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Nataisha lost over 200 pounds

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Nataisha lost over 200 pounds.  She opted for gastric bypass weight loss surgery but the weight did not come off quickly. It has taken 7 years for her to release half of her weight.  She says, “I don’t regret the strategy I took because I learned how to eat right and found what exercises work for me. My motivation was to live and not die.”  She is now an avid runner and motivational health coach.  Read more about her journey:

Nataisha weight loss before after

“I am a black women who has lost over 200 lbs. I am a certified personal trainer and I help other women reach their healthy goals. It has taken me 7 years to lose the weight and I don’t take my journey for granted. I’m just a willing vessel who knows the struggles of being morbidly obese. Hope my story encourages someone else not to give up. I started my journey in 2005. The second picture is from 2009, I had already lost 128 lbs. my start weight 408 and to date I’m 200 pounds or less. I no longer get on the scale.

I was overweight my entire childhood and most of my adulthood years. It wasn’t until I decided to do something about my current situation for change to occur. In 2005, I decided to have the gastric bypass weight loss surgery thinking it would get me to my desired result. Well, God had another plan for me. It has taken my seven years to get to half my weight. The quick fixes don’t work and they are not meant for everybody. I don’t regret the strategy I took because I learned how to eat right and found what exercises work for me. My motivation was to live and not die. The road I was traveling was destruction and I was heading straight to death. I didn’t have any ailments but if I didn’t get my weight under control I would not live to see my boys become men. I learned how to eat clean by eating plant based foods and found that running and strength training worked for me. I have ran 2 marathons, 3 half marathons, 5Ks and 10Ks. I instruct boot camp classes outside because I believe in all body workouts. Although it took me 7 years to lose the weight, God broke up the rocky foundation and began to build a solid foundation on love, confidence, motivation, support, and encouragement. Toward the end of my journey I became a certified personal trainer aka motivational health coach for others. My program is Size Healthy and this program helps improve the quality of life by developing the mind through physical fitness, education and healthy lifestyle changes. When I was trying to lay aside the weight, no one told me it was a mental journey. They just said eat this and don’t eat that and exercise; that’s it. I not only provide the physical aspect of losing weight but the mental aspects as well in my program. I teach lifestyle changes and not diets. My highest weight was 408lbs and I am currently 200lbs. Success is not built on a feel good moment! It is attainable through our actions. Thank you for listening.”
~Nataisha Ramirez
Founder of Size Healthy LLC
Motivational Health Coach
Instagram: sizehealthy

Ashli lost 116 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss before & after story:  Ashli lost 116 pounds over the course of 4 years by changing her eating habits, working out and watching her calorie intake.  Here is what she had to say:

My name is Ashli T. I have struggled with weight my entire life. I was a 10lb baby and by the age of 8 I was litterally 207 pounds. I had always said that I would not be that overweight forever. In 2008, my father passed away of a sudden heart attack. He was seemingly healthy, active and not at all overweight.  It began to scare me so I decided I wanted to do something.  After several attempts, I finnally buckled down around April of 2009 and I am still at it today.  I began to eat between 1200 calories to a max of 1500 calories per day while trying to burn at least 1000 calories.  At my “best” I do this 5-6 days a week and at my “off the wagon” times at least 2-3 days a week. I’ve had incredible results and incredible defeats.  I have plateaued and I have pressed harder. I would never say it was or is easy, but its the best decision I have ever made! I’ve lost 116 pounds.  The process has been over the course of four years..and it will last a lifetime! I often say if I can do it, anyone can!

Ashli before after weight loss

Adrienne lost 60 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss success story: Adrienne lost 60 pounds on the Digest Diet.  She has shared the details of her amazing story with us.  Check it out:

Unfortunately, I have always had an unhealthy view about my weight.  Mostly due to insecurity visited upon me at an elementary school age.  However, I was never overweight.  Looking back, I was in great shape and even a strong member of my high school gymnastics team.  But weight is not about food, it’s about insecurities and pain.  Food is the tool we use to cope—just like alcohol is the tool alcoholics use and drugs are the tools that drug addicts use.

My first major weight gain was as a teenager.  I used to cut school frequently because I felt so out of place there.  My local candy store sold Linden’s cookies and I would literally go there every Thursday when they got the new shipment in.  The cookies came three in a pack for twenty cents and I would buy the whole shipment—about twenty-four packs.  My favorite was chocolate chip and double chocolate chip.  Sometimes I would go home with shipments of both.  I gained twenty pounds very quickly.  To people who didn’t know me, I wasn’t fat.  However, those who did know me saw the rapid weight gain.  I was always very active and obsessive about exercise so my weight gain pretty much stayed around twenty pounds for a long while.  However, my mental weight battle continued throughout the rest of my twenties.

