Transformation of the Day: Angelina lost 94 pounds. During a doctor’s visit, she saw that part of her diagnosis was “morbid obesity”. Determined to create a healthier lifestyle, she tracked her eating habits, scaled up her workouts, and learned how to manage her sugar cravings and emotional eating.
What was your motivation? What inspired you to keep going, even when you wanted to give up?
My motivation for losing weight was simply wanting to live a healthier life after seeing my mother’s health decline after suffering several strokes.
I had always been overweight. At a doctor’s visit back in May 2018 revealed my heaviest weight of 337 pounds. When I saw the words “morbid obesity” as my diagnosis, I knew that I didn’t want to die because of my health and weight.
At first, my inspiration came from merely closing the activity rings on my SmartWatch. Once I accomplished my first goal of working out for 21 days straight, it gave me a huge sense of pride and accomplishment, knowing that I hadn’t given up even though there were times that I wanted to. I kept remembering why I started and kept that in the forefront of my mind.
How did you change your eating habits?
To monitor my eating habits, I used an app called Lose It. I tracked the foods I ate and monitored my daily calorie intake. It also kept me on track for monitoring how much water I drank daily. It also allowed me to track my water intake since my goal was 1 gallon a day.
I cut out fast food unless it was a very simple salad, and I cut out sugary drinks and sweets. I really didn’t look at it as cutting things out, but I replaced them instead. I replaced fast food, sweets, and sugary drinks with foods like baked fish, baked chicken, water, fruit, and yogurt. As I did this, I noticed that I wasn’t hungry as much after I ate them.
Cutting out sweets was the hardest thing for me. I didn’t want not eating sweets to backfire on me, so I kept one 12-pack of cookies in my pantry. I would allow myself one, 160 calorie cookie per day. There were some days that I didn’t eat one at all and other days when I had one. By eating one a day, if I wanted, I felt like I was learning to control my eating habits.
Tell us about your workout routine.
In the beginning, my workout routine consisted of working out every day for 21 days, doing 45 minutes on the elliptical. I slowly built up to exercising for an hour, theOne 75 minutes, 90 minutes, and now 2 hours per day. One hour is all cardio and the other hour is weight-training.
What was your starting weight? What is your current weight?
My starting weight was 337 pounds, and my current weight is 243 pounds.
What is your height?
My height is 5’8″.
When did you start your journey?
I started this journey back in May of 2018, so it has been about 18 months.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that losing weight and maintaining weight loss is more mental than physical. After facing some internal doubts and fears, I stopped eating out of emotion, boredom, or loneliness. I only ate when I was hungry. I had a goal in mind, developed a plan, and I stuck with it. At first, I didn’t see the results and wanted to quit, but as I persisted, other people started noticing. That was a big encouragement for me to continue working until I started noticing the changes for myself.
What advice would you like to share with people who want to lose weight?
My advice for people who want to lose weight is to go after it. You can’t be passive doing this. You can’t keep making excuses. You have to go after it.
Now, I use social media to help encourage and inspire. Sharing my story with others feels amazing. I am always open and transparent to the ups and downs of this journey. @theweightingzone is my Instagram handle.
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