I was always taller and larger than the average kid or teenager. I’m now 6-feet tall, so you can probably picture me towering over my friends when I was growing up. People always told me that I “carried my weight well, ” whatever that means.
But I was aware that I was overweight, regardless of my height. My feelings about my weight weren’t just about the scale number—I just
I wasn’t healthy. I had no exercise routine and ate fast food all the time. Sugar was one of my biggest vices, especially in beverages. I had no idea how much of the sweet stuff I was actually taking in each day.
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I tried dozens of diets from the age of 14 and up, but I failed over and over. I could never commit to anything sustainable. After years of starting then quitting healthy lifestyle habits, I knew enough was enough.
My turning point was in January 2018: I was taking the stairs and realized I was out of breath and practically dripping in sweat.
I went *all* in, cold-turkey style. I completely cut out sugar, fast food, fried foods, bread, rice, and all the sweets. Sticking to my intense approach was difficult, especially since I had given up every other time I tried to lose weight. But I watched empowering videos of weight-loss stories to stay inspired. This time, I knew I had to do something drastic to make a lifestyle change really stick.
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When I started out on my weight-loss journey, veggie and fruit smoothies were my go-to meals for breakfast, and sometimes dinner. My other main meals usually consisted of vegetables and baked meat (chicken or turkey). If I needed a snack, I’d reach for fruit. I also watched my salt intake, drank two to four liters of water every day, and had two or more cups of green tea as well. I also tried intermittent fasting.
But I realized that the most sustainable way for me to lose weight and keep it off was simply to focus on watching my carb and sugar intake.
My diet now consists mainly of lean meats and vegetables, little to no bread, and no added sugar (I still eat fruit, which has natural sugar!). This also meant no fried foods and no liquids besides water and tea (no sugar, again).
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A huge positive change for me? I cooked my own food—and started to meal prep. Cooking for myself for the week kept me from being tempted to grab fast food. I’ve also started cooking ready-made meals for others looking to eat better. I've learned you truly can’t outwork a poor diet.
Removing carbs (especially processed carbs) from my diet aided my weight loss significantly. Everyone is different, but for me, refined carbs seem to be harder for my body to break down and leave me feeling bloated and lethargic. By consuming fewer carbs, I saw better weight-loss results. Here’s what I typically eat in a day now:
I walked on the treadmill and used the elliptical for 30 minutes each. Eventually I started gaining more knowledge and confidence at the gym, and I began to incorporate light weights. I switched to doing 45 minutes to an hour of cardio (a mix of the elliptical, treadmill, and also the StairMaster). I worked out four to five days a week at the beginning, and now I work out five to six.
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Sometimes I’ll throw in a two-a-day and attend a fun class. I love Zumba, Total Body Pump, and yoga. I’ve also learned to love strength training and weight lifting. I will work on arms, abs, legs, back/shoulders, and glutes. (I typically do some form of abs and glutes everyday). I have pushed myself to stay active and consistent.
I lost 108 pounds overall within a year, from January 2018 to 2019. Now I can take a flight of stairs and not be out of breath. My life has changed for the better physically, spiritually, and mentally. My daily motivation was to become a better version of myself
One of the most important things I’ve learned? The hardest part is just making the conscious decision that You're. Doing. This. Once you make up your mind to be healthy (and I mean *really* make up your mind—say it out loud if you have to), the rest is about learning healthy habits, then practicing those again and again. When you commit to choosing yourself and making your health the priority, you're already on the road to success.
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It seems our culture has altered the meaning of the word “diet” to infer a temporary change of what one eats in order to change the way one looks only to conclude those changes are unsustainable and the search for another “way of life” continues.
We struggle to find a way of eating that is “enough” for us—a way of eating that we don’t have to constantly change in order to keep our bodies in their right sizes and that also provides enough fuel to keep our bodies and minds functioning and healthy.
Ironically, many of us are doing it backwards, though. We’re trying to change our bodies to create that feeling of being enough because that’s what the world tells us to do. When in fact, our bodies were never designed to carry the responsibility of that role.
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The kind of enough we’re truly seeking is the kind that comes only from our loving Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Wouldn’t you agree that all we really want and need is to know that we are already—in our most imperfect, incomplete state, regardless of what any other human thinks of us—enough?
What if all we had to do was find the truth in our food, real food, trusting in the One who created it for us to live and thrive?
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Don’t you think we would be able to figure out what to eat and how much is enough so we don’t have to spend our lives searching for it?
On Aug. 2, 2019, I took my last bite of sugar and flour. I no longer eat processed foods and while it seems like it happened overnight, it’s really a decision that came after years of absorbing and learning the truth about our food but struggling to commit to such a change.
I now eat 3 meals per day with no snacks in between (because I’m still learning how to determine when a snack becomes a meal, LOL). My meals consist primarily of vegetables, fruit, grains and protein.
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The short of it is, I joined 12-step program for food addiction that taught me by experiment how much food is ENOUGH food. It also taught me how to turn to God when I need help, instead of turning to food to numb and escape difficult or uncomfortable thoughts and emotions.
I was desperate for change, but it wasn’t as much about changing my body or my weight as it was about changing my HABITS.
My food habits were self-destructive and I didn’t realize until now just how much those habits were damaging my self-image. All these years, I thought my reflection in the mirror was causing my lack of confidence.
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Because I had spent years learning about real food vs processed foods, I already knew how to eat healthy meals. I just couldn’t stop snacking on extra junk (candy, cookies, ice cream, popsicles, anything and everything processed) in between or sometimes in place of those meals.
The idea to eat something sweet would cross my mind and I couldn’t say no. I didn’t know what “enough” felt like and subconsciously always needed more.
These habits always led to weight gain, but most of my life I somehow “kept that under control” with exercise. During pregnancy, however, and especially my second pregnancy, these habits went unchecked because trying to control them only brought more shame and it was just easier to pretend not to care.
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As a result, I gained more weight than I ever had and that started to scare me. I started to question my identity.
Once I honestly acknowledged the possibility of addiction and made the decision to follow my food plan (focusing more on the Lord’s love and deliverance than on weight loss), the pounds started to come off.
To date, I’ve lost a total of 32 pounds. The first two months I lost 10 pounds each and as I got closer to my right-sized body, the
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