Losing 25 Pounds in One Year | What I Learned

It’s officially been one year since I decided to get it together and start giving a shit about my body. A year ago I had just gotten back from a trip to Charleston with my cousin and was feeling…not cute.

Not only not cute, but also just plain unhealthy. I was the heaviest I had ever been, I was eating trash for every meal and I was living a pretty sedentary life. After spending the weekend devouring all the delicious, buttery and boozy treats that Charleston has to offer I decided that it would be my last hurrah and that I was finally going to make some changes.

I talk about these changes a lot here on the blog. I’ve shared how I cut out dairy, how I got a personal trainer to teach me how to work out correctly, how my lifestyle now compares to my lifestyle then. I’ve done a complete 180 to how I was living my life before and I could not be more grateful. These are the kind of habits I’ll have for the rest of my life because I’ve seen and felt how good they’ve made my body feel.

My journey to a healthier lifestyle involved taking big steps and making small adjustments. First, it was eliminating dairy, then I started incorporating more veggies into my diet. First, it was making the financial commitment to see a trainer once a week, then it was joining a gym and trying to go at least twice a week. I made big moves but I also knew that I had to take things slow and build up to this new life. I’m still making small adjustments every day and trying new things to make me a healthier person overall.

When I quit my retail management job at Victoria’s Secret I went from being on my feet for 8 hours a day to sitting behind my computer every day, every week. I went from having specific break times to being able to eat whatever, whenever I wanted. But when I look back on pictures from my time working at VS I realize that I wasn’t exactly the picture of health then either. I was working ridiculous hours, stressed out beyond belief 24/7, lacking work/life balance entirely, taking 20 ibuprofen a day to deal with my painful arthritis flare-ups and eating gross mall food. I have never in my life understood what it means to live a truly healthy lifestyle until now.

There are so many mindset shifts I’ve had to make over the past year to undo all of the false ideas I had about health and wellness. It’s been quite the experience but it’s also one that has made me stronger (mentally and physically), more energetic and overall just a happier person. I wanted to share what I’ve learned from losing 25 pounds and improving my health over the past year with you because I think some of my realizations may be helpful if you’re feeling how I was last March.

Here are 3 big lessons I learned from changing my health and my life for the better over the past year! Plus I’m sharing all of my progress pics from the past year. Enjoy!

YOU WILL NEVER BE PERFECT

Something that held me back from making lasting changes in years past was my obsession with quick perfection. I thought I had to hit the gym 7 days a week, eat salads for every meal, give up pasta (my one true love) and do it all immediately without any slips ups. I think it’s clear that those attempts did not work out.

I am someone who can easily be inspired by a new goal so I will throw myself into whatever it is I’m trying to achieve. But that type of enthusiasm and determination can’t be sustained if you begin with unrealistic expectations. That’s why I think it’s silly for someone to go on a 10-day juice cleanse or start a super restrictive diet in hopes of losing weight because those are such quick fixes that never have long lasting results. You are not going to drink juice for every meal for your entire life so why are you starting out your health journey that way? You’re only treating a symptom of the problem and in 10 days you will find yourself back where you started.

I use to gravitate towards these types of fad diets because I wanted results quickly but in the end, I would mess up once and give up because living life that way is miserable and to be honest, pretty unhealthy.

I had to let go of the idea that I was going to give myself the perfect body by following A, B, and C. I had to let go of the unrealistic vision I had in my mind of what “perfect” meant. Because duh, we all already know that perfection does not exist and we can say that a thousand times a day, but we will still cling to this idea with our fists clenched tight because that is what we believe we should want and what we should be. I’m still working on letting go of that.

Instead, I try to replace it with celebratory thoughts. If I could only make it to the gym twice this week because I was swamped with work? Amazing! At least I made it there twice. If I indulged in some wine and Thai takeout with my best friend? Yesss! I treated myself to a meal I love and spent quality time with a friend. My body is healthy and strong and I am proud of it. Sometimes you can’t eliminate the negative thoughts that live in your head, but you can crowd them out with positive ones.

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO COURSE CORRECT

When I had moments where I felt like I was being “unhealthy” (skipping the gym when I could go, not drinking enough water, eating waffles for dinner, etc.) that’s usually when I would begin to be way too hard on myself and then decide that since I’ve already “messed up” I’ll just let everything go and start fresh the next day. Or the next week. Or a month.

Something I’ve learned about living a healthier lifestyle is that I will never do everything perfectly (see above) and there will be times when I wake up and hear the rain and not want to go to the gym. There will be times when I pass a bakery and the smell will be too much to resist. And those moments are not “where things went wrong”. It’s the moments after. The moments following the decision where I begin to feel terrible and then decide to just give up and start over another day. That is the critical moment because that is when I get to decide if I’m going to call it a treat and continue going about my day or let it all crumble under the weight of self-sabotage.

You get to choose how you recover from “slips ups” (which is reality are just human moments, come on). This is one of the biggest things that’s changed my life when it comes to health and fitness. Now when it’s noon and I realize I haven’t had any water all day, I focus on drinking more right then and there. When I skip the gym because I was feeling lazy in the morning, I go in the evening or catch a yoga class. When I indulge in a donut because donuts are little pieces of glazed heaven, I don’t let that one food choice alter the way I would normally eat throughout the rest of the day. That donut does not turn into pasta for lunch and chips for dinner.

You can course correct at any moment and it’s never too late. That “oh well I fucked up, guess I’ll start again on Monday mentality” had to go if I was ever going to create sustainable change.

HOW YOU FEEL WILL BEGIN TO MATTER MORE THAN HOW YOU LOOK

I never really understood how good it could feel to just be lighter and more hydrated. When I started losing weight and drinking a gallon of water every day (or as close to it as possible) I was so shocked to notice just how different I felt. Different in an amazing way.

The arthritis in my foot stopped flaring up as much, my skin immediately cleared up (I think also as a result of cutting out dairy during the week) my back ached less (I am 87 years old lol), I felt stronger and I suddenly had so much more energy throughout the day. I use to get stomach aches almost daily because I barely ate any vegetables and had a trash diet. As soon as I started making healthier choices and cooking everything at home they went away. I can’t imagine living like that again.

In the beginning, it was all about losing weight so I could look a certain way. And of course, I’m super happy (while also still critical because body confidence is a constant work in progress ladies) with how my body looks now in comparison to how it looked before. I’ve got baby abs coming in (just two but they’re there!) and I feel so much more confident these days. But I didn’t anticipate how feeling so good would end up meaning so much more to me than how I look.

When I don’t get my gallon of water in, I can feel it. When I haven’t had enough veggies that day, I can feel it. And I don’t like it. Waking up in the morning without feeling bloated or groggy, getting an endorphins kick from working out, skipping the 2 pm sleepy slump, and feeling filled with energy and strength is a damn good feeling. In fact, it’s addicting.

While I love the way I look now and am feeling so much better about myself when I get dressed every morning, the best change for me was seeing how good I could feel. There was a time in my life where my arthritis was so bad I could barely walk and for almost a year I was taking up to 20 ibuprofen a day just to be able to get up and go to work and move. Once I started taking medication for it and I stopped having flare ups I was so grateful to be able to live a pain-free life. I really thought that was as good as I could possibly feel, just living with the absence of pain. But once I began eating right, working out and making healthier choices overall I realized that it’s possible to feel amazing every day.

This feeling is one of my main motivators every day and makes it easy for me to stay consistent with my new lifestyle. The mental clarity, energy, and strength are so worth getting your health together.

What are some healthy lifestyle changes you’re hoping to make in 2019? Tell me in the comments below!

Xo, She