Adrienne before and after weight loss

My weight spiraled out of control when I was purchasing my first home at the age of thirty. The constant phone calls from my real estate agent, lawyers, mortgage broker, etc. was overwhelming.  The home I really wanted was being held up in probate…ahhhhh!!!  I was also in a dead end job that I absolutely hated and totally felt suffocated because I wasn’t living my best life of creativity (writing/acting).  I was miserable.  Every day, multiple times a day I would run outside to one of the many Manhattan delis and grab “a quick snack.”  This would be high calorie sugary sweets that satiated me for the moment but made me even hungrier.

First I gained about 20 pounds and honestly it was hard to even walk a city block.  I also hadn’t been exercising so I was very out of shape.  Then my weight gain went to thirty and next thing I knew a couple years later I was about seventy pounds overweight.  I went from 140 to 215 pounds—a size 6 to a size 18.  Oh gosh!!  People in my past life didn’t even know who I was.  I walked past an ex boyfriend at the bank—he didn’t even know me!  The stares from friends were not judgmental but they were sort of like wow, or awwww….

Extended family members I hadn’t seen in a while were shocked.  I mean, I almost can’t blame them.  When ex gymnastics team members came together for a funeral one made a comment saying, “You know we look good.  We all look exactly the…”  She stopped, everybody glanced at me because I was the only one that had gained a bunch of weight.”  AND three of them had kids!

How I lost the weight:  I was working for a magazine and my boss had written a very successful fitness book.  She was in the midst of writing a new one.  I was in her office looking at pictures of the woman who had lost a lot of weight from her first diet book and said, gosh I want to be her.  So when the Executive Editor working on the book sent out a company wide email asking people to be on the test panel for The Digest Diet, I jumped at the opportunity.  It’s a 21-day diet plan that focuses on flooding the body with nutrients and natural fat releasers.  In the first four days I lost 7 pounds and after 21 days I had lost 18.5 pounds.  I WAS STUNNED!  I had NEVER lost that much weight so fast.  Plus I realized I didn’t know how to eat healthy which is why I could never lose weight.  I went for prepackaged foods, hundred calorie snacks, etc.  That stuff is highly processed and doesn’t have any healthy ingredients in it.  The Digest Diet is all about healthy non-processed foods that you prepare yourself.

I stayed on the diet and started exercising—I couldn’t do much at first so I started by dancing to music I burned on cd’s then in a few months I started doing workout dvd’s like Jillian Michaels and Jani Love.  Within about ten months or so I lost 60 pounds!  My body totally changed, I had definition, I was able to exercise, I had tons of energy.  Mentally I was happier and people were staring at me now because they liked the way I looked!  I remember once I had a date with this guy.  I stopped to get a manicure for the date and realized I was wearing the same shirt I wore on our last date.  I dipped into a store and was able to find something, right off the rack to change into!  That was such a huge confidence boost for me.  When I was overweight it would take sooooo long to find something that looked right on me.  I probably would have canceled the date and went back home.

My life has changed for the better.  I am so excited!  What I would say to anyone trying to lose weight is:

  1. Don’t be a slave to the scale.  Weigh once a week to see where you are but pay attention to how clothes fit you, your energy level and how your food choices have changed for the better.
  2. Exercise.  Even if it’s just walking up the escalator instead of standing there, get some exercise in.  Challenge yourself to go farther and if you think there is a particular workout you can’t do, try it.  I NEVER thought I would get through a Jillian Michaels workout and now I’ve done it at least a hundred times!
  3. Do the mental work to figure out why you use food as a crutch/soothing mechanism.  This is NOT normal and we need to get down to the bottom of what is really troubling us.  Know that being a food addict is a life long battle.  Just because you have lost the weight doesn’t mean you are cured.  Continue to persevere and notice your triggers so you can find new ways to deal with them.
  4. Look for places of inspiration.  I met Oprah and it changed my life!  It gave me an extra boost of confidence about life in general.  I also found inspiration in God, my family and in myself.  I learned to love who I am.

God bless all of you.  It’s not easy but it also is not impossible.  You can do this.

Check out the article on Adrienne from Reader’s Digest.  Here is another article on her.

Get the Digest Diet Book.

