Soon after graduating high school, as a freshman in college, I met a guy; who today is my Husband of 14 years. In the early years of dating, he introduced me to things that I never ate growing up; like McDonald’s, Arby’s and a “meat” substance called SPAM. We ate out most nights and ate whatever we wanted. The only unfortunate thing is all this eating didn’t really affect him, because being in the military he was required to work out and maintain a maximum weight. But of course, very quickly affected me.
Fast forward a few years now things really got out of hand, gaining more and more weight, I’ve done everything to try to lose weight over the last 15 years, on March 1 I decided enough is enough I finally need to make a change! So I joined a gym, and made a goal. I figured let’s see what happens if I actually don’t give up! I started at 286lbs, I kept doing Paleo but it didn’t make me lose too much weight, 4 months into my journey I finally decided to give Keto a try.
My sister sent me a 30 day meal plan from Ruled.me and I started with that, plus an hour of cardio Monday through Friday. Fast forward to my one-year anniversary of losing weight (March 1) I was down 72 lbs, the most I ever lost, my confidence was up and I started realizing, Hey maybe I found something that will finally work for me!
I had weeks at a time when I would have plateaus and I’d get so frustrated wondering what I’m doing wrong, however, I eventually got over them and kept moving forward. Following with my let’s see what happens if I don’t give up rule, we moved to a new duty station since my husband is in the Coast Guard. Thinking of the past transfers we’ve done it’s always been so easy for me to gain weight because we would be traveling to our next state and I would just eat whatever.
This time I knew I didn’t want to give up and ruin all the progress I’d made so far; at this point, I was in the 190s. We got through our transfer and on July 4 I was up to 100 lbs lost!
Today is January 11 (20 months later) and I lost a total of 116 lbs! And reached my weight loss goal I made on Fitbit. When I made my weight loss goal I picked 170 as my goal because I haven’t been that weight in so long and I thought it would be a good place to start then keep progressing if I needed to, also I’d just be so happy to be at that weight, now that I’m there I plan to lose 20 more pounds.
I just can’t believe I have come all this way and in less than two years! For so many years nothing has worked for me, and I’ve always given up. Keto has given me a second chance at life and I’m so excited to see what my future holds!!
1. What tactics did you employ to help you get to your goal?
Just staying consistent doing cardio at the gym, and staying Keto. When I was slowing down I felt that tracking my numbers or doing a Ruled.me 30 day plan helped me be more consistent in weight loss.
2. What is the most impactful change you’ve made to your diet and why do you feel it’s been the most important?
The most impactful change I’ve made is portion control, even if I did have a “cheat” day I still stayed mindful of the progress I made and knew if I ate too much the scale would show it and then I’d have to work that off, and I’d just be angry at myself, making getting to my goal longer.
Also throughout my journey, I’ve had a lot of trying situations, like vacations, road trips, and visiting families during the holidays where I could have just ate whatever because it would be easier, but I’ve made an effort to research restaurants and see what I could eat or if I had a kitchen available I’d cook; you just can’t be lazy about it. It’s all about making an effort.
3. What is the best single piece of advice you can give to someone that is just starting out?
Starting out, losing weight always made me discouraged before I’d even started because I’d think about how long it would take for me to lose weight but, I had to accept the fact that it’s not going to happen overnight. The time will pass anyway, so you might as well just start, and not pay attention to how long it will take; eventually, the pounds lost start to add up and your confidence goes up.
Also find what works best for you, I know I do well with a set routine and I absolutely NEED music while working out, so get a great playlist together that will really get you excited to work out!
4. How do you feel your life is now that you’re at your goal?
Now that I’m at my goal, it makes me love life even more, It gives me unspeakable joy!! I think about all the work I put in and what I got out of it. I honestly can’t believe I did it. I love myself and I am so proud of myself for actually doing what I set out to do. It took me 17+ years to finally say enough is enough and just get it done!
5. What do you consider the biggest change in your day-to-day life?
My biggest change in my day to day life is my dedication to working out, pushing myself to be better, working out harder and being a role model for my daughter. I didn’t care and gave up so easily before. But now I DO NOT GIVE UP!
6. What did you do to find support throughout your journey?
I was my biggest support throughout this journey. Only my husband knew I was trying to lose weight, he did a great job supporting me but honestly, it had to be me hyping myself up, taking myself to the gym every day and making good food choices.
I also love to look at fitness motivation quotes on Pinterest and most importantly music was there to support me, music made me excited to get through an hour of cardio, and music made me decide to just get up and go for a walk on any given day just to get more steps. It’s so motivating to me and a big part of my life!
7. What do you currently do to manage your day-to-day diet?
Meal plans seem to work out for me, I love not having to put thought into what and how much I’m eating. I enjoy planning out my week of food and making all the meals to prep for the week.
8. What is your favorite keto recipe from www.ruled.me that’s become a staple?
Off the top of my head, I’d have to say the Jalapeño Popper Casserole. Also the Spinach, Onion and Goat Cheese Omelette because I love breakfast and it’s great to have a filling breakfast idea other than bacon and eggs.
9. If there is one thing that you could do differently during your journey, what would it be and why?
The only thing I would do differently would have been to use the meal plans the whole time. I feel most of my slowing down was from not eating my right numbers, with the meal plans it would have kept me where I needed to be and got me to my goal quicker.
