Meet: Esther Brady Crawford, aka FaintStarLite
Age: 25
Occupation: Professional Video Blogger (see her Weight Watchers’ vlogs here)
Where she lives: Wisconsin
Pounds Lost: 70 pounds
How long it took to lose the weight: 11 months
How long she has kept it off: A year and a half… until she got pregnant (LOVE the belly pic!)
When I first met Esther last summer at BlogHer, I was so impressed with her adventures in vlogging and how videos about her weight loss ultimately led to a gig with Weight Watchers. She’s been busy since then getting married, moving, and being pregnant, so I was glad to finally catch up with her to chat some more about her weight loss journey, and of course give her a Weight Loss WooHoo! - Just FatFighterTV’s fun way of celebrating healthy weight. 
How Esther gained the weight:
“My weight gain happened slowly throughout middle school, and accelerated in high school and then particularly during the first two years of college. I found it to be so difficult to eat healthy because all the food in front of me was crap – dorm food, buffets – it just was really, really challenging. My self-esteem had really taken a hit at that point. I was kind of spiraling out of control in terms of weight gain. I felt so bad about the fact that I was overweight that I would end up eating more. Then I would feel bad because I wasn’t able to lose it or I would make such limited progress that I would end up gaining more.”
Wake-up Calls:
“There were a couple of different moments that really hit me. My dad was very sick – he was dying. His last words to all of us kids were to really embrace life, to be happy with yourself. I felt really disappointed because I thought, here I am, motivated and intelligent, but there’s this one area of my life where I feel really bad about myself in terms of my body. That was the first wake up call – kind of like, okay Esther you need to start focusing on the parts of your life you’re not happy with, let’s figure out why you’re not happy with it and what you can do about it.”
“The second thing was during my senior year of college, I went to my physical exam and my doctor turned me to and said, ‘You are overweight, you’ve got to lose weight or you’re going to be at risk for diabetes, cancer…’ she just sort of rattles off all these adverse health side effects. I was so surprised because nobody had ever actually said that to me, especially not a medical professional. So I asked her – honestly, out of innocence –’Well, can you prescribe me some sort of pill that would help me lose weight?’ And she just looked at me completely dumbfounded and said, ‘No. It’s going to take eating better and exercising more!’”
How she shed the pounds:
“One of the things that’s so basic, and yet I really hadn’t learned growing up, was looking at the food on my plate and seeing where it was coming from – was this stuff coming directly out of a manufacturing plant or was it coming out of the ground, and was it natural?”
“I eventually joined Weight Watchers. What it really did was to help me re-focus, and I found when I was eating the right foods – when I was eating vegetables, when I was eating things that were bulkier in terms of density, I was not hungry two hours later. I didn’t need to snack on something, I didn’t need ice cream, because I was actually full.”
“It took me about four months before I really added in exercise. I joined a volleyball team, then I started building in more strength exercises. When I would need a break from studying, because I was in grad school at the time, I’d do 50 sit ups. Incorporating little things throughout the day made a huge difference in how I felt and it accelerated my weight loss exponentially.”
Weekly workouts:
“Every morning I was doing a beach run with a group of women. It was very motivating. We would go out to the beach and bring strength training equipment. For about 45 minutes to an hour, we’d do various cardio and strength training exercises. Occasionally I would also go swimming at the Y. Now that I’m pregnant, it’s such a great opportunity to swim more.”
Diet Philosophy:
“My diet philosophy is to be balanced, to find that balance, in terms of being able to go out and enjoy restaurant food with your friends, have cocktails, and at the same time really look at what you’re eating on a daily basis and figure out, is this natural? Is this something my ancestors would have eaten? One of the things that’s so challenging today in our country is most of what we eat is processed. It’s completely unnatural.”
Her Weakness:
“For me, it is all about sweets. I don’t ever want to eliminate anything, so I’ve handled my sweet addiction by integrating it into my life – having lower calorie options available, and also substituting things, like have some strawberries or even putting Cool Whip on my strawberries, so I’m getting what I’m craving but it’s not in the form of a Little Debbie or something.”
Tips from Esther:
“Persevere. It’s really hard in those moments when you had a bad day or you had a bad week to not want to give up. Think of it as just a bump in the road, and that’s going to happen. Life’s full of twists and turns, but what’s great is that if you keep your focus and keep moving in the direction you want, eventually you will make it there. It doesn’t have to happen overnight. In fact, it won’t happen overnight. But it makes you feel really good once you’ve accomplished it because you know that you stuck it out.”
Favorite healthy recipe:
Stuffed Red Peppers
Esther’s Weight Loss WooHoo!:
“I had never enjoyed the summer before, because it represented an entire season where I would be uncomfortable with myself – not wanting to get in a swimsuit, God forbid I had to wear shorts or show my arms. I wouldn’t even wear a tank top. I hit my goal in April, so between April and the summer, this transformation happened in my mind in terms of how I thought about myself. When the summer hit, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I love this time of the year!’ All these years I’ve been dreading the summer and looking forward to winter where I could pile all these layers on and kind of hide behind them. Now in the summer time, I’m like, This is me, I’m proud of myself! I’ve worked really hard and I’m not perfect and that’s totally okay. Before, I felt like I had to be perfect in order to enjoy or wear certain kinds of clothes – to wear shorts or to wear a tank top – that I had to look like a model. I finally came to a point where I was like, I don’t have to be perfect, I just have to be comfortable with myself. And that was just such a relief – a WooHoo! – I can do this! I can really be me.”
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Esther – Your father’s words are such great ones to live by. Oh, and you look fantastic in that sleeveless dress!
By the way, Esther is due May 10 – that’s coming right up, isn’t it?
See more weight loss success stories on the Weight Loss WooHoo! Wall of Fame.
If you know of someone who deserves this honor, just let me know – send me an email at sahar [at] fatfightertv [dot] com
[...] motivates me more than seeing the success of others. Today’s Weight loss WooHoo is the lovely Esther Brady Crawford. Take a moment to be inspired by her 70 pound [...]
i would like to know how tall esther is. do you happen to know? trying to set my own weight loss goal and think she is a good size. wondering if we are the same height. thanks!