DigestDiet.com – More info on the Digest Diet

Hanan lost 180 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss before and after: Hanan lost 180 pounds by working out, eating clean and being consistent with changing to a healthy lifestyle.  Here is what she had to share:

I lost over 180 pounds over a 4 year span by exercising, clean eating, and having consistency. Maybe my story can encourage someone in their lifestyle change.  My starting weight as of July 2009 was 358 pounds. I was constantly complaining about my weight and all the factors associated with being obese, one day out of the blue one of my good friends told me, “If you are unhappy with your situation, then take the steps to change it”.  I was motivated from that point forward to have a healthier lifestyle.

The first two years of my journey, I removed all bread, diary, sugars, fried foods, and fruit (natural sugar) from my diet. I would eat a lot of veggies, fish, and chicken and limit my calorie intake to 1200 calories daily. My snacks consisted of raw almonds, cheese, and sugar free Jell-O, and 12-14 bottles of water daily. I exercised 4 days a week, it consisted of 60 minutes of intense cardio (elliptical, stair master, treadmill) my goal was always to burn at least 500 calories or more each session. I dropped at least 100 pounds the first 2 ½ years and it stayed off.

Then I hit a plateau and I started to incorporate cross and interval training, such as running (hills), wogging 5-9 miles twice a week (walking+running) into my workouts, and spin classes. I also completed the Shaun T Insanity program with my running group Black Girls Run Philadelphia. In addition to this routine, my line sisters helped me to stay accountable to my workout and diet, which helped tremendously in keeping me motivated and encouraged during this journey.

I recently hired a trainer; I workout 4 days a week, and train for an hour twice a week. Our sessions include weight training, squats, lunges, reverse crunches with hip extension, roman chair exercise, dips, planks, and burpees with bicep curls… you name it we do. Today, I weigh 178 pounds, my body fat percentage is 24.7 and I have lost a total of 9.5 inches from neck to calves in the last 3 months. I am still a work in progress, but I have so much to be thankful for, hopefully my story will encourage and motivate others.

hanan weight loss

Char lost 45 pounds

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Let’s show some Black Women Losing Weight Love to Char!  Char lost 45 pounds with prescription Adipex and eating right over the course of a year and has keep it off since 2011.

In 2010, I weighed 298 pounds (size 26/28).  In 2011 I lost 45 lbs making my weight 253 lbs (size 14/16). I started taking Adipex (prescription weight loss drug) for about 2-3 months in May 2010 to get me started on controlling my appetite.  I also made the decision to eat healthier because it was a requirement per my doctor. I drank nothing but water everyday, ate 2-4 small meals including oatmeal, fruit, boiled eggs, bacon, sausage (not often), vegetables, grilled fish and chicken and cut out many (most) carbs.  Unfortunately, I did not work out at the gym as I lost the weight, which is why I didn’t lose more at the time.   I also didn’t get the toning that I needed.  I can say proudly that I did start working out towards the last few months of 2011 and have worked out at least 3 times per week since!

If I may add to my “testimony”, I’d like to say: The blessing of my epiphany of losing weight is that one day I just got tired of looking in the mirror and not liking what I saw and decided it was time for ME to change ME! I thank God daily that I didn’t make this change due to ANY health problems.  I do not have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes after being overweight for so long and that’s a testimony all by itself! PRAISE GOD! #Grateful

Connect with her on her Facebook Page.

Char weight loss

Jillian lost 89 pounds

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Today’s weight loss success story: Jillian lost 89 pounds by working out regularly and eating healthier.

I went on a diet and exercise regimen in 2011. No fad diets or surgeries. Just eating healthier and exercising. I’m still working on my fitness but I went from 244 pounds to 155 pounds currently.  I started using the My Fitness Pal app to watch my calories.  I also researched a lot of information on the internet about the best way to go about things. I started working out with “Dancing Off the Inches” videos.  Then I switched to going to the gym. I now go to the gym 5 times a week.

I was motivated by few things. One, my mom passed away at only 41 years old due to diabetes. Two, I just was not happy with myself and I wanted to feel good in my skin. The reactions I got from family and friends kept me motivated. I also started this plan with my best friend so we also kept each other motivated. I completely changed the way I ate, stopped drinking pop, but still allowed myself cheat meals with my healthy eating.

Jillian weight loss

Colenthia lost 32 pounds

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Colenthia lost 32 pounds by embracing a raw food diet and exercising.  Part of her motivation is her sister who had an unsuccessful weight loss surgery and passed away due to obesity.  Here is what she shared with us:

The after photo was taken on April 11, 2013.  So far, I have lost 32 pounds by going raw (raw vegan) and exercising.  My heaviest weight was 310 pounds.  Now, I am at 278 pounds and my goal is 160 pounds.  I lost my sister in 2002, due to obesity.  She had gastric bypass weight loss surgery. Unfortunately, hers was not successful. When I went to the doctor in January of this year, I was weighing 310 pounds.  He informed me that I would be a good candidate for weight loss surgery. Knowing that I was against the surgery, I was furious. I became frustrated. Through my Facebook friends, I have learned about raw food dieting. I exercise 5 days a week, twice a day for an hour. I don’t have access to a computer, so one of my Facebook friends framed the January and April picture (below) so that I could share it.  My goal is to prove you can lose weight naturally. I am against the surgery. So far, I am losing 6 lbs every two weeks.

