And that is a VERY good thing.
I want to share a success story with you. I have always been a larger gal. I carried it well and people didn’t always realize I weighed as much as I did. At one point in 2005 I was at my heaviest ever: 231 lbs (104.7 kilos). It spurred me on to become more active and pay better attention to my food. I was on my way to losing weight, and Ukraine was a tough hit–it was food purgatory for me and I ended up eating HORRIBLY while I was there.
In March 2006 I weighed 220 lbs (99.8 kilos)
In March 2010 I weighed 212 lbs (96 kilos)
In February 2011 I weighed 188 lbs (85 kilos)
I am so proud of myself. BJJ has made such a difference. I am more active, I am on my feet more, I move my body more, and it shows. My god–I lost around 23 pounds! That’s so much. To give you an idea, this is 5 pounds of fat:
5 pounds of fat
Yeah, that was only 5 pounds. I lost 23 of that. Nearly 5 of those big blobs. Do you know what else weighs 23 pounds? A toddler, a double-decker pizza burger, $60,000 worth of marijuana, a fat cat, a decent sized Thanksgiving turkey, around 11,500 M&Ms (regular), $460 in quarters, and as much fat as I lost. 🙂
In this last year I lost:
2.5 inches from my waist (6.3 cm)
2.25 inches from my hips (5.7 cm)
2.5 inches from my thighs (6.3 cm)
2.5 inches from my chest (6.3 cm)
1.75 inches from my calves (4.4 cm)
.75 inches from my upper arms (1.9 cm)
I am absolutely thrilled. Overall, since 2006 I’ve lost a total of 5.25 inches (13.3 cm) from my hips and 4 inches (10.2 cm) from my waist. This is such an accomplishment for me. Today was especially wonderful–my instructor and the 16 year old boy in our class both noticed that I’ve lost weight in the last month or two. Amazing. Let me share some pictures!
Here’s me in 2007 before I left for Peace Corps:
September 2007, probably 210 lbs
This is from February 2010, just before I left for Seoul:
I was definitely around 210 or more here. Also, I made that picture!
Here’s me from July 2010. Note the legs. (argh!)
This is when the gi pants felt TIGHT on my legs
And now this is me and Eddie (I love this picture):
Full body pic!
Aaaaand the last picture, taken in January 2011 at a Korean BBQ place.
Happy to see you! Taken January 2011
I am absolutely thrilled. BJJ has caused me to lose so much WEIGHT and SIZE, and that’s the reason I originally started doing BJJ. So, this is my super happy post.
Have you lost any weight/size/fat with BJJ? Share your results, and post other things that weigh 23 lbs! 🙂 Celebrate with me!
Wooo that’s purely fantastic 🙂
An average human brain weighs 3 lbs and car tire weighs 20 lbs!
I lost a lot of weight, especially if you count the number of times I’ve lost and gained the same 10 lbs (thanks tournament cutting plus holiday parties… a rather insane yo-yo considering how much I work out and so on…)
You really look amazing and I can’t wait to post some before and after pictures of me.. soon…ish…
Sweet! And now I know! When I get up to 40 lbs I’ll have to post that “I lost 2 tires!” 🙂
Thank you for the wonderful comment! Good luck with shedding the holiday pounds. I know you’ll reach your goal! Don’t forget to take your fish oil, too!
The amazing shrinking Julia! Congratulations, you look great.
Thank you thank you thank you!
Congratulations! Nice work. 🙂
Thanks!
Congratulations, Julia! Thanks for sharing your inspirational journey.
More of the same to come in the future!
Honestly, all I notice is how awesome your most recent hair cut is. I am still in love with your bangs!!!
🙂 Thank you! I hadn’t had bangs in 10+ years and I am amazed at the difference they make. I think before I had had much thinner bangs and they weren’t as flattering.
That is an amazing story! It sounds like you made some very smart life style changes. I’ve known so many people who jump from one diet fad to another. They never look at the big picture and change their life style. Congradulations! You are an inspiration to all of us. Thank you for sharing.
