Paula lost 110 pounds

Success Story of the Day: Paula lost 110 pounds. She lost the weight and has kept it off for a few years with consistent exercise, portion control and low carb eating.  Check out the details that she shared with us about her journey.

I’ve lost 110 lbs (5’5″), going from a size 18/2X down to a size 4/XS. I started working out of 1-2 hours Mon-Fri and completely changed my eating habits, using diets here and there strictly as motivation. I’m 27 years old, but I started my journey as a Junior in college in 2009. It took me almost a year to lose the weight and so far I’ve managed to keep it off. I don’t have any kids and was heavy my entire life. I just finally got serious about my life.

The advice I would give to others is to look at it as a lifestyle change and not a diet. Also, what works for me is to simply eat more protein and less of everything else! I have better portion control now and I eat on smaller plates to make me visually feel as if I’m eating a large meal.When I feel hungry, I first drink 2 glasses of water and if I’m still hungry, then I’ll eat. This is a way I “test” myself to see if I’m truly hungry, or not. I did try several diets, and some worked…but I only did that as motivation because seeing the scale move made me feel accomplished!! I also would get rid of the clothes that were too big, because saving them was really a way of saying that one day I would gain the weight back and wear them again. Diet wise, I did SlimFast, Atkins, Weight Watchers and the Grapefruit Diet just to name a few.

Currently, I mainly watch my portions and I eat 5 small meals per day. I also don’t deprive myself when I have a craving. If I’m craving cookies, for example, I will grab a few (1-3) and break it into small pieces. Usually after eating a few pieces, I feel bad for eating unhealthy and I won’t even finish them. I’m a big snacker, so I snack on healthier foods like cheese strings, almonds, fresh fruit and etc.

Protein can cause you to gain weight, if you aren’t cutting back on everything else. Sometimes, I replace an entire meal with a protein shake. I use a medical grade protein made by Unjury because it has less sugar, calories and carbs. My breakfast is normally all protein (eggs and a breakfast meat). My lunch and dinner are normally about 6oz of a lean meat, 2 green leafy vegetables and if I have room I’ll have a starch. I don’t count carbs/calories but if an item has a sugar free or low sodium version, I’ll get it because that normally means less carbs/calories.

I used to do at least 5 days at the gym with 1 hour of cardio (treadmill, elliptical, bike, stairclimber, Zumba, hip hop dance etc) and 1 hour of weights. With the weights, I’ll do squats, arm curls, leg press, chest press, and etc. I now try to workout 5  days a week for 30-45 min (cardio and weights still) because I don’t want to keep losing weight.

My Instagram name is @ReeziRee. I never show my old photos because it’s a hard reminder of a place I never want to revisit.  However, I just posted my picture on Instagram because I was inspired by someone you follow. Thanks for sharing my story and I hope to inspire more black women.