Colenthia weight loss

Crystal lost 201.8 pounds with weight loss surgery

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Crystal lost 201.8 pounds after having gastric weight loss surgery in 2011 at 369 pounds.  She has transformed her body and her health.   Here is what she shared with BWLW:

I just wanted to submit my story. On April 28, 2011, I had Gastric Bypass surgery. My highest weight was 369 pounds. As of 2 years on yesterday, I am down 201.8 pounds through consistently eating healthier and exercise. I love running!

I had been overweight all my life. I struggled with trying to lose weight for years. One day I was walking up the stairs. I literally counting each step as I walked up. At step 7, I felt like I was going to die. That was the day I decided I needed to do something. I had been researching weight loss surgery for 2 years but I was afraid. I called my surgeons office the next day for a consultation.

7 months after that call, I had Roux en Y surgery (gastric bypass). It was a tough first few months but I made it. I started running to help with stress and build stamina. I pre-packed all of my meals at least a day or two in advance. After losing the first hundred pounds, I was even more motivated. I started running every day and adding activities like yoga and dancing. I eat 6 small meals a day and I am sure to eat lean protein and veggies with every meal.  Now, two years after surgery, I am now down 201.8 pounds and I feel great!

Crystal weight loss surgery

Joyce lost 90 pounds

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Update Nov 2016 – More than 3 years later, Joyce is still maintaining her amazing transformation. She’s lost over 120 pounds. Check out how this Texas lady released the pounds.

3 years ago, I went to see a nutritionist. This is what started me on my road to weight loss. Basically, I learned how to eat all over again. I learned about correct portion sizes and what foods I can and cannot have. I also started cooking for myself and my family. I had to find ways to eat healthy, but at the same time make sure that my family still enjoyed the food. During this process, my husband started losing weight as well. My kids are happy with the way that I cook because now they know that we eating healthy. Now, I run and exercise to make sure that I keep a balance and I don’t get too small. I’m fit not fat. I have managed to keep the weight off and I now weigh 160 pounds.

joyce before and after

April 2013 – Joyce lost 90 pounds (down from 285 pounds) and we are showing her some love.

Last June 2012, I became very ill and I was finding it difficult to walk. The back pain and leg pain was so bad that I made the decision to go see my doctor. At that time, my doctor informed me that I was overweight.  I went into surgery 6 times for back injections for the pain. Then I went on a liquid diet for 4 months and started power walking.   Before I knew it I was running again. I changed by eating. I have baked chicken, fish, absolutely no carbs and I’ve added more vegetables.   Now I have lost 90 pounds, down from 285 pounds. I’ve gone from a size 20 to a size 14 (I can wear some size 12 clothing). It was prayer and the support of my family and friends that helped me.

weight loss success

Ada’s Rules – Online Bookclub Meeting #1

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Ada's RulesHi Ladies, I hope that you are enjoying Ada’s Rules.  I loved the book and now I’m re-reading it along with you.  I believe that any woman who was ever on a diet or is a chronic dieter should love this book.  As a black women, I could see myself as well as women in my family and my friends in this book.  I really connected to Ada’s self sacrifice and being too busy to take time for yourself.  From an age standpoint, I really could relate to the plight of her unmarried daughters as well.

So, here is our first set of book club questions from the official Ada’s Army website.  Please discuss below.

Ada has a lot of things on her plate: running a daycare center; keeping in touch with young adult twin daughters; cooking for the vestry and other responsibilities of a Preacher’s wife; as well as cooking and cleaning for her parents who are battling both hoarding and depression. We might say she has way too much on her plate—except everything she does needs doing and there’s no one else around stepping up.

1. Does Ada find any kind of joy or satisfaction in performing mundane daily tasks and simply doing her duty?

2. Which of her “jobs” seems to bring her the most pleasure?

3. Which of her “jobs” presents the greatest challenge to her sanity and self-esteem?

4. How is being overworked detrimental to Ada’s health?

5. The first rule is “Don’t keep doing what you’ve always been doing.”  Is that a rule you can apply to your weight loss efforts?

6. The second rule is “Make a plan: set clear, multiple and changing goals”.  What did that mean to you?  What are your goals and your plan?