Today’s featured weight loss success story: Kionne lost 55 pounds by developing her own plan for eating right and exercising. She was motivated by an office weight loss pool. She is a member of our online community and after she posted her photos, I asked her to submit her story. Here is what she had to say about how she lost the weight:
“It all started with a “Biggest Loser” contest at work, 11 women ready to make a change with a $1,000 in the pot waiting for the one who made the biggest change. Little did we know, with any commitment to lose weight, we ALL were making the biggest change. Well for me, I had no clue how committed I would become. For starters, I am VERY competitive so I wanted to win just for the sake of winning. I have had made attempts in the past a far as weight lost, so I knew I had to do something different. I had to add a third party, a trainer to be specific, Troy Richardson, who corrected me on day one to not focus on “weight” loss but more so “fat” loss. I felt I needed that extra push to help me set goals and achieve them.
Yes the money was a great motivator, but the biggest motivator was for me to see a better me. I did one very extreme thing to destroy any possible excuse for not working out, I went natural. In the past, my hair was the number one thing that deterred me from working out. Now, I am not suggesting that everyone go natural, but find ways to defeat your excuses before they defeat you and your goal. When people see me now, they ask “What’s the big secret, what did you do?” When I simply reply, eating right and exercising, they look at me as if I was supposed to say I used some magic pill or had a particular surgery. Sad to say, it is really simple to lose weight, but the difficulty comes in the mind.
Here was and is my simple formula, working out at least 30 minutes a workout for 3-5 times a week, and making better food choices. I did the insanity workouts 1-2 times a week, worked out with my trainer 1-2 times a week, played (and still play) flag football, and jogged. My trainer provided me with a meal plan to follow, and adjusted as my goals changed. I ate all my carbs early in my day, and even had my cheat days. That’s all I committed to throughout the competition and now, through the rest of my life. You don’t have to totally restrict yourself, like on an Atkins diet, just pay attention to your body. Food is just supposed to fuel your body, not slow it down. So number one thing to stop doing is OVER-EATING. Smaller portions and oddly enough more meals is what you should focus on. 5 meals a day, space out 2-3 hours apart with a meal cut off time of 7pm or 3-4hrs before you “LAY” in the bed to go to sleep. Most important….STAY OUT OF THE DRIVE THRU LINE and go to the market. Preparing your meals and keeping them on you will stop the reason for wanting to get that quick bite. Another thing, pick one day of the week that will be your actually day to record your weight. Looking at the scale every single day can be discouraging if you allow it to be. Our weigh in day was Tuesday (and this is still my day to record my weight), so on Mondays and Tuesday mornings I pushed myself harder in my workouts to “help” my weigh in results. Stop giving power to why you can’t do it and just do it, yes Nike it up and JUST DO IT! Trust me I know from experience, losing weight the “right” way and not the easy way, will have more rewards than just a better looking body. It took me 7 months in 2011 to lose 55 lbs. I started off at 244lbs on January 4th 2011, and today on February 20th, 2013 I am at 188lbs, with 18 more pounds to shake. To be transparent, you won’t be perfect every single day of your lifestyle change, I once got down to 179lbs, but I let off the brakes a little, and found myself up to 192 at one point. The great thing about a “LIFESTYLE CHANGE” is, I was about to bounce back and, at minimum, maintain my self between 185-189lbs. BUT! I will get to my goal weight with the help of my trainer, watching my sugar intake, staying active!
