Hey, I’m Liz and ever since I can remember, my mom was always feeding me. I guess she thought I looked cuter when I was chubby, which is fine when you’re a toddler, but by the time I was 9, I already weighed 120 pounds.

As I got older, I got even fatter. I was so overweight, I had to use a special chair that wouldn’t break under my weight during high school.

It was so embarrassing. And the other kids were always teasing me because I was so large. No one wanted to sit next to me because they said I’d squash them.

But the lowest moment was when my ten year old sister, Katy, invited a friend over. When her friend saw me, her eyes widened in shock and she asked, “What is that?!”

My sister, Katy blushed and she said “Oh… eh… that’s no one. Let’s go to my room. You won’t have to look at her there.”

Wow. I was so overweight my own sister was ashamed of me.

After her friend left, Katy said sorry for treating me like that, but it was fine. I know she loves me just as much as I love her, so I couldn’t be mad at her. She’s just a kid who didn’t know how to handle the situation.

No, I was to blame for what happened. I felt like I’d let my sister down. And to make things worse, Katy wasn’t exactly slim either because our mom was feeding her too much as well.

That’s when I decided I had to lose weight and keep it off, not just for myself but also to set an example for my sister. I’d tried to diet before by eating one meal a day, but I just got really hungry then ate even more food to make myself feel better.

I knew I had to be organized and put together a plan for success, so I ordered ten books about nutrition and weight loss.

After I’d read them all, I had a much better understanding about how to lose weight. And I realised I didn’t have to starve myself, but instead I just had to eat the healthy food which would also make me feel full and I also needed some exercise.

My weight loss was slow but steady and once I started seeing my weight go down, it gave me the motivation I needed to stick with my plan. It took two years to go from 300 pounds to 106 pounds, my dream weight.

I won’t lie though. I did it more for my sister than myself. I wanted to show her that she can break the cycle of obesity and live a healthy life too. Now we cook together almost every day and she’s already looking slimmer.

In a funny way, being obese was a gift. Because I’ve learned so much about how to be fit and healthy because of my weight.

Right now I help other overweight people by coaching them to do what I did. I really wanna make a difference. I’m hoping that someday I might become a professional weight loss coach. That would be awesome!

But for now, I’m studying at college and train at the gym 5 times a week. I’ve been going there for about 18 months now and my body looks amazing. In fact, I was spotted at the gym by a talent scout and last month I did some modeling for a big sportswear brand, with a second photoshoot booked next week for another fitness company. I was even featured in “Women’s Health” magazine – it was so cool.

It’s pretty crazy what can happen in 2 years.

Just before I go, I wanna ask you a favour. If you see someone who’s heavily obese, don’t judge them. You don’t know their history. Many have been abused and food is an escape for them, a way to feel better for a moment, even though they know it’s not good for their health.

So if you want to help them, maybe ask them to go to the gym with you or show them this video. If I lost weight, they can too!

Thank you for listening to my story and please don’t forget to subscribe to this channel.