Thursday, July 20, 2017
Thursday, July 6, 2017
How I Found My Feel-Great Weight—and Lost 63 Lbs.
Laura Kelly, 27, 5'3", from Melrose, Mass.
Before: 196 lb., size 8/10
After: 133 lb., size 4
Total pounds lost: 63 lb.
Total sizes lost: 2/3
Laura's wearing: Under Armour Geo Run Tank Top ($27; underarmour.com), Under Armour Fly-By Capri ($38; underarmour.com) and SpeedForm Gemini 3 running shoes ($130; underarmour.com).
I blame grad school for my weight gain. As a full-time student who was also working a part-time job and holding down an internship, I had no time to eat on a regular schedule, let alone make mindful eating a priority. Every night, I’d have a huge dinner and then go right to bed. By the beginning of 2015, my last semester, my bad habits had caught up with me. I didn’t realize how much so until I stepped on a friend’s scale and saw the number 196 staring back at me. I thought the scale was broken, but it wasn’t.
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Choosing better eats
For the next week, I didn’t know where to turn. At my cousin’s suggestion, I joined Weight Watchers. Though initially skeptical, I got hooked when the results came fast: I lost 15 pounds in the first month. I learned how to rein in portions and build balanced meals, which changed both what and when I ate. I turned to meals like overnight oats for breakfast and roasted veggies and hummus on whole-wheat bread for lunch, which kept me full throughout the day. No longer famished by dinner, I kicked the vicious cycle of going to sleep stuffed and packing on weight because of it. By May, I was down another 15 pounds.
RELATED: The 5 Best Strength Moves for Weight Loss
Amping up workouts
Since exercising earned me more Weight Watchers points, I upped my routine from twice-weekly Zumba and yoga classes to four workouts per week, adding in runs, barre classes, and personal training. While I never used to think my size messed with my workouts, the more I lost, the easier exercising became. Today I’m sweating regularly and eating clean to maintain my 135-pound frame. And as a Weight Watchers ambassador, I get to help others reach their goals. Knowing that my story inspires people to get healthy makes my low point and all my hard work feel worth it.
RELATED: 9 Science-Backed Weight Loss Tips
Laura’s get-fit crib sheet
1. Set a curfew. Gorging on a late dinner used to leave me feeling too full, so I wouldn’t have a meal until noon the next day. Now I try to finish my last meal before 8 p.m. to help keep my eating schedule regular and my portions in line.
2. Make a sweat date. My mom and I weight lift with a trainer one night a week. Not only is it a time for us to catch up, but showing up for each other keeps us accountable no matter what!
3. Master your cravings. When I need a treat, I reach for avocado or almonds first. Their healthy fats are satisfying enough to curb my need for sweets, so I’m less tempted to grab junky alternatives.
4. DIY comfort food. Rich in antioxidants and complex carbs, sweet potatoes are one of my favorite healthy foods to dress up. I top them with melted ghee and cinnamon to make them taste indulgent.
As told to Anthea Levi
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Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Monday, July 3, 2017
Can You Really Think Yourself Thin?
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Friday, June 30, 2017
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Shonda Rhimes Wrote the Realest Essay About Her 150-Pound Weight Loss
According to Shonda Rhimes, the only thing worse than shedding a lot of weight is getting the wrong kind of attention for it afterward. In a newsletter sent to Shondaland subscribers last week, Rhimes, 47, reveals that it wasn’t until she lost nearly 150 pounds that people seemed to find her “valuable.”
Though the Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal creator dropped the weight about two years ago, she’s still stunned and disturbed by the way people, even strangers, reacted to her transformation.
“I did not do it because I thought I would become beautiful like in the movies,” Rhimes explains. “I did it because I could not walk up a short flight up stairs without stopping to take a break and wiping sweat from my brow. I did it because my body was physically rebelling against the brain that had been ignoring it for so long.”
RELATED: 4 Annoying Comments to Expect When You're Losing Weight
And don’t get her wrong, Rhimes still isn’t taken with #cleanliving. In fact, she loathed what it took to lose so many pounds.
“Losing weight is not a topic I like discussing,” she writes. “Why? Because there is nothing fun or interesting or great about it. I hated losing weight. I hated every single second of it. And I hate every single second of maintaining my weight, too.”
What Rhimes hated even more was how slimming down changed the way people reacted to her. "But you know what was worse than losing weight? What was SO MUCH MORE HORRIFYING? How people treated me after I lost weight," she explains.
