Success stories always brighten my day and boost my own motivation. It’s great to hear about people achieving their health and fitness goals.
Roni Yonka, a 30-year old woman from North Carolina, used the free diet service SparkPeople to get off to a really strong start, losing 6lbs in just two weeks.
At the start of her dieting journey, Roni weighed 220 lbs. She had poor eating habits, confessing that: “I was accustomed to skipping breakfast and eating one huge meal a day.”So how did she lose almost half her starting body weight?
If you’re worried that this kind of achievement involves boot camps, fad diets or dangerous slimming pills, then read on. Because Roni didn’t need any of that.
She took small, sensible steps which added up to one big life change. In particular, she got focused right from the start by:
- Switching soda for water
- Eating smaller, more frequent meals
- Eating lean protein with wholegrain carbs
- Getting into a regular exercise routine
- Doing both cardio and strength-bearing exercise
- Looking to healthy role models for inspiration
- Only weighing in once a week
- Visualising her future “healthier and happier self”
Roni lost weight in a sensible, healthy and sustainable way, and stayed motivated by seeing steady results:
The more changes I made, the more my self-confidence and self-esteem increased, and the more motivated I became. Friends and family started to notice in just a couple of weeks that I was happier and healthier (and that my jeans were getting too big!).
Whether you’ve got a lot of weight to lose or just a few pounds, take inspiration from Roni’s story. Small changes really do make all the difference.
What little changes could you make today?
Wow dear..:)
Looking awesome…;)
Thanks for you super duper tips..:)
Wow, Roni looks fantastic! I lost a great deal of weight as well (90 lbs) and have kept it off for about 10 years now. It was definitely a bit of a challenge sometimes, but I also made several changes that helped me lose the weight. One major thing I changed was how often I ate. When I was heavy, I was always eating–I ate breakfast, a morning snack of candy or chips, a big lunch, snacked all afternoon while doing homework or going to classes, ate a big dinner, snacked at night and sometimes had a second dinner before bed. Looking back at it, I’m surprised I didn’t weigh more. I cut out most of the snacks because I realized I was eating out of sheer boredom; not because I was actually hungry. I never liked regular soda much, but I did cut out all caloric beverages and I started eating a lot of veggies and fruits. I also only weighed myself 1 time a month or so (I didn’t own a scale) and because I always lost at least something every month, I stayed motivated to keep going.
Wow, great job Roni! You look fab!