Mother Christina Jordan, 34, wanted to celebrate a fun time with her family at Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth.
But when they visited, the weather was swelteringly hot and the lines were extremely long. Jordan and her family ended up waiting in line for one ride for over two hours. “We’re hot and cranky,” she recalled. “And when we finally go to sit, the seat belt doesn’t fit over me.”
Jordan, at the time, weighed about 250 pounds.
She and her husband looked at each other, then decided to trade seats, to see if her original seat belt had just been cut short by accident. But the same thing happened in the second seat.
The ride staffer had to tell her, “I’m sorry, ma’am, it doesn’t fit; you’re too large to ride this ride.”
What made matters worse, when Jordan tried to flee from the humiliating scene, she couldn’t make a speedy escape because she was also too large to fit through the people counter gate in the exit.
“My hips were too wide, so they had to open the gate, and I felt like cattle being brought out to slaughter. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life,” she said.
“But it also opened my eyes to the fact that I had to change. I did not want to live the rest of my life on the sidelines.”
When Jordan returned home, she immediately set out to lose weight.
But it wasn’t that simple.
Several weight loss plans and diet pills, and even personal fitness trainers, all failed in allowing her to shed some pounds. Instead, Jordan gained weight until she was 271 pounds and was fired by her personal trainer – someone Jordan had been paying to help her.
When Jordan was at her second breaking point and ready to just go under the knife to remove the weight, her friend convinced her to do her own research and create her own diet and fitness program that worked for her life.
That was how Jordan finally managed to lose 134 pounds, nearly half of her body weight. She now eats five to six small meals a day, each consisting of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Jordan also goes to the gym regularly and has even gone back to school to earn a master’s degree in nutrition science to help more people with their weight loss struggles and goals.
Now, Jordan and her family couldn’t be happier. “"I realized that I would be the best mom and the best wife by being the best me,” she said.
