Rachael lost 25 pounds

Rachael lost 25 pounds. After going from 215 pounds to 285 pounds over the course of a few years, she realized that she didn’t recognize herself anymore. She refocused her energy in September and she hasn’t turned back. Check out her story.

For so many years, I put everyone else’s needs before my own. Then one day I looked in the mirror, and I couldn’t even recognize myself. Over the course of a few years, I had gone from weighing 215 pounds to 285 pounds. Once I hit 285lbs, I stopped weighing myself. I hated every minute of it. I avoided walking past mirrors or large windows where I could see myself. I simply let myself go.

A few years ago I decided to get back to being me! I dropped everyone and everything. I put myself back at the top of my list of priorities. I went silent to the world and became very vocal with myself! The things that I needed to tell myself weren’t pretty. They were very real, but very hard to hear.

I recognized exactly what I needed to do to take control of my health. I developed a fitness plan for myself. I changed my eating habits and started working out. Before long, I lost 10 pounds in about a month. My starting weight was approx 285/290-ish. pounds at 5’9”. My current weight is approx 264 pounds. Altogether, I’ve lost approx 25 pounds. I know that this is a life-long journey, so I’ll continue to make progress and improvements with my health!

Tell us more about how you changed your eating habits?
I used to eat out a lot and consume a ton of processed foods that were high in hormones, fats, oils, and sugar. These foods also lacked nutritious vitamins and minerals. The very first thing I did was stop eating out. I started cooking at home, and I eliminated table sugar. I started eating fresh fruit to soothe my sweet tooth. Then, once I got used to not having any table sugar, I eliminated pasta and bread. Instead, I started eating foods high in fiber and more protein to fill me up. I cut back on beef and pork while incorporating more seafood and poultry into my meals. The final thing I did was to eat more non-starchy veggies and complex carbs.Another thing that helped was intermittent fasting and “closing” the kitchen early. I implemented a household rule that once dinner was served and eaten, no one is allowed back in the kitchen for anything besides water! Oh, water! I consumed water daily… lots of it. Either through drinking it or eating foods high in water.

What did your workout routine look like?
Fasted cardio is my all time fav to get a nice fat burn going. On a regular basis, I did fasted HIIT cardio in the morning. Sometimes I did strength training in the evening. I worked out between 3-5 days per week. If I didn’t do a formatted workout, I’d go for a walk during lunch at work, or I’d go to a fitness class, like Zumba or kickboxing.

When did you start your journey?
I’ve started and stopped several times over the last few years but got consistent as of September, 2018.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?
It’s all mental. How you think affects how you feel, which affects what you do. The hardest problem I dealt with was being consistent. It was so hard to get my mind and body to be on the same page. I had to spend much time getting my mind right before I could work on being consistent with my actions. Once I got to the root of my feelings (that were mentally sabotaging my efforts), I was able to resolve those feelings and get my thoughts and actions on one page. It’s been on and popping since then! I learned that the reason why I didn’t succeed before was because I wasn’t mentally ready to succeed. I had to first get my mind right.

What advice do you have for other women who want to lose weight?Start NOW! Don’t wait until tomorrow, or the perfect time. Don’t wait to come up with a better plan, or for when you have time. Start right now. Getting in shape, losing weight, and being fit is a process. Once you get started you will alter your plan. You will alter your fitness regimen, you will fine tune how you do things, and your fitness regimen will continually evolve. Trust the process! The perfect time to do lose weight and get fit is RIGHT NOW!

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