Kristina lost 60 pounds

Transformation of the Day: Kristina lost 60+ pounds. After the birth of her son, she developed asthma and was told by her doctor that losing weight would help her with the condition. She just wanted to feel good again, so she got a personal trainer and began taking steps toward lifestyle change. Here is what she told us about her journey…

Hey my name is Kristina Harrell and I’m 26 years old. My motivation to lose weight was my asthma. I got diagnosed with asthma when I got pregnant with my son. After I had my son, I had no problems until I was at work one day and had my first asthma attack. All I wanted was to feel better again when it came to breathing. My doctor just flat out told me I that needed to lose weight and that’s what I did.

I got a personal trainer, named Robert Gibson, and we went to work. These pictures are from April 26, 2014 to April 26, 2015. People ask me all the time what did I eat. It wasn’t anything challenging. I just taught myself how to eat right, because first 3 letters in diet is die so I felt like I was killin myself when it came to diets. My trainer would just give me short term goals and they would become long term goals. For example, one week he would tell me not to eat any white foods (white flour, white sugar, etc). So, I can eat whatever else, just no whites. I just had to make smart choices, which was great because I didn’t feel like I was being smothered with limits.

During another week, he would say eat only fruits and veggies. Yep, it sounds challenging, but it wasn’t because I was able to trick my mind. I would find out what fruits and veggies I loved and go at it for a whole week, plus I would season the food to my own taste. I didn’t go “no salt” or whatever,  because I wouldn’t eat it. I just did light salt. Then another week and so on he would say cut out a lot of bake foods or we are going to focus on getting more protein in this week. That’s typically how it went for about 3 months until I taught myself how to eat healthy and instead of dieting. I realized it is a learned behavior. Nothing happens over night. Now, I never deprive myself of anything. I eat 3 main meals a day. For one of those meals, between breakfast or lunch, I eat whatever I want. I just don’t show out and eat too much, lol. Just a small amount to get my taste buds satisfied. I eat healthy for those other two meals that’s how I maintain.

I exercise 6 days a week for only 60 minutes. Even when I’m tired and don’t go to the gym, I still do brisk walking for 60 mins. It’s something easy I can do to make sure I get my exercise in.

I weighed 220 pounds. I weighed 149 pounds in these pictures. I currently weigh 160 pounds, because I lift weights, but I love it. I’m 5’2″ tall.

I realize that no matter how skinny u get, everybody who is skinny ain’t “good skinny”, because losing weight can become an obsession and you forget about looking healthy. You just want to be skinny, which isn’t good. The advice I can give is what my trainer says “You have to want it. It ain’t gone happen on its own.” When u start your journey, make sure that you have that mind set, because if you don’t you are going to back track every time and waste your time.

Instagram: @Prizzy_Punkin