Motivational Spotlight: How X-Weighted Fan Cathy Hurd Lost 137 pounds

Cathy Hurd (who likes to be called Cat and has the username Catattack1 on XWeighted.com) says that she’s been fighting an “up and downhill battle” with her weight all her life. After she reached her heaviest ever weight, 297 pounds, and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, she knew that she had to win the battle once and for all. “I had 2 knee replacements done, but that wasn’t enough to scare me, having diabetes was,” she says.

Choosing to Live

Cat was given 3 months to make some drastic changes, or else her doctor was going to put her on medication for the diabetes. “I had been on so many medications over the years, for pain in my knees, and I’d been on antidepressants, and I said no more. I’m not doing this any more. I’m tired of living to die. I’ll take those 3 months and I’ll see what I can do,” she says.

When she went back to her doctor 3 months later, she’d managed to get her blood sugars back to normal. The day after she’d got her diabetes diagnosis, Cat went to the gym, signed up with a trainer and changed her eating habits.

Not that it was easy for her. “It was a struggle. For the first year I went from 297 pounds down to 250, then back up to 260, I kept bouncing up and down,” she says. After plateauing for months, she decided that enough was enough and upped the intensity of her workouts and resolved to eat even cleaner. “I started biking to work and back, and even though I was logging 40 -50km a day, I never counted that as my cardio, I still went to the gym every day,” she says. Stepping up her game pushed Cat to drop almost 60 pounds in a 6-month period.

Cat says that her trainer was her greatest support throughout her journey, and although it cost a lot of money in gym fees, she was able to get her insurance company to pay a percentage because she was on long-term disability because of her knees. “They wanted me back to work, and so I told them that they needed to help me get there,” she says, “Because the bottom line was, I couldn’t afford it. I fought for it, and they helped pay for it.” 

Her Grandkids, Her Inspiration

Cat says that having 8 grandkids was a great source of inspiration to get healthy. “My oldest grandson, Joe who is 10, always believed in me. He’d tell me “Grandma, you’re going to run one day,” and I’d never run in my life. I’d never dreamed I’d be able to run because I thought I was too old, too fat and too tired. I thought that I had nothing left,” she says. 

It is her grandkids that show Cat how important her getting healthy was. “One day I was on top of the monkey bars with my 5 year old grandson and he said, “Grandma, you’re my hero.” I never thought I’d be anyone’s hero!” Back when Cat was heavy, and she couldn’t play with her grandkids, her limitations with them used to break her heart.

She loves that her children and grandchildren see her exercising and eating healthy, and that she has become an inspiration to them. 

Many Triumphs

Now Cat says that she feels better at 47 than she ever did at 30. “Life is fantabulous! My husband has never seen me at this weight, it’s like he is with a totally different woman, and on one hand he’s loving it but he is also finding it scary.”

Cat says that she has had friends walk past her; they just don’t recognize the slim person that she has become. “That’s a good feeling, I love that! I’m a Facebook addict, and I get so many comments on my pictures there, from people that say I’ve inspired them to change their own lives,” says Cat, “Those comments just give me more reason to get up and keep going.”

“I went from wearing a size 28 pant to buying my first pair in a size 12 a few weeks ago,” says Cat, “It was really weird. I picked up the pants and they were so narrow that I thought there’s no way they’re gonna fit. But I pulled them up over my hips and they fit! It was amazing! I’m less than half the size that I used to be. Every day I wake up and I’m excited and happy, and I never used to feel that way. It is just great.”

Words from the Wise

Cat has words of advice to those who want to get healthy but don’t know where to start: “The bottom line is, stop the pity party. Seriously. The more you feel sorry for yourself, the less you’re going to do. This can be done. No matter how much pain you are in, you can move. I know because I did it,” she says, “When I first started on the treadmill, I had to take morphine to be able to workout.”