Jordan: My heaviest weight was 421 pounds.
At that time I was just slowly killing myself.
For me it took a moment of impact,
to change my life.
The night of that crash,
it was either life or death.
That was the wakeup call.
That was when I was like okay,
I can’t live this way.
I cannot slowly self-destruct.
I’ve lost over 211 pounds.
If you had told the 400 pound version of myself
that this was in the cards, any of it,
I would think that you’re absolutely crazy.
I remember in kindergarten,
I wouldn’t want to take off my shirt
when we all went to the pool.
I was always heavy.
It caused a lot of bullying,
when I was growing up.
And I just knew I was different.
By the time I was 13,
I was about 100 pounds bigger than
every other 13 year old.
It made my life difficult,
to stand out and be that different.
I was very close with my Mom.
She was always trying to get me to eat healthier,
and she would like sign me up for a Nutritionist and,
have me go for a walk or go with me.
When I was 14, my Mom,
she died.
In her sleep,
it was out of nowhere.
It made me really angry.
I think that anger
and depression
are really what
kind of
fueled me to
give up on myself
and on my life.
I just didn’t ...
I didn’t think it was fair,
you know, just to lose someone,
your parent,
out of nowhere, like that,
then I was really just like,
I’m allowed to curse?
I was like **** that.
I
don’t want to do this healthy things that she
she tried to get me to do.
She’s not even here to see it.
I tried to numb my feelings with,
with drugs and alcohol but,
food was the one that really,
stuck the most.
I would go to the drive thru
twice a day, at least.
I was in the ball pack of around 10,000 calories a day.
I was just slowly
killing myself.
I didn’t really,
want to live to see another day.
When I went to a doctor,
they dint have scales that would go passed
400 pounds.
They’d put me on a special scale,
and they weighed me in at 421 pounds.
When a doctor sees that weight,
they tell you,
“You’re not going to live till 30 if you keep this up.”
I just didn’t
care.
Literally right about there.
For me it took a moment of impact
literally,
to change my life.
Yeah right here.
This was the spot where everything changed for me.
I have not been back here,
since then.
Since 2008.
The day of this car accident,
I remember vividly.
I was driving home one day,
I saw headlights coming right towards me,
I slammed on the brakes.
I got hit head-on
by a drunk driver.
It’s still
ingrained in my mind,
that scene, yeah.
I was banged up.
I had a separated shoulder,
broken wrist,
but I survived.
I knew
that that was like a second chance at life.
I did feel like that’s my Mom
looking out for me.
It’s not time yet.
That night, March 30th, 2008,
I just vowed to myself
that I’m going to change.
And,
I didn’t even know how.
I didn’t know what I was going to do,
but I just knew
I had to do something different than the way I was living.
The next day,
I woke up,
and I just started walking with the dog.
I started eating
healthier foods, and,
I started feeling really good.
It got to where Blackberry and I,
we were running down the hill and walking back up.
All my neighbours knew me.
The Garbage man on the street knew me.
After that year, I felt so good
I decided to join the gym.
I remember the first time I did a pull-up,
I was like,
do the dance party afterwards.
I jumped up and I got up there.
Coming from being so heavy,
and feeling so trapped,
to do exercise like that was so cool to me.
My heaviest weight was 421 pounds.
After two and a half years,
that’s what led me to lose 211 pounds.
The lowest I ever got to was 209 pounds.
Since the 209,
I’ve gained several pounds of muscle.
I’m right now about 250.
The feeling is indescribable.
I’m lighter than I have ever been,
as an adult, or a teenager or a kid, really.
And I had a whole new life.
Friends would say,
"There is this beautiful blond girl who lives on our street,
you got to meet her."
She had seen me
out her window,
walking Blackberry up and down back and forth.
She would always hear the little jingle of her collar.
And
one day, she was walking her dog and I was walking Blackberry,
and I stopped.
And we stared talking.
She asked me out on a double date,
and I decided I should definitely go.
After that, we were inseparable.
Kelli: We’ve always been,
you know,
our biggest motivators.
And we push each other especially when we have like
those moments of doubt or whatever it might be.
We play so well off of each other.
We definitely we’re...
we’re a great team,
for sure.
Jordan: She is always my number one cheerleader.
She
goes with whatever ideas I have.
Whatever, if I’m trying to do a crazy bodybuilding competition.
For my skin surgery,
she actually moved in to my apartment,
to help take care of me.
And then we started living together indefinitely since then.
I proposed to her,
on that street,
where we met.
We just got married,
four months ago,
in October. And the dogs were in the wedding.
My dog Blackberry, she,
just left us, last year.
Incredible dog.
I got her in 2005, she was a little puppy.
Giant me and tiny Blackberry.
She kind of gave me a reason to
keep existing and surviving.
And she was like a big motivator for me to live.
Because I wanted to take good care of her,
I wanted to give her a good life.
I miss, I miss her a lot.
Now we have two wonderful dogs.
There’s a lot of spots in our hearts for dogs.
If you would have told the 400 pounds version of myself
that this was in the cards,
any of it,
I would think that you’re absolutely crazy.
It’s just such a big shift,
not just how you look, but how you feel.
Since I’ve gone through this transformation,
the coolest thing, is that I get to help other people.
I quit my job as a Real-estate Agent.
I went back to school, I studied Nutrition.
I got certified as a Fitness Nutrition Specialist.
I can show you how to do it, because I have done it.
And I do believe that anyone who really wants it,
can also get that result.
For the future,
I don’t really want anything lavish or extravagant.
I just want to feel comfortable,
and be healthy,
and share love with the people around me.
And dogs, dogs are great too.
They go a long way.
Why are you guys so loving?