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Kristy Fecker’s health journey began in May 2019 when she weighed more than 300 pounds.

“I had a lot of stomach issues that month, where I’d pick certain foods, I’d get indigestion from it,” said Kristy.

Eventually, the pain escalated to where Kristy knew she had to do something.

“It got to the point where it (the pain) was constant and I woke up one night in severe pain, and I almost doubled over. I was curled up in a ball on my bed,” she said.

Kristy went to the Troy Guthrie Clinic to see what was going on with her body.

“I had to change my diet for the blood testing. My diet was a lot of greasy foods, soda, basically I had to go on a BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast).”

Kristy was told that she may have had an ulcer, which is a sore that develops on the lining of the esophagus, stomach, or small intestine. Ulcers occur when stomach acid damages the lining of the digestive tract. Common causes include the bacteria H. Pylori and anti-inflammatory pain relievers including aspirin.

“With the blood work that we did, I found out I was pre-diabetic, and I was about one step away from a heart attack,” said Kristy, who noted that she was not shocked with the results.

“I knew God was trying to give me little nudges to tell me my health was not hot and I need to do something. I’m slowly killing myself.”

She was then referred to the weight loss clinic by her doctor. She knew she had to choose between losing the weight or constantly be on medication. One thing she knew was that she did not want surgery to lose the weight.

The first month at the weight loss clinic, Kristy shared that she only told select people because she was afraid of defeat and giving up before any real results were made.

Kristy had decided to take her weight loss journey one step at a time, beginning with her nutritionist’s first recommendation – a nutritious and high-protein shake first thing in the morning, 30 grams of protein per meal with carbohydrate reduction and restricting herself to 1,200 calories a day.

“It was hard at first, and I constantly felt starved, but now it’s easy. I wasn’t a huge breakfast person so having a protein shake was OK for me,” she said.

Kristy learned to start reading labels at the grocery store and found healthier alternatives for bread, chips and other snacks.

“We use food for a lot, other than just eating. If it was a bad day at work, I’d go get a soda and some chips over lunch. On a day I feel amazing, I reward myself with a pizza for dinner. We use food for everything than what we are supposed to.”

By strictly sticking to her diet, Kristy began to lose weight, so much, that eventually, her nutritionist moved her up to 1,500 calories.

Prior to starting the journey, Kristy had been working with Teresa Allen and Finding New Hope that’s where she started to make the psychological changes necessary for a successful weight loss journey.

“We worked through some of the issues that got me to where I was, the trauma I went through as a kid where I was teased. When you hear that you’re overweight or big, you lose your self esteem, and Teresa helped me to gain that back,” said Kristy. “She helped me realize I was worth the effort I needed to put in to lose the weight.”

If there is a tip for Kristy to share, it’s to address the self esteem problems one faces with gaining weight.

“If you don’t deal with the underlying issues as to why you gain that weight in the first place, and know that you’re worth the effort to put in, yeah you might lose the weight, but at some point something’s going to trigger you and you’re going to go back to those old habits and you’re going to gain all the weight back.”

Working with Teresa helped Kristy not only grow to love herself, but to reflect on her life and the problems she did not initially handle which led to her weight gain.

“I realized looking back, I was suicidal as a teenager, I was still carrying (that pain), so in a way, I wasn’t committing suicide, but I was slowly killing myself with my bad choices. It was a wake up call all around. God calls us to respect our bodies and here I was, completely abusing it, not intentionally, but abusing it because I didn’t like it. I was trained not to like it, by certain influences around me.”

Kristy worked on walking 1-2 miles a day to begin exercising. From there, it slowly increased, and even friends and family joined her.

“When I walked with my parents, I used to ask them to slow down. Now when I walk with them, they ask ME to slow down,” she laughed. “It’s pretty amazing to have that turnaround. I adjust how I walk for people because so many people did for me.”

Kristy lost more weight after changing her diet and her thinking, however, she knew she wanted a more toned body after losing the weight. So, she decided to go to a trainer in Ulster.

“By November 2019, I went to Ulster Fitness Center. By then, I had lost 60 pounds. I knew Ray Byers and started training with him three times a week, an hour each time. At first, it was wow, I thought he was trying to kill me giving me 10 pound weights to curl,” she giggles. “So yeah, now I’m curling with 20 pound weights and last week I did 25.”

Fast forward to March of 2021, Kristy underwent surgery to remove excess skin from her body. She is now fully recovered from the surgery. Even during the recovery process from her skin removal surgery, she made sure she was up and moving as much as possible.

She still continues to workout and walk when possible. For her, it’s not just a diet anymore – it’s a lifestyle change.

“I think a lot of people are in that position where they are just beaten down so much that they think ‘Why put the effort in to take care of myself because no one cares?’ It was hard for me to see how others around me cared. People care. God cares.”

Overall, Kristy lost 140 pounds. She was recently featured on WENY, sharing her story of success with Guthrie’s Weight Loss Center.

“My advice for people trying to lose weight is to do it for yourself. If you don’t do it for yourself, it’s not going to stick.”