastic work Karma!

Your story is one of achievement and success. It just goes to show you that there really are NO excuses when it comes to getting your ass in shape. Please continue to post more pics as you aspire to new levels.

Congrats!

BodyIQ

~karma~, you forgot all the wonderful support Nate Dogg gives you each day! :wink:

Karma,
Very impressed with your honesty. Always have been, always will be. I wish you nothing but the best in your career and the raising of your beautiful boy.

~k~,
Thanks for your response. Nice to know that even without doing things in a text book fashion you were able to achieve great results.

Gives me hope!

Alicia

wow!!! congrats!!! you look awesome and i wish you the best of luck on your continuing efforts in fitness.

Is there going to be a new forum for posts like this? Seeing where you started Karma, that’s amazing, it makes me feel better, that’s where I started working from, but I still have much further to go in the transformation process than you do. Hopefully someday I can make half the progress you have. Congratulations

Great. Just great. Because of YOU, ~karma~, I’ve wet my undergarments. :wink:

Awesome transformation, girl.

(I’d say more, but I think I’ve heaped on enough props lately! ;))

Incredible transformation! You are definitely one of the very small percentage who can change their life, the right way! Awsome!

absolutley impressive!

You are the proof of what desire, will, knowledge, and heart can do.

and the most important point- self confidence.

All I can say is AWESOME!

and will you marry me? not for your looks (you do look fine) but for your dedication and heart.

In Health,

Silas C.