That really has been the difference–a lifestyle change. Had I not fallen in love with BJJ it would have been something I did rather than MY LIFE 😉
THANK YOU!
Great work, and man is it hard work!
I too struggle with my weight. I’ve been as high as 190 pounds (only at 175 when I started BJJ), but now I am in the low 150s due to watching what I eat and lots of BJJ and other exercise.
Keep training and losing! 🙂
Congratulations! I will be so excited to one day get down there. I’ll actually be more excited when my pants size are single digit. heh. Right now I’m in size 16, but I’m eyeballing those size 14s and can’t wait until they fit!
Sorry I am hijacking the comments, but girl, you can be plenty happy with double digit pants! You are awesome and amazing just as you are right now!!
I recommend you check out the blog Radical Hateloss for an interesting perspective. Actually, it’s a perspective that I am in love with and try to preach whenever I can because I can relate. I don’t think I ever would have started BJJ without “hateloss”.
Darn not letting me embed comments further than 2! Argh!
ASHLEY–I am thrilled that my pants size is in the teens right now instead of in the 20s! 🙂 So never fear that I’m not thrilled to be in a size 16 after years of being 18 and 20. 🙂 Again, my focus really is on being healthier and thankfully weight and size loss is an awesome byproduct. 🙂
ok, good! 🙂
Julia,
That is FANTASTIC!!! BJJ can accelerate weight loss better than anything else. I think it is mainly due to the lifestyle component. I have been training a little under 3 years and have lost roughly 53 pounds so far and since it has been slow and steady, I have kept it off. I have about 10 more pounds to go before I am at where I would want to be, but that may be too much given that I am a fairly big framed guy. But way to go!!!
Thank you! I went from sitting every single day and watching tv for 40 hours per week to getting in the BJJ gym 4-6 times per week. THAT will definitely do it!
CONGRATS on YOUR weight loss, too! Huzzah to the now-healthier crowd!
Tremendous! That is such good work, Jiu-Jiu, and you look marvelous. I love how emancipating BJJ is from crappy body stuff. Training takes care of it without all the negativity of dieting and stuff. I dropped 5.5 kilos before my first competition in 2008 and have settled at that weight and don’t struggle to maintain, so it seems that is a healthy weight for me as my training regime and diet keep me there without issue. Always had background noise of bad body image before grappling and have loved being free of that. All about the body as a tool and taking care of myself because it feels good not so I can be ‘skinny’ in some esoteric sense. I wanna be a 60 kilo brick house! 😉
P.S. I really don’t want to see what 23 pounds of fat looks like!
I never understood the “cutting weight” thing. Amazed me that people could do that.
I feel that overall I’d rather be healthy than thin, so I’m trying to just choose healthier eating options and doing exercise. Those are my goals. I think they’re better goals, but in reality–that would be AMAZING to be in the 135-150 range.
WOOOHOOO!! I am celebrating with you. I like to envision how many hand weights equal the amount of weight I’ve lost and how hard would it be to haul those around the gym floor during warmups and drills. Currently I’m at 5 (5 lb) weights and 1 (3 lb) weight!! Keep up the good work on and off the mat. 🙂
Thank you!
Awesome! I don’t use hand weights, so that feels abstract to me, but that’s awesome that it works for you! If I were a farm girl I would imagine a 23 pound watermelon. LOL Keep up your fabulous work, too!
First off, CONGRATULATIONS! You look fabulous and I agree that the haircut is smashing.
Since I started, my stomach has gotten flatter. I’m starting to get some muscle definition in it, too. It’s not so much the bjj, but the push ups bjj makes me do, and then the little competition I got into with my husband. (http://sharkgirlbjj.blogspot.com/2011/01/push-up-showdown.html)
I’m starting to think the bjj is taking away some of my mommy hips…but i’ll keep you posted on that.
Thank you and thank you!
