Monique lost 65 pounds

Today’s featured weight loss success story: Monique lost 65 pounds.  She made healthy, practical changes to her eating habits and took exercise classes at her local YWCA.  Here is what she shared about her weight loss journey:

“Hello, My Name is Monique Knight (Instagram: @msmoni04) and my journey took a little over a year. I have lost almost seventy pounds and I’m now maintaining. I attended a Zumba fundraiser for breast cancer where I noticed I could keep up, still had energy and it was fun. I some months later started Jazzercise at the local YWCA, going 5 days a week. Jazzercise is aerobics with a little dancing mixed in to the some of the hottest and latest songs. The best part about it was that it was fun. I walked sometimes too, plus I changed my eating habits started making healthier meals and meal choices. It doesn’t have to be all salads. I started get healthy recipes off the Internet and I got into a support group on Facebook once I started my journey.

I started grilling, baking or just sautéing my foods.  I also stopped buying pork, only eating it occasionally, and I ate more steamed veggies or sautéed in virgin olive oil.  I did this so things didn’t get boring. I would get low calorie recipes off the Internet since I’m not a big cooker. These would be easy meals.  I recently started prepping my foods in advance too.  I buy healthier snacks like nuts and raisins, but I still enjoy sweets from time to time.  However, I can be very disciplined when I set my mine to it. If I have juice, I try to make sure it’s 100% juice most of the time…so about 80-90 of the time I’m eating healthy.  250 pounds was my starting weight.  I’m now 185 pounds, down 65 pounds.

The advice I would give to others is to find something you like to do that is fun. If it is fun, you will stick to it.  Cut out the fast foods, pops and sweet or at least limit them. I don’t really have a cheat day. I eat healthy and ever so often I will have something sweet. You can eat good healthy meals and lose weight. I’ve tried portion control and counting calories but that didn’t work for me. I could not stick to it, so I just focus on eating healthy and exercise. I’m looking to get more toned and to start running I try to do a little, so I will be back with an update. Be blessed!”