Woman Loses 106 Pounds With These Simple Strategies Despite Fearing Cancer and Struggling with Depression

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Five years ago, 62-year-old KimAnn Phillips decided it was time to take care of her health. “I was just so tired of being overweight. It was miserable. I wasn’t happy with myself,” she tells TODAY.com. “I wanted to be able to move.”

Phillips wasn’t overweight as a child, but her father had commented on her size: “When I was a kid, my dad used to make fun of me and tell me I was fat. I look at pictures and realize that there is no way I can be fat. “But this image has stuck in my head,” she says. “When people talk down to kids and make fun of them, that plays a big role as you get older. This really bothered me for a long time. I went through a lot of depression.”

She says she gained weight after the birth of her two children and struggled with some weight-related health problems over time, most notably high blood pressure and high cholesterol. She also had joint pain, especially because she used to play basketball, and she has bad knees. “The extra weight made them worse,” she says. She also suffers from celiac disease, which led to her joint pain.

Her weight rose to 360 pounds, and even though she was 6 feet tall, it affected her life: “I couldn’t move. I couldn’t go for a walk.”

Today she lost 106 pounds. She walks regularly, eats well and feels better than she has in years. Her blood pressure and cholesterol levels have improved and she doesn’t have as many headaches as she used to.

She noticed a big difference after losing the first 40 pounds. “I felt so much better. I could move and my knees didn’t hurt,” she says.

Plus, she can now shop wherever she wants. She’s 6 feet tall and is tired of having to buy her entire wardrobe from Lane Bryant. “They had clothes for big girls,” she says.

Now she can shop anywhere. She says: “One of the happiest days since my weight loss was when I was able to slip into buckle jeans and buy the bling jeans. I paid $80 for these things and I still have them. That was phenomenal. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined going into a store like this. I was jumping up and down in the store while my daughter said, “I can wear blue jeans now.” I was so happy. I will never go back to size 28!”

That’s how she did it.

She learned to overcome obstacles

Five years ago, Phillips was about six months into the weight loss journey when her husband passed away. They had been married for 36 years. His death and, more recently, a devastating breakup in another relationship both led to mental health issues.

“I try to get up every day and mentally dig in, tell myself, ‘You can do this,’ and try to be as positive as possible,” she says. “But the depression was huge. There was a point where I was taking medication, then I stopped and tried to do it on my own. I’m currently taking an antidepressant again. I hate to take it, but honestly it stops me from crying every day,” she says.

She also had a fear of breast cancer, where she had a lump and needed a needle biopsy. It turned out to be non-cancerous, but the experience was frightening. “My mother died of breast cancer, so it runs in the family. I was petrified,” she says.

And she recently discovered a tumor on the back of her leg. To remove it, they had to cut into the nerve, and foot drop – problems lifting the forefoot – was a possible complication. “I freaked out,” she says. Luckily, the procedure was successful and she is recovering.

During all this time, Phillips plateaued and at one point even gained 30 pounds back. But overall, she keeps her weight trending in the right direction. “I think the slow loss of weight is probably why I haven’t gained the weight back. I was able to stay on the right path,” she says.

She has made walking an integral part of her life

When Phillips was at his heaviest, running for exercise wasn’t an option. “I was a supervisor and walked around the store but couldn’t go for a walk. Now I can. “That’s a huge difference,” she says.

Lately, she has had to limit her walks to about a mile and walk her dog near her home in Clinton, Missouri, as she recovers from surgery on her knee. But she hopes to increase her distances when she’s able.

She now has an office job, so she looks for reasons to exercise throughout the day, like taking out the trash. “It drives me crazy not being able to walk. I can’t sit still. I am one of those people who have to be constantly on the move. I force myself to get up and walk around. “I like to move because I think it keeps the joints and everything working well,” she says.

Support helps her on her way

Phillips counted on her husband’s support before his death. “My husband always told me I looked beautiful, even when I was at my heaviest. He never made fun of me like my father did. That makes a huge difference. Especially if you’re trying to lose weight, you need that encouragement and support. He was my biggest advocate,” she says.

She also relied on her religious beliefs. “One of the things that has really helped me is my faith. It is absolutely number 1. Every morning I wake up and I have to dig deep inside myself and I know He has me. I don’t think he’s always been happy with some of my decisions, but he definitely has my back,” she says.

She has been a member of the Start TODAY Facebook group for about three years. “Reading some of these stories and watching some of these women achieve great success kept me going. I realized that I wasn’t the only one out there going through what I was going through. It’s a really close-knit, positive and encouraging group,” she says.

She ignores advice that doesn’t work for her

“Everyone says, ‘Don’t step on the scale every day.’ Well, my scale is my best friend. That keeps me in check. “I’m making progress and I know whether I need to get back on track,” she says.

Phillips is aiming to lose another 30 pounds, and that’s the weight that feels right for her, even though it may not be what others recommend. “Everyone tells you that you have to weigh a certain amount. Well, that’s not true. I’m a big-boned girl and super tall. The classic 180 pounds won’t work for me. I want to be at 225 – I think that’s the perfect weight for me,” she says.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com