That’s so cool. I saw your pushup showdown! That was great! I need to restart my pushup regime. Good luck on losing the “mommy hips”. I need to lose my “crappy food hips.” 🙂
I tenth the you look great notion! You do! Congrats on your weight loss! Woohooo!
And I am digging the bangs! I have long ones, and I’ve been debating for a while to cut them short, or let them grow because they aren’t long enough to get into my pony tail when I grapple so they always get in my face. lol
Thank you so much! I hadn’t had bangs in, gosh, 10 years? longer? I love them. They completely changed how my face looks.
Thanks for the compliment. I can’t wait to lose more! 😉
I had bangs my whole life (they were even permed once — thanks, Mom). I finally got the nerve to grow them out about four years ago and I am debating getting them back. But I’m not sure — like Stephanie says, I think they would just get in my face and drive me crazy! I guess they don’t bother you too much, Julia?
Hahahahaha My mom scarred me with the bangs when I was young. My bangs were thick and heavy and went halfway around my head–OVER MY FREAKING EARS!
But no–my bangs don’t get in my eyes. My HAIR got in my eyes before I cut it and now it’s much better:
I decided that I would like to add that if you want to get into even better shape and improve how you feel even more, not to mention your BJJ, then you should start a weight training program. Unless you do already and I just missed it, I am finding New Rules of Lifting for Women a great place to start.
I think I only lost maybe five pounds doing BJJ. The biggest change in my body definitely has come from lifting weights. Whether it is an actual or perceived change, who cares? I feel fantastic. It would totally be worth your time and I promise it’s fun. 🙂
I hear what you’re saying. I’m not quite ready to do weight lifting, but there are resources at my gym, so it’s a possibility. Right now I’m adding pushups to my program.
Right now my body is excited to have MOVEMENT in its life. I had a sedentary lifestyle and now there’s all this calorie-burning action going on! Amazing!
Thank you for the suggestion on the book, but I’m curious–what sorts of things does it say need to be different between a man’s and woman’s routine? I read an article (ARGH I CAN’T FIND IT) that says that there’s no reason men and women can’t follow the same routines, that just because you do a “men’s” routine does not mean your body will build muscle like a man’s. CURSES. I need to find this article. It was written by a BJJ guy. Oh slidey–do you know what article I’m talking about?
I hear ya. I can totally respect easing into the idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hunger for something more later on, though. It took me about a year of BJJ before I started doing weights. Although, it was also to try to curb injury.
LOL don’t fret – I should mention the subtitle of the book is “Lift like a man, look like a goddess.” The whole point of the book is actually that women should be lifting like men. It fights the idea of “toning and sculpting”, and the fear of getting muscles “like a man”. The program is filled with deadlifts, squats, presses, pushups, and a ton of other things. It’s good stuff; keep it in mind!
Earlier I also should have congratulated you for giving your body and your mind the gift of BJJ! So, congrats!
Unfortunately I don’t geek out on weightlifting the same way I do on BJJ, so I’m not the best person to ask. However, I do know (mainly from reading Leslie’s blog, among others: when I first saw her blog, it was all weight lifting) that the web-mecca for women who want to lift weights is stumptuous.com.
I’m not sure if Lynn follows this blog, but she’s been reading up on weight-lifting for women for a while too. Then there’s Liane up in Canada.
Ahhh Congrats!! After about a year and a half of BJJ I lost about 20. I think I dropped about 3 inches in my waist. I never did measure my thighs but they look smaller? The part thats tripping me out now, is Im gaining again…but my coach told me that it was a good thing, because I’m gaining muscle. (8 pounds of muscle! ohh my gosh!) I swear, BJJ is like one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Congrats again!
[…] I’ve lost weight and size. It’s why I originally joined BJJ. I mean, look at the difference between these pictures: […]
[…] many times have I referred to the fact that when I started I couldn’t do a forward roll, I was 205 lbs, etc. I have a really cool starting story – far more impressive than the guys who were […]
[…] many times have I referred to the fact that when I started I couldn’t do a forward roll, I was 205 lbs, etc. I have a really cool starting story – far more impressive than the guys who were […]