3 years ago, I wanted to lose 30 pounds in 3 months naturally. And I did.
Growing up I would say I was always at a healthy weight. It wasn’t until I started working in the food industry after graduation that I really started putting on the pounds. It all went downhill when I turned 21. Grabbing drinks at the bar with friends and eating greasy food late at night became my weekend routine.
December of 2016, I had gone on vacation to the Cayman Islands with my family. Looking back at the pictures, I saw that I was killing myself with this lifestyle. I needed to make a change.
January 2017 was when I started my journey, and I only made 3 little changes to shed the weight.
- Cut out Alcohol
- Got Active
- Ate healthy
Cutting Out Alcohol
Alcohol really was the worst thing for me; it had so many calories and made be feel so lazy the next day. Whenever I went out drinking with my friends, I’d spend the next day eating badly and unmotivated to do anything. Not only was I putting on so much weight from drinking, I was also wasting money and wasting days where I could’ve been productive. It was hard at first, but eventually I got used to ordering a seltzer with lime at the bar. Eventually I didn’t even care to go out to the bar on a Friday night, and I found myself going to the gym instead because I loved the feeling of an empty gym more than a crowded bar.
Getting Active
Working out played a huge roll in me dropping the 30 pounds in 3 months. I started to fall so in love with working out that I was working out 5-6 times a week, sometimes 2x a day! At the time, I was working in Manhattan full time and was packing a lunch to bring to work everyday. The advantage of working in Manhattan was that there is a gym at what felt like every block of the city, so I decided to spend my lunch hour at the gym.
I only had 30 mins to workout during my lunch break, so I only did cardio. The spin bike was my favorite workout because I felt like I was burning the most calories. Working out during my lunch was a great addition to my schedule because it gave me a boost of energy mid day and it also made my work day go by faster. Another thing I liked about working out during my lunch hour is that if I got too tired to work out again when I got home from work, I’d be ok with not having a second workout because at least I got a small one in during lunch. A small workout is better than no workout.
On days that I also worked out at night, I mostly focused on weights since I already did my cardio during my lunch break. I would spend 10/15 mins with a cardio warm up, and the rest of the time doing weights. I did this at least Monday – Thursday, sometimes doing it Friday as well. Alongside working out during the week, I also took a spin class Saturday mornings for an hour.
I would say I worked out more than needed, but I truly enjoyed the feeling after a workout. Even though I was working out 2x a day, losing 30 pounds in 3 months was still attainable with just one workout a day, so don’t feel like you need to workout twice to lose the weight. If you put in the work, one workout is good enough.
Eating Healthy
The most important part to any weightloss journey- DIET. You cannot out-excersize a bad diet!
In the beginning, it was difficult to find different meals to eat that would help me with my weight loss. For one- I was used to eating foods that were high in fat and calories, and two- I hated eating the same foods over and over again. It’s hard breaking a bad habit, but once its broken, its easy to stick to a good one. I’m no chef, but Pinterest made it easy to find meals to incorporate into my diet. I made a healthy eating board and used it as inspiration for all my meals and snacks. What I thought was going to be the hardest part of my weight loss journey, ended up being the easiest.
Now fast forward to 2020.
3 years after I lost 30 pounds and was finally the healthiest and leanest since high school, I had a baby and gained almost 50 pounds. Officially being the heaviest in my entire life. Motherhood is very time consuming, but I’ve decided to really try to follow the same weight loss regime I was on 3 years ago.
Started off 2020 by going back to the gym during my lunch break 3x a week, going at night 4x a week, and also eating healthy.
A blog post on month one of my mommy weight loss journey to come. Follow me on Instagram to keep up with the meals I’ve been eating and the workouts I’m doing.
Remember: It’s a slow process, but quitting won’t speed it up.
