Lexi and Danny Reed became role models across the world when they turned their lives around in 18 months. Feeling trapped in their bodies, the couple set out to find freedom. Lexi challenged herself, and Danny, to refocus their lives, changing their diet and exercise.
Determined to be happy and healthy for the first time in their lives, the couple was ready for any challenges that laid ahead. Read ahead to see just how drastic and inspiring their transformation was!
Lexi's Weight Was An Uphill Battle Since Birth
Lexi Reed struggled with her weight since childhood. The battle to lose weight never went her way. When she would manage to lose some, it would always come back. Still, she never let her appearance keep her from being social and happy.
When she turned 25, her weight began to take a severe toll on her life. She weighed 392 pounds, and he happiness was fading. The hardest part for Lexi was that her body was holding her back from achieving her dreams. Things looked bleak, but motivation was waiting just around the corner.
Lexi Meets Danny And Falls Madly In Love
Lexi and Danny Reed were always meant to be together. When the couple began dating, it was clear Danny didn't care what Lexi looked like. He had fallen madly in love with the amazing person she was. Luckily for Danny, Lexi felt the same way about him.
Of course, our story doesn't end here. Danny struggled with his own weight issues, and together they made bad food choice after bad food choice.
The Downward Health Spiral Continues
Danny and Lexi knew they had a problem, but didn't deal with at the time. Danny was 280 pounds and encouraged gluttonous eating. When it came time for meals, they never cooked, preferring to order in massive amounts of food or eat out.
Sadly, the couple has even admitted they used to spend hours at buffets eating until they were stuffed. Eating was easily their main activity and most shared interest. It was also ruining their health. They might not have realized it at the time, but if they hadn't changed their lives, they might not be alive today!
Lexi Finally Admits She Has A Problem
Lexi Reed knew she had a problem and talked openly about it, hoping to help others with the same issues. Growing up, she said, "we never had a lot of money and my parents never cooked. Processed foods were always easier to purchase than healthy foods."
When she started dating Danny, things didn't change. They actually got worse. When they weren't at restaurants Lexi said they would binge eat and watch TV. She added, "no matter what the mood, food was always there for me."
Watching TV Was As Active As The Couple Could Be
Being overweight together, Danny and Lexi had a limited active life. Unable to go on hikes or go biking, they just stayed in most nights and watched TV. It wasn't the healthiest lifestyle, and they realized they needed to make a change.
Lexi was first to realize that a change in her lifestyle needed to happen. She was a happy and positive person and was determined to lead a long life. The problem was she had spent so much time being inactive, she had zero motivation to make any big changes. That is, until Danny did something unexpected!
Danny Gets Down On One Knee
When Danny proposed, everything changed for Lexi. She said, "He never saw me as my size, asked me to change, or made me feel as anything other than beautiful." Feeling like a queen on the inside, Lexi was devastated trying to find a wedding dress that would fit her.
Lexi, who has never been shy about her size, admitted she weighed 485 pounds at the time, "Nobody knew how to make me feel like a bride and not my size." At her lowest point, she questioned if she would be able to find a wedding dress. Spoiler alert: she did!
The Wedding Goes Off Without A Hitch
Lexi found the perfect wedding dress and the couple had a perfect wedding. If they wanted their happiness to continue, however, they needed to work a few things out. After getting married, the couple began to look at life ahead, including having children.
At Lexi's weight, having a child was a huge health risk. If she were to get pregnant, there was a strong chance both her, and the child wouldn't survive. Having a child wasn't the only reason Lexi put her health first, though. Keep reading to learn about the others!
Lexi Worried She'd Never Be Able To Travel
Aside from the danger of having kids, Lexi knew that if he didn't get healthy, she would never be able to travel. Going to Universal Studios to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was one of her dreams. The bigger she got, the more she saw that dream fading.
At almost 500 pounds, she knew she wouldn't be able to fit on the rides, let alone a plane. She lived in Indiana and was desperate to go to Florida. If flying was her only option, then she knew what she needed to do!
When Doing Nothing Finally Became Unbearable
One year of marriage flew by, and nothing changed. Lexi and Danny still spent most of their time in front of the television eating. Danny was content, but Lexi was slowly becoming fed up. She had big dreams and needed to lose weight to accomplish them.
Thinking about change and actually changing are two different things, though, and she still hadn't found the motivation to move. Then New Years came, and a fresh start brought a new attitude. Find out what changed next!
A New Year's Resolution Worth Keeping
On New Year's day in 2016, Lexi put the brakes on her and Danny's binge eating ways. She resolved to change her diet and exercise habits, and Danny was coming along for the ride whether he liked it or not!
