Heather Oset is a hairstylist from New Jersey and she got the scare of her life when she experienced chest pain and heart palpitations while working on a client. Trying to work through it, she soon found it impossible and had to have her husband drive her to the hospital. At the time she weighed more than 350 pounds. The hairstylist at Dolce Salon & Spa in Millburn, New Jersey, wrote to Inspire More about her terrifying experience: ‘I remember feeling so embarrassed as they were literally taking my clothes off and putting all these wires and EKGs and I’m half naked in front of everyone. I felt like I hit rock bottom and all these thoughts in my head of, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to die,” and “I’m too young to die.”’ Heather says it was this experience that made her realize it was time for a change.
Instagram / autumnxnoir Facebook / Heather Eordanidis Oset
Heather says it wasn’t a heart attack but just a way for her body to fight back after all the abuse and damage it had endured. Heather revealed that her poor eating habits began when she was just a child. In her article, she told Goodfullness: ‘My father was abusive and anytime something bad happened, I would run to the fridge and would eat whatever hostess cakes, snacks, pies, or cookies I could find, because they were his and I guess in my head that was my way of fighting back when I physically couldn’t. I never really talked about it to anyone. I just felt embarrassed and ashamed, so instead, I would just eat my feelings and would continue to do so over the years.’
Heather went on to explain that her poor eating habits continued into adulthood where they only worsened. She explained how she would regularly skip breakfast and just have a massive lunch along with takeout for dinner. In an interview with Goodfullness, she said: ‘I would never eat breakfast and then I would eat whatever I wanted for lunch. Whole sub sandwiches, pizza, Chinese, you name it because in my head I thought oh I didn’t eat breakfast, so I can eat whatever I wanted for lunch. Also, was a huge soda drinker, basically would have soda all day long.’
Heather also wanted to have kids after she got married in 2014 but doctors revealed that it would be impossible until she lost the weight. She was also extremely close to becoming a diabetic and all the extra weight that she put on left her with severe back and leg pain on top of sleep apnea. So Heather decided to consult a bariatric surgeon in order to get some assistance in her weight loss journey.
Bariatric surgery is the shrinking of the stomach, but before the surgery could be safely performed, Heather had to lose twenty pounds. She wrote: ‘I cut out all soda, made my lunch, and drank protein shakes for breakfast in the morning.’ She finally had the surgery in January and she stated that it was ‘the start of the first day of the rest of [her] life.’Since her surgery, she has stuck to working out and eating a good diet. Heather said that she originally started out walking at her local YMCA and then graduated to water aerobics. Heather also said that when she first started to lose weight, she couldn’t work out because her body was in so much pain. She said she slowly reduced the junk food and cut out the soda at first.
Heather explained how she changed her eating habits and how she hopes to inspire others to go on a life-altering journey like hers. She said: ‘I think that’s one thing that has really helped me with my weight loss journey is finding different/healthy ways to eat the things I used to love. I hope to inspire others in their own journeys and just know that you’re not alone! That the impossible is possible, no matter how out of reach it seems in that moment.’
On her Facebook, Heather happily displays her transformation photos where she lost more than 230 pounds in two years. It was on May 29 when Heather uploaded a Memorial Day photo that featured a picture of her in 2016 and a picture of her in 2018. The two pictures illustrate the giant weight loss and fitness journey that Heather went through and she wrote: ‘never did I think I would weigh 125lbs as of today! I’ve lost 231lbs total including the 20 I lost on my own right before surgery … I’m no longer a borderline diabetic, have hypertension or sleep apnea and eventually, I’ll be able to start my family one day.’
