When Lexi Reed and her husband Danny of Terre Haute, Indiana married they vowed to stick with each other through thick and thin. And they meant it… literally.
The two of them got married in 2015 and at that time they would eat around 8,000 calories a day.
By 2016, Lexi weighed 485 lbs and Danny weighed 280. Since then they’ve lost a combined 400 lbs. The couple credits their massive weight loss to their relationship.
“We didn’t have a meal plan, surgery, personal trainer, but what we did have was each other and the motivation within to work hard every single day,” Lexi wrote on Instagram. “We wanted to be parents in the future and live a longer life together.”
Lexi went from a size 28 to a size 10 and Danny went from a 46 to a 32.
“Doing this as a couple has helped us in so many ways,” Lexi told ABC News. “On days when we were unmotivated, we pushed each other to go to the gym. We also started meal-prepping together, setting goals, and day by day or pound by pound we grew closer throughout our journey.”
Their weight loss journey started as a New Year’s resolution and was documented on Lexi’s Instagram account @fatgirlfedup.
That account now has more than 522,000 followers and offers inspiration to others who are looking to live healthier lives.
“I never expected to have such an impact,” said Lexi. “I just wanted to get healthy.”
Lexi says the hardest part of their journey was learning to change their relationship with food.
The couple decided to give up junk food and start making home-cooked meals.
They also started working out at the gym five to six times a week.
“On our honeymoon in 2015 we went on a shell tour. We were told that the larger seashells were further down the beach. I didn’t even make it a quarter of the way walking in the sand with my newlywed husband at 485lbs and I had to sit down while he walked down the beach alone,” Lexi wrote on Instagram.
“At 25 years old I remember looking out into the ocean wondering if my life would ever change, heart broken, ashamed, & embarrassed. If only I knew in just 3 months after that experience I would embark on the greatest journey of my life. This past summer we returned to that beach and we didnt walk – we ran.”
The “swolemates” say they are overjoyed to start 2018 as the healthiest they’ve ever been.
“There are no words to explain the feeling of saving your own life,” she told ABC News. “Going into 2018 I have nothing but a newfound happiness for this life I am living. I no longer am a prisoner in my own body and instead of just existing in my own life, I’m finally alive. Every day I wake up is a blessing.”
You can follow the couple on Instagram here.
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