[Music]
whether it's ten twenty or fifty pounds
weight loss journey can be a huge
undertaking it's definitely something
that does not happen overnight and for
one Orlando woman she decided to commit
to a healthier lifestyle ahead of the
biggest day of her life and this is Mary
Jane Cooley before her weight loss and
then before her wedding day okay now
fast forward to today Mary Jane is now
down a hundred and thirty-five pounds
cetera oh my gosh and has had the
wedding-day memories she had worked so
hard for yeah we're so eager to hear
more about how she got results joining
us now Mary Jane O'Toole welcome
congratulations thank you it's been a
long journey yes and we're so happy to
see you here and hear what the secrets
are because you I mean that's a whole
person 135 pounds how'd you do it I have
logged my calories in an app called lose
it so for the past two days 940
consecutive days of logging calories so
I wanted something that was going to be
manageable I didn't want anything that
was gonna be like oh I need to drink
this juice at this time and cayenne
pepper with some tumeric and that sort
of thing right so I eat what I want
it's just portion control and calories
so what was the moment that you decided
okay I'm really gonna do this my husband
my now husband took me on a surprise
birthday trip to the wild Africa track
at Disney and I take pictures throughout
this whole experience and then they post
it with all the other pictures from
everybody else in your group and we got
those pictures back I was like oh my
gosh I don't recognize those two people
and those two people were us they were
just very inflated versions of who we
thought we were so that was the catalyst
and that was July of 2016 and on July
14th we said we're done we're done being
that way it's time to get our health in
control and what was like that first
step what was the first thing you said I
knew I have to cut this is one my one
big issue food I'm a sweets Cal really
really true and true I I say I have more
than just one sweet tooth I have sweet
teeth so that was that was the biggest
thing was really getting control of how
many little things you eat so for me it
was always candy so now I'm very
conscious and cognizant of okay I've had
two pieces of candy so that's 80
calories I could have had
entire yogurt for that and get protein
out of it instead it adds up so fast I'm
using an app right now to try to track
calories what can you say to people who
say like I don't know if I can do that
it's you know too tedious like talk to
us about that process I think it's
important to realize how much you pick
your phone up on a daily basis and with
Apple they even have your screen time
now so you are very aware of how much
yeah on your phone and so just take a
second and say okay maybe I need to get
off social media and just log my food
hold yourself accountable for every
single thing that you do with it with
throughout your day so if you're on
Instagram for 15 minutes five of those
minutes could have been used you're sure
wedding picture yeah and juicing your
husband also has lost a lot of a lot of
weight as well how has that been
you guys both doing this together
starting your new journey now as husband
and wife as you were saying before new
people yeah new people um we call each
other accountability partners so in the
beginning I would want to sneak like a
little Jolly Rancher and he would go are
you logging that what are you doing
are you logging yes I'm gonna log it and
then I would want another one like you
have to log that went tuna I'm not gonna
have it so we kind of just held each
other accountable and that was really
worth it it's good to have a partner yes
and isn't it amazing if you have to
write something down or you have to log
it you you know it can really change
your mind sex I go through phases where
I'll log my food as well oh my god I'm
not I don't want to log a donut so I'm
not gonna eat it yeah exactly it's it's
when you look at your daily calorie and
taking you oh I get 1350 or something a
day and then you go in this calories 300
of that so now you're left with only a
thousand and you're now still hungry and
you have to eat lunch and dinner and
you're like that just wasn't worth it
right we have a thousand calories left
at 8:00 a.m. really right so what's
what's next what's next on this journey
for both of you for me it's starting to
figure out who I am in this body so I
had been heavy since the age of seven
and had been dieting since then off and
on I had been put on Weight Watchers for
a while and just kind of was very aware
of my size and now it's it's learning to
love this body
and understanding that this body isn't
what I really expected from weight loss
but that it's what's carrying me through
the rest of my life and that's what's
gonna be worth it mm-hmm well we
appreciate your story and hopefully it
encourages other people take that first
step and get going
thank you thank you a lot of people at
home right now probably taking that
first step right now but to either jolly
rancher laughs no thank you
thank you so much