I lost 6 pounds in 6 weeks this year (that’s 1 pound per week!), and I want to share my journey with you on how I changed my mindset and eating habits to accomplish that. This kind of weight loss and the benefits that came with it were very exciting for me; because I believe that consistent growth and improvement are so necessary to live an abundant life. Additionally, my new eating habits have enabled me to maintain my weight loss and stay at the weight that makes me feel good and confident!
Some of the benefits that I love the most about the weight I am at are my mood and energy level. Having my body look good is definitely a plus, but noticing and feeling the difference in my mood, body, and energy level are what really stood out to me.
This is me pictured above in September 2023, after I lost 6 pounds in 6 weeks. The next photo is of me before I lost the 6 pounds, and as you can see, I am much more heavy and bloated in my mid-section, and hip and butt area in the photo below.
For reference, I am 42 (I was 41 at the time I lost the weight), I am 5′ 6″ tall, and I weigh 112 pounds. First, I want to provide you with my mindset around eating prior to me losing the weight. This may help you determine if you have any of these same mindsets around eating habits that you want to change.
For most of my life, I ate without really thinking how the things I put into my body would affect me. I don’t think I ever correlated my mood, weight and energy levels with my diet. I didn’t have the worst diet ever, but I was definitely not thinking about these things in relation to what I was eating. For example, I would order a hot chocolate from Starbucks AND a large-sized chocolate chip cookie DAILY, without thinking twice. That is a lot of sugar to consume daily, not to mention if I ended up having more sugar throughout the day, which I probably did because I had a sweet tooth! Granted, at that time I was in my mid-20’s and we know that our weight is a lot easier to manage when we are young. But looking back, I realize that all of the excess sugar I was consuming was affecting my overall mood because I struggled with anxiety, tiredness, and my mood would fluctuate a lot too.
Needless to say, this type of eating habit was one I carried into my 30’s as well. I also would eat fast food (Chick-fil-A often, who can blame me), which I know now is so bad for us, but it was a bad habit that I had picked up that I never gave a second thought to. Most of us can relate to continuing in a bad habit mindlessly, well because it is a habit. Eventually, I realized that I should be more mindful of what I was eating, and some of this awareness came from seeing how people around me were eating.
So what did I remove and what did I add to my diet? I stopped eating carbs such as bread, pasta, French fries, rice, potatoes, etc. Carbs from avocados would be alright as those are a healthier carb. Then, I also cut out sugar to the best of my ability, as there are some food products that there will still be a small amount of sugar. But my goal was to eliminate as much of it as I could. That would also be true for carbs. Another change I made that I believe really helped was to replace my breakfast with a filling and healthy protein smoothie.
So, my meals for the day would look something like this:
Breakfast
- Protein Smoothie (oat milk unsweetened, 1 banana, cinnamon, handful of spinach, scoop of raw cashew butter, and sugar-free protein powder)
I will link the raw cashew butter that I use here: I love the Artisana Raw Cashew Butter because it is so good!
I will link the protein powder I use here: Ritual Protein Powder. This is a link to one of my blog posts, so after you click the link, scroll until you see Ritual Protein Powder.
Lunch
- I have 2 eggs (I know, it is different to have breakfast for lunch, but I just look at it as a later breakfast), a little reduced-fat shredded cheese of your choice, and a slice of turkey bacon. You could also add a couple of slices of avocado.
If you can’t see yourself eating breakfast for lunch, try a few slices of turkey breast, 1/2 slice of cheese, on a slice of romaine lettuce, instead of bread. You could add veggies and mustard if you prefer. The main thing is to monitor the portion size and carbs.
Dinner
- For dinner, I have either salmon or mahi mahi, with asparagus or any vegetable I have on hand for that week.
Snack Ideas
For snacks, I have either a low-sugar and low-carb yogurt or and handful of homemade popcorn cooked in olive oil.
Some key points are that I am now paying attention to my portion sizes, and plan all of my meals with that intention. Start with smaller portions that what you are used to. We tend to overload our portions not realizing we probably only need half of that size. I cut out carbs (pasta, rice, breads, etc.), sugar, and replaced my breakfast with a filling protein smoothie. I think what made this work, is the cutting out of carbs and sugar. That made the difference for me, because that was more than half of the battle, in my opinion.
With the diet above, I also take a 45-minute walk in daily, without skipping this, because exercise is so important and will help to maintain your weight. I combine a few other exercises with walking such as a 15-minute booty workout, linked here: 15-Minute Butt Lift Workout. This workout is so good and really burns for only 15-minutes; I highly recommend it. I also alternate by doing arms and abs workouts. I don’t really have an intense workout routine, as you can see, but if you change your eating habits, you can get by with a less-intense workout.
To summarize, cutting out carbs and sugar was a big step, and this was probably the most beneficial for my weight loss. I notice that my waist and hips is very slim and firm, my butt got smaller and more shapely, and I felt like my mood and energy levels were very stable. Also, all of my clothes were smaller, which I loved because they looked like they fit me better than before, as if they fit the way they were supposed to fit. I think my favorite benefit from changing my diet, was my stable mood and stable energy. When you watch what you eat, there are so many health benefits like these and I honestly wasn’t aware that I could benefit in this way. I am sure that most people have this mindset.
That’s how I lost 6 pounds in 6 weeks! I hope you find my story inspiring and I wish you luck on your own health and weight loss journey!
As always, please feel free to contact me through my website by clicking ‘Contact Me’ at the top of the website. I would love to answer any questions you may have or hear about your progress.
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***Please check with your doctor/health specialist prior to making changes to your diet to be sure this diet will be a good change for you.
