She lost 166 pounds on her own. Then she did the one thing that would let her finally see what she’d accomplished.
Every December 20th, Gretchen donates 100 pounds of groceries to her local food pantry. It’s the anniversary of losing her first 100 pounds, and she marks it not by celebrating but by giving back. She changed her life through food. She knows it can help others do the same.
She didn’t follow a program or work with a trainer to reach that milestone. Instead, she taught herself how to fuel her body, and meticulously tracked her nutrition. She built a sustainable plan entirely on her own, building toward walking or running 20,000 steps a day.
In less than two years, she lost 166 pounds, half her body weight. She describes it as the most rewarding thing she’s ever done.
But she still couldn’t see it.
166 Down
Even after losing the weight, when Gretchen looked in the mirror she saw the body she’d carried at 332. She could read one thing on the scale, and another in her reflection. People would tell her she looked great, and she’d think, You don’t see what I see. She felt like an impostor, unable to claim what she had earned.
“I wanted to look as good as I feel,” she says. “I needed to be able to see it.”
Gretchen decided to pursue surgery to address loose skin. Surgeons she’d consulted elsewhere had been prescriptive: This is what we do, and this is how we do it.
When Gretchen reached out to the Quatela Center for Plastic Surgery, she was matched with Dr. Peter Krasniak. He took a different approach. He asked what bothered her and what she wanted to change. He let her lead the conversation.
Over the next eleven months, Gretchen completed three procedures. Her recovery was extraordinary. Just two weeks post-op, Dr. Krasniak cleared her to exercise. He credits her conditioning and diet for how quickly she healed. She credits his precision.
Three weeks post-op, she was running again. One month after her thigh procedure, she ran a half marathon, breaking a personal record.
“It’s a team effort,” she says. “He gives all the credit to me, but I wouldn’t be here without him.”
Gretchen still thinks about the woman who decided, on October 1, 2022, to try one last time to lose weight. The woman who put in every mile, cooked every meal, tracked every macro.
“She’s someone I don’t know anymore,” Gretchen says, “but she’s part of my story.”
That version of her did the hardest work. But she couldn’t have known what it would become. Not like Gretchen can, now.
“I owed it to myself to see the best part of me.”
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