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Ashley Evans and Brendan Roche were ecstatic when in early 2023, Roche won an all-inclusive trip to Maui through his job. But, for the Houston couple, the excitement didn’t last long. They knew it would be a “swimsuit” vacation, and with the trip just two months away, they were each at the highest weight they had been in their lives.
“We knew we were nowhere near any shape to be headed to one of the most beautiful places on Earth and to enjoy ourselves properly,” Evans says.
“We went from being excited to being embarrassed,” Roche says.
They both admit that looking good on the beach was their motivation for eating better and adding exercise to their routine. Now that their lives are centered around healthy living, though, they realize that the benefits are so much bigger.
“Getting the trip to Maui motivated us in the beginning, but now the results and the feeling of being healthy is what motivates us every day,” Evans says.
Here’s their story.
The pandemic fueled their weight gain
“We got pretty big during lockdown,” Roche says. “Once the pandemic hit, we were ordering tons of food and staying inside. I worked from home, so it was a very sedentary lifestyle. It was almost a treat-yourself-every-meal kind of scenario.”
They slept and napped a lot and couldn’t find the motivation to focus on their health. When they found out they were going to Maui, they dusted off a bathroom scale and discovered Evans weighed 225 pounds and Roche weighed 260. “We both looked at each other and vowed to start our weight-loss journey together that exact day,” Evans says.
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