"I mean, things got weird. especially when women she hardly knew gushed over her new look. Like I was holding-a-new-baby-gushed. Only there was no new baby. It was just me. In a dress. With makeup on and my hair all did, yes. But…still the same me,” she says.
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Men began to take notice of Rhimes too, she recalls. “THEY SPOKE TO ME. Like stood still and had long conversations with me about things. It was disconcerting.”
The newfound attention wasn’t the only thing that made this high-powered TV producer uncomfortable. She was also appalled by how breezily people commented on her appearance, calling her “hot” or telling her they were were “proud of her.”
"After I lost weight, I discovered that people found me valuable. Worthy of conversation. A person one could look at. A person one could compliment. A person one could admire," she continues.
To Rhimes, it felt like others only considered her worthy of conversation once she looked a certain way. After that realization, she began to wonder. “What the hell did they see me as before? How invisible was I to them? How hard did they work to avoid me?” she writes.
WATCH THE VIDEO: What 5 Olympic Athletes Can Teach You About Body Confidence
Of course Rhimes also infuses her newsletter with humor. While lamenting how hard it was to drop the 150 pounds, she says she misses eating “all the fried chicken,” and not just when it was on her plate. “No. I miss eating ALL THE FRIED CHICKEN,” she writes. “All of it. Every piece, everywhere.”
Jokes aside, Rhimes makes a powerful point in a world where unrealistic body ideals are everywhere and a person's size is often linked to their value. “Being thinner doesn’t make you a different person," she says. "It just makes you thinner.”
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Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Mom Who Weighed Over 300 Lbs. Was Determined to Lose Weight Without Surgery: How She Lost 145 Lbs.
This article originally appeared on People.com.
Tara Kavanagh has several obese family members, so she always believed she was “destined to be fat.”
The 5’7″ self-employed mom-of-three from Rapid City, South Dakota, 35, was already over 200 lbs. when she started having children, but her pregnancy weight brought her up to 304 lbs. After having her second child, she knew she wanted to make a change.
“I was a young mother of two little girls and in my early 20s when I decided I didn’t want to live the rest of my life obese and unhealthy anymore,” she tells PEOPLE. “I wanted to be an active mother and be able to play with my kids. I also wanted to live my life, not just exist. I wanted to experience new things and felt my size was holding me back.”
Some of Kavanagh’s family members had opted to undergo weight loss surgery, but had all ended up gaining their weight back. So she became determined to go a different route.
“For a long time I felt surgery was my only option for how big I was — there was no way I could lose so much weight on my own — but after seeing my relatives gain their weight back, I knew it wasn’t about the surgery,” she says. “It had to be about lifestyle, and I was determined to figure it out to prevent myself from spending all that money and going through all the pain of surgery for something that I never saw work long-term for anyone I knew who had it done.”
Kavanagh admits she had never stuck to workout routines in the past because she would get bored before seeing any results. When she started doing Jillian Michaels’ workouts (available on her app and FitFusion), she finally found a fitness program that she could stick to.
“Jillian’s workouts are always fun and I look forward to doing them,” she says. “Right when I would be getting the hang of one workout, another would come out, so I never got bored. Over the years I have also appreciated that there are a variety of intensity levels to most moves, so no matter what weight I was at I could get a good workout. I still do the same workouts as a fit person that I did as a 300-lb. person, I just up the intensity level now to get my killer workout!”
She also began paying more attention to what she ate.
“I used to eat because I was bored,” says Kavanagh. “I never thought about what I was eating, how many calories were in it, the quality of it, etc. I ate because it made me feel good.”
Initially, Kavanagh ate the same foods she always had, but started decreasing her portions.
“I knew if I changed too much too fast I would get overwhelmed and quit,” she says. “After the weight started to come off, it was addictive for me to learn healthier ways of eating. I turned my focus on calories after that, living by what I learned from Jillian: my calories in needed to be less than my calories out. I used her app along with a fitness tracker, and the weight came off so easily!”
Now Kavanagh focuses on eating unprocessed, non-GMO and organic as much as possible, and follows the 80/20 rule when it comes to eating.
“I still need my treats once in a while!” she says.
Losing 145 lbs. has given Kavanagh a whole new lease on life.
“The best part of losing the weight has been gaining the confidence to really live my life and try new things,” she says. “I don’t let my body hold me back anymore.”
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