Convincing Danny to change his life turned out to be easy. His lifestyle habits were just as unhealthy, and he was ready to restart his life. If the couple were to have kids, what kind of father would he be if could play with them? With his participation and support, the couple began the long road to a new life!
Danny Fully Commits, For Better Or Worse
Danny admits he was never excited about the idea of working out and eating right. In his own words, "At first the idea didn’t sound great because it was always good going home, sitting down, eating and not having to worry about anything." Good thing for him he cared about supporting his wife more than his bad habits.
Being a supportive husband meant making sacrifices for the greater good. To help Lexi change her life, Danny changed his too, "It’s a new year and something to work toward while helping Lexi out as well." To stick to their goals, the couples made a few simple rules. Keep reading to learn what they were!
Rules Are Rules For A Reason
Because reversing bad habits is hard, Lexi and Danny laid out some rules for their new lives. They also placed bets with their friends they wouldn't crack. For the first month, they vowed, "no eating out, no soda, no alcohol, no cheat meals, and working out for 30 minutes five times a week.”
Going cold turkey wasn't going to be easy, but the couple was determined to prove they had self-control. They were taking back their lives and had no idea they would become an inspiration to others dealing with weight problems worldwide.
In Her Own Words
If you don't believe us about how determined Lexi was, take it from her, "We were fed up with the life that we were living and all the things that we weren’t able to do together as a couple." There was so much she wanted to do, including going on romantic walks with her husband.
Of course, they planned to start a family at some point too, "we also feared if we didn’t get our health under control, we would never be able to start a family." To track their progress, Lexi took pictures, eventually posting them on social media to show the world that change is possible.
The Trouble With The Gym
One of the best ways to lose weight is to go to the gym regularly. Finding a gym turned out to be to a tough task for Danny and Lexi. They needed to find a place with the equipment they needed and a regimen that would work for them. Because of her weight, Lexi suffered from severe joint paint and needed a gym that would support her.
The couple didn't have the money to pay for a personal trainer and didn't plan to, either. This journey was one they were taking together; they just had to find the right place to go first! Next, the search for the perfect gym comes to a perfect end!
The Perfect Gym For The Perfect Plan
Lexi had a long list of demands for the perfect gym. To go along with her joint pain, she was incredibly self-conscious of other people watching her exercise. It took some hunting, but they found a gym that had the equipment Lexi needed that wasn't overcrowded.
At this wonder gym, Lexi even fell in love with one of the machines, " I found a machine called the CrossRamp that didn’t hurt my joints at 485 pounds — I fell in love with it.” With exercise taken care, food came next. Keep reading to learn about their change in diet habits!
New Food, New You!
Going to the gym once a day was a good start, but there were more fish to fry. Or not fry actually, probably bake. Baking is exactly what Lexi and Danny began doing. They stopped going out to eat and starting making their meals, controlling everything that went into their bodies.
It would have been easy to bake a frozen pizza and call that cooking, but then nothing would have changed. Lexi and Danny loved food, and now they were learning how to make it for each other.
Don't Call It A Diet
So far, we've used the word diet a lot. If you asked Lexi and Danny what they called it, they would tell you it was a new way of life; not a diet. Lexi strongly believes that diets are temporary, and what they were doing was going to be permanent.
To make things easier, Lexi made a list of foods she loved eating, then found healthy recipes to make them. This way she wasn't sacrificing flavor for belt sizes, "I started taking the foods I loved and making healthier versions, so I no longer felt like I had to give up something or deprive [myself].”
Support Means The World To Lexi
Without the undying support of Danny, who knows if Lexi would have been able to turn her life around. The same can be said about Danny and the support he received from Lexi. Together, the couple was proving how strong they were.
Using the support of each made the start of the journey easy to handle. But there was still a long road ahead of them. As they continued to work out and push themselves to new heights, something absolutely amazing happened!
New Friendships Are Made At The Gym
Going to the gym turned into a blessing for Lexi. As she lost weight, she gained more confidence and started taking classes. At these classes something she never expected happened, she began making new friends at her Pulse class!
Making new friends who were also into working out meant Lexi's support system began to grow. She even started having fun working out, "I love dancing to my favorite music and not feeling like it’s a workout. We can do a song full of squats and even though my legs are burning, it’s so much fun that I don’t even notice."
The Results Become Visible
One of the hardest parts about working out and eating right is it can take awhile for the results to show. Lexi had achieved so much that results came instantly. She lost 20 pounds a month when she started. You can see from the picture above she'd have no problem finding a wedding dress today.
At a certain point losing weight became more difficult. Lexi stayed undeterred. She kept going to the gym every day and turned to calorie counting to watch her food intake even more. Without much thought, her new diet became a permanent lifestyle!
