My Weight Loss Journey

As a New Year is rolling around people start to think about resolutions or new year goals. According to a survey taken at the end of 2019, 48% of people wanted to lose weight, 59% wanted to exercise more and 54% wanted to eat healthier. They all go hand in hand. 

Let's start off by saying this - the part that no one likes to hear. There is no quick fix. There is no magic pill. There is no secret procedure. And thats the hardest part for anyone to understand. Everyone wants to see results but no one wants to do the work. 

So, I am here to share my journey and my struggles with you in hopes to help someone out there that is going through the same. I played sports my entire life so I always had a naturally athletic build and always ate what I wanted. I practiced almost 7 days a week - therefore I was always moving. Food was never a second thought to me. Fast forward to age 21 when living on your own and partying became your life. 

Without getting into the details, I was completely derailed from my self. I literally spiraled out of control. I was in a very unhappy place in my life and I turned to food. I didn't know anything else. I was out to dinner every night - beer was my best friend and the weight just piled on. I was one of those gym hoppers thinking I could find the next quick fix. I said to myself every Monday - "i'll start again on Monday" and it was a vicious cycle week in and week out. 

And then I met Oneil Pryce  (my now husband) - celebrity trainer and gym owner which happened to be in my home town. I finally got myself to take one of his classes and somehow fell in love with moving my body again. Side note - it takes people, especially females, a really long time to admit to themselves that the number on a scale is just a number. It does not measure the hard work that you put into getting your body to where you want it to be.

 

[So to add to that - I am 5'5". I weighed 174 pounds at my absolute unhealthiest and unhappiest weight. At my thinest, I weighed 134.] 

 

 

 THATS 40 POUNDS! I worked my ass off to shed 40 pounds and I never ever cared what the scale said - to a degree. I watched it to see if I was progressing. I watched it to see if what I was doing was working. It was never a fact of "if I get to 134 pounds I will be satisfied." That is not to say that it's wrong or what you shouldn't be doing. It just made for an unenjoyable journey for me. 

 

The most important thing for me is that I felt so good and that I wanted to keep going. I felt good in a bathing suit again. But beyond that, It takes more than a really amazing trainer and his workouts. It comes from within first.

Now for the fun part - This is what worked for me: 

1. WATER. 
I drank anywhere from 100oz and above of water each day. And to be completely honest I don't know what it does for the body but I slept better, I worked out better, my skin was clearer and it seemed like the weight was falling off the more water I drank. I was consuming less sugar throughout the day which is a HUGE win. I love sugar. This is something that has helped me become more conscious of the water that I was drinking. 

 

2. A PREPARED MEAL PLAN:
I am not going to go into depth with this because everyone is different but I have seen results from others after following this as well. I am only going to share one day of eating that I followed because it tends to get overwhelming but I would follow this MOST days. AGAIN: this is how I lost 40 POUNDS in 5-6 months. This is not going to work for everyone. I don't like to say the time of day I eat meals because each day it varied as well as the amount of what I was eating. 

Morning
Coffee I LOVE COFFEE- However I wanted to take it. I can't drink black coffee but I always opted for the sugar free creamers, less calories and all of that. (do you)

CARDIO always on an empty stomach or after a cup of coffee. 

3 fried eggs with salsa

OR
Oatmeal with a fruit - blueberries or strawberries. 1 scoop or PB2 and every other day 1 cup of vanilla or strawberry flavored protein. 

Turkey or canned tuna with mustard and black beans

Meal 3:
Protein Shake -
1.5 scoops strawberry flavored protein
1 cup frozen spinach leaves
1/2 banana

frozen blueberries

Meal 4: (usually dinner)

pan seared salmon or cod fish or grilled chicken

1/2 an avocado mashed with garlic salt

raw carrots or black beans. 

*If a snack is needed I eat a sweet potato with cinnamon. 

I would stop eating around 7 PM. However I am a night owl so I would be starving again at 10 PM so I would have a cup of flavored black decaf coffee or a glass of my favorite cabernet =) or of course - WATER

Meals had varied throughout the week but I made sure that I had all these things on hand so I was able to make meals throughout the day. Or I could grab and go. 

I worked out really hard at Oneils classes. 6 days a week. Sometimes even twice a day. I was determined. I lived 2.5 miles from the gym - I would run to class and then run back home.