Motivational Spotlight: How X-Weighted Fan Kathy Homrighausen Lost 112 Pounds

Over the past 18 months, Kathy Homrighausen has quite literally become half the woman that she used to be.

Her wake-up call came when she visited the doctor about pain in her right knee. “He told me that I had early onset osteoarthritis, at the age of just 31. He told me it was because I was gaining so much weight and it was really hard on my joints,” says Kathy, who had always been overweight but had no idea by how much as she “was never brave enough to get on any scales.” At the start of her weight loss journey, Kathy weighed 247 pounds.

She looked into gastric bypass surgery, but says that before they will let you have the surgery you have to lose 25 pounds to show that you are serious.

“So that's what I did, I started going to the gym, attending nutrition classes, I started walking my dog; just making little changes,” she says, “and by the time I met with the counselor to discuss the surgery, I had already lost 47 pounds and they told me that I was no longer a candidate for the surgery!”

A Complete Lifestyle Change

While going through the process of losing weight for the surgery, Kathy had learned what real portion looked like, and how to read labels, which was knowledge she simply didn’t have previously. Knowing that she was pretty clueless about how to exercise, she also went to a trainer.

“I was deathly afraid of weights, and always felt that the people who are in the gym were always in really good shape so I felt really self-conscious going there,” she says, “I really would advise that people do see a trainer. At first I thought well you know that is kind of pricey, but for me I needed somebody to give me a push and say keep going Kathy, you can do five more, don't give up!”

Once she started using weights, the rate of weight loss increased, and she says, “Every time I lost a couple more pounds, it gave me the encouragement to keep going.”

Before seeing a trainer, Kathy says that she had no idea how important it was to build muscle when you are trying to lose weight. “I always thought that losing weight was all about cardio, but the more muscle you have when you're just at rest, the more calories you burn. And I didn't understand that, I thought I just had to focus on cardio because that was what would make me lose weight,” she explains.

Love the Gym? Not Likely

Kathy says that she hits the gym at least 6 days a week, and motivating herself is never easy. “When I first get there I have to convince myself to get in there and do it. I have a little internal argument with myself every day, it's like “go on Kathy you can do it” and I want to just say, “Oh no I don't feel like it today I'm not going to do it”. But once I get started I’m always really glad I went,” she says.

Going to the gym wasn’t easy at first. “I was so out of shape before I started that I couldn't even walk for five straight minutes on the treadmill. Now I can run for 30 minutes on there no problem,” she says. Kathy says that she used to huff and puff her way up the 12 stairs in her house and even walking at a leisurely pace with her dog was difficult, but even walking her dog for 10 minutes helped her to lose weight. “Nowadays, I run up the stairs,” she says.

“Sometimes it's frustrating,” says Kathy, “You hit a wall and feel like you can't go on. I always tell people that I hate going to the gym, but I hated being out of shape and overweight worse.”

Unrecognizable

Kathy’s friends and family are really excited for her and proud at what she has achieved. Her husband is in the military and was deployed when she started to lose weight. “When he came back I was probably 80 something pounds lighter, and he actually walked past me, then did a double take and came back. He told me "Kathy, I didn't recognize you",” says Kathy with pride.

The changes in her weight have made her life physically easier. “Because I'm not carrying around as much weight anymore, and because I learned how to do some muscle exercises to strengthen the muscles that support my knee, there has been no advancement in my knee problems,” she says.

Words of Encouragement

Kathy wants to tell participants in the X-Weighted National Challenge that they can do this too. “People always say, “I can't do that,” and I tell them if I can do it you can do it,” she says.

Kathy is thrilled with how she has taken charge of her weight, “I started out at 247. My weight now is around 135 to 138 and it is so exciting to fit into regular clothes. I always used to have to shop in the big women’s wear sections, and you can never find anything reasonably attractive in those sizes. I now wear a size 8.”