My name is Sarah Lessner (@lesslessner), and I am 36 years old. I live in Denver, Colorado, and I am a software engineer. Realizing I needed to change my lifestyle before it starts affecting my health, I overhauled the way I ate by counting macros and incorporated more exercise into my routine gradually over time to lose weight. I was able to lose 135 pounds in the process.

I'd always been a little heavier as a kid, but I had a medically healthy weight. I was just not skinny. My weight ballooned in college, and then I lost about 70 pounds -- I went from 270 to 200 pounds during my last semester of college. I maintained this weight loss for a while and got into running when I moved to Chicago after college.

I ran a marathon in 2010, and then I moved to Austin, Texas. At that time, my husband got seriously ill, and the weight slowly piled back on from depression. At 34, my weight was 350 pounds.

Things came to a head early in the pandemic in 2020 when my weight was already so high and I knew I couldn't let it get worse. So I started to make small changes to the frequency and amount of food I was eating, and tried to take care of myself through better nutrition. It was small, but a start.

In April 2021, I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled, and my blood pressure was high. This was always really common for me because I'm very anxious about the dentist. But this time they required a doctor to sign off on me being allowed to have the procedure. While my blood pressure is normal and there was no need for any medical intervention, my blood work made it clear that things were not heading in a good direction all around. My doctor was gentle about it, but ultimately the message was clear: Lose weight or you'll need medication in the future.

Another contributing factor to starting my weight-loss journey was that my husband was officially diagnosed with adult-onset type 1 diabetes. And while he has different health considerations than me, we both found ourselves needing to really do a complete overhaul of the way we were eating and living our lives. We knew it was time to get serious. We never looked back.

Tracking macros works for me because it's not a restrictive approach. Any food can fit in your diet -- it's just about the right energy balance. I find it most sustainable and it worked for me in the past, so I went that route again.

And after losing a lot of weight, I started to focus more on the quality of my nutrition (hitting a protein goal) and not just the number of calories.

I would walk regularly, and I did some YouTube yoga. But initially, my focus was mostly on cleaning up my diet.

After a couple of months, I joined Base6 Fitness, a gym down the street from me. They offer HIIT classes, barbell, and yoga. It was intimidating at first, but I've found a great community there that keeps me motivated.

I started to run after losing 85 pounds, and chasing a new personal best also motivates me. I run three to four times a week and take a couple HIIT classes, barbell workouts, and two to three yoga classes.

I don't think I realized how much I was suffering by being so overweight. The weight comes on slowly, and you get used to feeling bad, thinking that it's fine or you're just getting older. Getting in shape and losing weight just makes day-to-day life easier and more enjoyable.