My name is Brenna Raelynn (@getting.fit.with.bre), and I’m 29 years old. I live in southwestern Pennsylvania, and I work as an administrative assistant. After struggling with my weight, I decided to start counting my calories in a calorie deficit and working out with Beachbody five mornings a week to lose 101 pounds.
I’ve struggled with my weight whole life up until now. I just thought that it was who I was and all I was ever meant to be. It felt like a curse most days. I also have PCOS, and honestly, I just figured I was screwed when it came to weight loss.
I tried to lose weight in 2012, lost about 30 pounds, and maintained it for a few years. However, I sprained my ankle in 2014, and slowly gained all the weight back, plus some. Every time I would try to work out again, my ankle would flair up and I would end up in a walking boot. This went on fornearly five years, until I sprained my ankle for the second time on January 1, 2019.
Not only did I sprain my ankle this time, but I also tore a tendon and completely lacerated a ligament. I had ankle surgery at the end of March 2019, weighing 309 pounds. I had months of weight-bearing restrictions and physical therapy, and due to my inability to be active, I gained another 20 pounds.
At 27, I didn’t want to see my weight number go up anymore.
I was miserable. I needed tomake myself a priority, I needed to take my health back, and I needed to strengthen my ankle so I didn’t end up with a bum ankle the rest of my life. We also have a farm, and I needed to be able to complete jobs on the farm with greater ease and increased strength. My asthma would also flare up when working on the farm from weighing so much.
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So I tried to get serious about weight loss and working out in July 2019. But after over 2 months of no commitment and no change, something finally clicked on September 24th, 2019. I finally embraced myslogan: “Just a girl who got tired of her own shit and is doing something about it.” I never looked back.
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I knew from the beginning that food was a powerful thing for me—if I used it right I could take back my health.
I also knew that restricting certain foods would never work for me. I get bored of foods easily and I have a sweet tooth, so having a little every once in a while is healthy for me and helps me stay on track. So I chose to count calories (eating between 1,800-2,200) calories in a day, allowing room for treats within those calories.
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Here’s what I eat in a day.
- Breakfast: Coffee with Coffee Mate Natural Bliss or Starbucks creamers (I just find them to have fewer and cleaner ingredients), and an Orgain Chocolate Meal Replacer or Orgain Vanilla Super Foods Protein Shake.
- Morning Snack: Low-sugar Chobani Greek Yogurt, fruit (banana, clementine, berries, etc), granola, cocoa almonds, Oatmega Protein Bars, Belvita Breakfast Bars, cottage cheese.
- Lunch: Cottage cheese and veggies, soup, natural turkey lunch meat, cheese, and Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps, or tuna packets, chicken and veggies.
- Evening Snack: Coffee andBelvita, cottage cheese, cucumbers, Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps, Hippeas, cocoa almonds.
- Dinner: Tacos, taco salad, lamb and rice, burgers(sometimes with a bun, sometimes lettuce wrapped), Philly cheesesteak meat and cheese over green beans, eggs and veggies, or chicken and veggies.
- Dessert: Dark chocolate in any form is a go-to.
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I committed to working out five mornings a week as my starting point.
I figured if I could get up every day and go to work for someone else, then I could get up every day and work on my goals first. I focused on hitting that goal to the best of my ability until mid-March2020 when the pandemic closed my gym. I spent about a month jumpingaround through YouTube videos. I tried exercise videos and yoga videos and nothing stuck. I honestly just loved working out at the gym and found the transition to working out at home difficult.
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As the weather got nicer, I tried to incorporate jogging outside. Around mid-April of 2020, I finally caved and signed up for a free trial of Beachbody on Demand. Since then, I have been solely doing BeachBody. While my weight loss has slowed down over time and is significantly less compared to working out at the gym, BB on Demand gave me the routineI needed to continue working out at home.
I can’t wait to get back into the gym someday, but until then, I will continue with BB on Demand workouts. I mix the programs up and simply try to commit to working out five mornings a week. Some days I only do one 30 minute program, other days I will do two if I am wanting to burn more and move more.
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These three changes made the biggest difference in my weight-loss results.
I started tracking my food. I always thought I ate fairly healthy. I wasn’t a big junk food or sugary drink person, but if you are consuming more calories than you are burning in a day, you are still consuming too many calories. Tracking my calories opened my eyes to the number of calories I was actually consuming both in foods that were nutrient dense as well as nutrient lacking. Since starting, I have aimed for an average of 2,000 calories each day and have used exercise to create the calorie deficit I need to lose weight.
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I started moving more. While I know this isn’t always the easiest thing to do because so many people have physical injuries or limitations that hold them back, simply moving more than what you are moving now will make a huge difference over time. Consistency and effort add up to incredible changes.
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I began drinking more water. Your body uses water for so many things, and staying hydrated helps SO much along this journey.
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I have lost 101 pounds in 18 months.
This weight loss journey has been one of the hardest things that I have had to do in my life, but it is the best thing that I could have ever done. No one can make you change if you don’t want to. You can’t even make yourself change if you aren’t ready. It took me “getting tired of my own shit” to finally put action into fighting for my health.
Taking it one day, one pound, and one meal at a time has helped me to develop healthy, life-long habits that will help me maintain these results in the long run. Fighting to take back my health is the best decision that I have ever made.
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