Vital Stats
Name: Yetta Mae Bednarz
Email: Yettabednarz@aol.com
BodySpace: yettamae
Before: December 27, 2005
Weight: 160 lbs
Chest: 36 D
Stomach: 34"
Hips: 41"
Dress Size: 12/14
After: December 10, 2006
Weight: 120 lbs
Chest: 36 A
Stomach: 27"
Hips: 33"
Dress Size: 0
Why I Got Started
All my life I was naturally skinny. I never really ate much and was always active. I never considered myself having an eating disorder, until I looked reflected back on my eating patterns in the past in high school. After losing my grandmother, I went to college and gained over 50 pounds in 8 year time frame, while in school.
I wasn't as nearly as active as I was in high school. I also ate a lot more food as well as drinking a lot. I yo-yoed for 8 years trying to revert back to my old ways in high school. I tried everything from yo-yo diets to diet pills, laxatives, water pills, all in the sake of trying to lose weight and nothing worked.
I owned over 85 exercise videos and workout out like a dog and nothing. I looked like I was getting fatter the more and more I exercised. At one point my mom asked me if I was pregnant because my belly was getting bigger and bigger!
While in school, I lost my mom to heart disease. After finding my mom dead, I felt like my life was over. My mother’s death opened up my eyes to the fact that I could die of a heart attack, too because I was getting towards the heavy side.
After my mother's sudden death I got more and more depressed. My doctor put me pills to help cope with my depression and I gained a ton of weight because the pills were weight gainers. I felt like all was lost and I was just going to be stuck being heavy myself.
How I Did It
After I got married I decided to go on a diet with my husband. I managed to lose 22 pounds on the Body for Life diet. I did two Body for Life challenges before I decided to compete in a figure show.
Doing a show was always something I always wanted to do for myself, so I decided to compete with USBF federation. I always looked at the women in oxygen and wanted to look like them, but didn't have a clue how.
I got a trainer and he helped me to lose 22 more pounds for the show. I had people tell me that I should wait because my body fat was too high and that I may have to crash diet to get down. I didn't let it get me down. It was my first show and I wasn't going nuts.
I was doing this for myself and however I ended up I ended up. Surprisingly, I was able transform my body from 24% body fat 12 weeks out to 11%. I couldn't believe it that I lost a total of 52 pounds in less than 11 months!
As for the results of the show I won first place Ms. Figure Novice, first place Ms. Figure Open Short, and I am National Overall Champion for North Eastern, PA! I couldn’t believe it! I'm still in shock.
At the end I spoke with one of the judges to see what feedback he has for me to work on for next time and he told me that I am perfect and he just wants to me to continue what I am doing. He told me that I am the epitome of figure and I will go far in the sport. I was floored by his response.
Doing a show has taught me a lot about myself. I now have more confidence and I am not afraid on taking chances and trying new things. It was tough dealing with the haters and people accusing me of having an eating disorder during the process, but I dealt with it.
I was even referred to looking like Nicole Richie! It hurt to have the people who called me fat in the past, still say negative things to me about being skinny. Asking me was I on drugs and stuff like that. I learned that you can't please anyone, but you and you have to want to lose weight for yourself and no one else.
As for off season now, I plan to try and stay lean, while building some more muscle for future shows. I would like to do some fitness modeling, too and incorporate this into my operatic career somehow. I am thinking about perhaps writing a book on the singers and weight loss.
I pray to God that I am able to keep up with maintaining this lifestyle and not revert back to my old ways. The Lord has done a lot for me. I had a lot of ups and down, but I believe the Lord only puts you in obstacles that you can handle.
Now and then I get depressed and discouraged, but I always look back at my old fat picture and that keeps me motivated to keep going. I still tell myself that I have come this far and that I can do it! I now realize that there are no such things as quick fixes. Quick fixes are only temporary, but lifestyle changes can last a lifetime.