Rachel lost 55 pounds

Weight Loss Transformation of the Day: Rachel lost 55 pounds in 6 months.  Weary of quick fix, fad diets, she took the time to research and educate herself on how to change her lifestyle and lose weight in a healthy way.  Here is what she shared about her weight loss journey…

My name is Rachel, I am 28 years old and this is my story. I started my weight loss journey on Feb 3, 2014 and it took me 6 months to lose the weight. I weighed 300 lbs and now I am 245 lbs. my journey is not complete. I would like to lose 50 more pounds and am currently working on that. I am on instagram as @healthyisthenewsexyy.

I was always a fat person, I can’t ever remember being slim. As a child growing up, I was always on the chubby side. I have my genetics and parents to blame for that. While growing up, my dad bought me lot of fast food (mainly KFC). When I hit my teenage years I continued eating a lot of fast and junk food and don’t mention drinkng a lot of sodas. My lifestyle and eating habits were just ridiculous and to add icing on the cake I use to smoke cigarettes. Then in my early twenties I started to party a lot and drink a lot of alcohol which also added to my weight.

If you ask every overweight person if they want to lose weight, I’m sure that the answer will be yes. However, ask how many are willing to change their eating habits and exercise. I’m sure it will be very few. I made a few attempts to lose weight in my early 20’s by going on crash diets and starving myself. It worked, but the weight came right back and then some. My heaviest weight was 295 pounds. I was desperate to lose weight because my knees began to hurt whenever I had to walk up a stairs and that was so uncomfortable. At that weight, I started to breathe heavy and my lower back used to hurt like hell. Thats when I decided I have to make a change.

I had plans to join a weight loss clinic to assist me but then I didn’t want to go on any more crash diets because I know the outcome of those plans. I went on Google one night and typed in the search bar “how to lose 50lbs in a year” (seeing that was my goal). To my surprise I saw many search results and I remember reading every last one. I even looked at some Youtube videos with people who were morbidly obese and lost the weight. That gave me real inspiration. I started to educate myself on diet, weight loss and exercise via Google and I became well informed. I started my WLJ (weight loss journey) and it took me roughly 6 months to lose 50 lbs. By Aug 2014, I was 245 lbs. I just cut my calories down by 1000 per day and walked 10 miles per week. I cut out sugar and I drank 1 liter of water per day. I ate roughly 1200-1500 calories per day. To my surprise everything I researched and read on Google worked.

It’s not about dieting because diet is temporary. It is a lifestyle change which is permanent. Unfortunately, I stopped counting calories for the remainder of the months in 2014. I guess it was the combination of summer and Christmas time that threw me of. By Jan 5th 2015, I’d gained back 10 lbs. So, I restarted my journey and thus far I have lost back the 10 lbs. Loosing weight is hard and at times very depressing, just for the mere fact that you can’t eat what you want and when you want (like the junk food I was in love with). Cutting that out of my diet was very challenging. I eat what I want and I do so in moderation but there are certain foods that I won’t have in my everyday diet such as chocolate, ice cream and pizza. I try to stay clear of all fast foods. I prepare all my meals at home. That way I know what is going in them and the nutrition facts. I am focused and on a mission to lose 50-80 lbs before 2015 ends.

I have some tips for anyone who is willing to lose weight. Disclaimer Notice: I am not a dietician or nutritionist. I am just listing some tips on what helped me to lose 50 lbs in 6 months.

Tips for losing weight:
1) Drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday
2) Know your serving size
3) Eat smaller meals
4) Prepare your own meals
5) Keep a food journal (i recommended My Fitness Pal)
6) Always know the nutrition facts and serving size before you eat anything
7) Eliminate sugar from your diet or cut it out 90%
8) Try food substitutions. For example: Instead of stewing or frying your chicken, you can bake or grill it
9) Use less oil and butter when preparing your foods
10) Use less dairy products, like cheese. Cheddar cheese is very fattening
11) Don’t drink diet soda…or any soda as a matter of fact
12) Try and eat more vegetables
13) Although fruits are good for you. Don’t over indulge because fruits is high in sugar and carbs.
14) Just always know what you are eating and how much you are eating! You have to keep track of everything.
15) Use Weight Loss tools (things to help u lose weight)

• Food scale (digital preferably )
• Download the app MyFitnessPal
• If you don’t own a smart phone get a note book and right down what you eat and search google for the calories and serving size of it is not on the package