Jackie lost 68 pounds

Transformation of the Day: Jackie lost 68.5 pounds. This mom of 2 served over 9 years in the Air Force and was retired due to Lupus. She suffered major medical challenges, pregnancy weight gain and depression. None of that stopped her from finding the tools to succeed and putting in the work necessary to change her life. Check out how she did it.

My journey has been a rough one that I am proud to have endured. I served 9 years and 7 months in the United States Air Force before I was medically retired due to Lupus in 2013. I have always been a little overweight for my 5’3″ height and maintained 140-155 lbs. I had my first son and since I’d been in the military at the time, I lost the weight and was all good.

Upon my medical retirement and working a desk job for homeless veterans, I gained 50 pounds a year’s time, 2013-2014. In July of 2014, after three miscarriages, we finally succeeded in my second pregnancy and my weight at the time was 187 pounds. I was so depressed and did not know how I got to where I was. I had no energy and my lupus was acting up. I was just a angry person all over again. It wasn’t until I was 200 pounds and 7 months pregnant that I looked at some other moms and said, “When this baby is out, I’m going to get back in shape.”

I delivered at 37 weeks and my weight was 215 pounds! I wanted to cry, but I knew that wasn’t going to help me one bit. I had another c-section with this pregnancy and the healing didn’t go as planned this time around. I remember being so sad. My 6 year old son came up and told me that I was ‘fluffy’, but it still didn’t register to me because everyone was saying how great I looked. It wasn’t until my husband took a picture of me sitting on our swing. I did not even know who that was in the photo.

I had my son in March and I didn’t get serious about weight loss until my husband left for his short tour for a year. The first three days with a 2 month old baby and a 6 year old were rough. I just cried and ate pizza.

24 June 2015 was the first day I showed up to the gym and I still was not taking it serious. I thought I was putting in work but would come home, do nothing and order out for food. In Oct 2015, I was unhappy that nothing was working, so I bought a Fitbit and from there it was over! I realized that I was not even hitting my 10k steps or burning enough calories to lose weight. I started using MyFitnessPal again along with my FitBit app and lost 17 pounds during the first 2 months.

From there, I started walking everywhere. I walked to the store, to and from my son’s school, and all around the neighborhood. I was logging anywhere from 10-20 miles a day of walking and doing the Fitbit challenges. In Nov, I started cutting my morning cardio and doing 30 min cardio and 1 hour of weights and lost 20lbs. I started taking pictures of my foods and sending them to close friends. I was motivating them to lose their weight, which motivated me because I knew that people were counting on me. I started working harder and harder. The more progress I saw, the more I keep pushing.

I changed my eating habits at first with just portion control. Later, I began eating clean Monday-Thur. On Friday and Saturday, I have my chest days and on Sun I slowly get back into my clean eating. I cook enough food for leftovers and eat it the next day so I don’t have to worry about lunch. For snacks, I eat greek yogurt, fruits, granola mixes or protein shakes.

I workout 5 days a week and somedays Saturday I run 1.5 miles to my older son’s karate lesson while he rides his scooter. I started off doing 1 hr of cardio and 30 min of weights but now I do 1 hr of weights and 30 min of cardio, if I don’t run before the gym. I am a Mixxedfit instructor who got certified in the past but never taught due to gaining weight and then having my baby. Now, I have been learning Mixxedfit routines during my sons nap time, so when we move to California I can start teaching to stay fit.

I now weigh 146.5 pounds with a goal weight of 130 pounds. I also started studying to be a personal trainer so I can be certified and start helping others with their goals. I graduated from Arizona State University in Psychology and I’m in the process of starting my Life Coaching business to help people with chronic illnesses and personal struggles.

My biggest thing that I have been telling everyone is to put in the work and be consistent. If I only went by the scale, I would have given up 2 months into it. Take pictures, because those will show improvement when you think nothing is changing.

Instagram: @j3fit4lyfe