03/21/2024
Varissa is this month's featured weight loss model, and I have been inspired by her journey! Here is her story! Before I started my journey (April 2021) I was in the 240 lbs weight range. I was the Carb QUEEN. Loved me some pasta! Mac and cheese, Alfredo! You name it. I was a big bread fan as well. Having it with nearly every single meal. One of my favorite meals was at a local Mexican Restaurant. The Happy Plate. Smothered in steak, chicken, fajita style and the veggies on a huge plate of rice. To wash that down Iād get the two for one margaritas. My favorite back then. I would get home (say about 6:00p) and CRASH. And not be able to even wake up until 6 the next morning when it was time to get the kiddos off to school. I could feel my health declining and I hadnāt even been to the doctor to be told that. When I came to realize that passing out after a meal was not normal, I began to realize I needed to seriously overhaul and restructure my relationship with food. I began to gather information and advise from coworkers at the time about how they started their journey and thinking how I could do the same and be as successful. My first thoughts: I canāt do this. I canāt POSSIBLY give up all of my favorite foods and drink. Iām the carb queen! Mentioning my past love for pasta and bread, I left out my main love. And something I still struggle with today: SUGAR. The addition is there, the consumption of it- some days completely eliminated , other days- drastically minimized. But before I took that huge leap I had to take a long look at myself, and not just in the mirror. Thatās just the outside! How my health was being affected, even at 33ā¦ l had to make changes and stat! So I joined a keto facebook group (invited by someone, she knows who she is ā¤ļø) and combed through the site. I saw a lot of people being beginners having the same questions I did and it was getting easier. The changes I needed to make started at the grocery store. I needed to eliminate A LOT of what I was normally buying and switch up any alternatives I could find. Rice is now cauliflower rice, potatoes is now cauliflower potatoes. Sugar free alternatives for snacks. āKeto friendlyā helped sometimes but itās important to read the labels of everything. In the beginning I tracked my meals but over time, I got a feel for what I should and should not have. Cutting out breads, pasta, sugar, and anything fried in unhealthy greases or oils helped me reach my goal of losing 100lbs. I however could not have achieved this by diet alone. I had to get moving. This is so important because itās definitely easy to fall out of and stay out of. I made excuse after excuse of why I couldnāt go to the gym or walk the neighborhood or the track. But now I had a goal in mind for me and those excuses got put to bed. I started out doing less strenuous activities like aquatic activities. I recommend this for anyone dealing with joint issues. But as time passed and the weight fell off, I felt ready to be challenged outside of my comfort zone and joined some dance classes at the gym and then finally, a HIIT class at the same gym. The whole environment in them helped me and I would not have been as successful had it not been for the instructors and the class members also for being a motivation. When I saw someone doing something I couldnāt do, I pushed myself that much harder and told myself: Iām going to be able to do that one day! Fast forward to today, I am in maintenance mode. I am not as strict on myself since reaching my goals but I definitely still exercise discipline when making meal choices and exercise plans. I do slip from time to time, put on some weight instead of staying the same or losing but that doesnāt make me quit. This is not a diet for me, itās a lifestyle change. That mindset has made it so much easier to stick to vs any fad diet out there. I have improved my quality of life 10 fold and it will last for years so not only will some of this rub off on my children, but Iāll also get a longer life with them and any grandchildren God gives me (a longgg time from now lol). ā¤ļøā¤ļø
