"A large amount of people think once you're in a wheelchair, you're just nothing," she says. "The doctors said, 'There, there, good fat person.' And that i said, 'Screw that.'"
Mia ditched her motorized wheelchair and built a new one from a few lishou broken chairs she departed Craigslist. Her "Frankenchair," as she named it, had a sporty design that allowed her to maneuver more efficiently. She started out slowly -- pushing herself around the block.
Within the first month, she lost 50 pounds. By the time she had lost 100 pounds, she was pushing herself miles every morning.
Evelyn and Mia decided to change their diet, as well. An ongoing vegan, Mia had always eaten good food -- "but you can eat a lot of vegan food." They cut back on serving sizes and started shopping for locally grown, organic produce.
"When we attempted to make this change, we knew that it would be a slow pai you guo road," Evelyn said. "We wanted it to be a slow road because we knew that fast weight loss had always led to ultimate failure."
To help keep her goal attainable, Mia told herself she would lose Ten pounds 30 times. She bought a fishbowl and pulled a goody from it each time she reached another mini-goal. By April 2011 she weighed 325 pounds.