The Exact Steps I Took to Lose 40 Pounds in 4 Months

Before: 263

After: 222

The Lifestyle
I've always been bigger. I had a really difficult home life growing up, and I was an emotional eater. When I was sad, I would eat. When I was scared, I would eat. Pretty much any emotion triggered me to turn to foods, like bags (yes, more than one) of popcorn, ice cream, or hot dogs as a snack. On top of that, I was a total homebody. I loved just hanging out on the couch and watching movies. As an adult, I rarely did any sort of physical activity—probably because I smoked a pack of cigarettes day. My lungs couldn’t even handle a brisk walk.

When I cooked for myself, I mostly ate processed, frozen foods. When my family made dinner, those meals usually consisted of fried chicken, fried potatoes soaked in butter, a lot of bread, and no vegetables. I despised broccoli or really any veggie

Although I occasionally thought that I should lose weight, I always decided against it. I thought, "Yeah, I'm bigger, but I have a pretty face." I was on autopilot and wasn't ready to challenge myself—even if it would dramatically improve my life.

RELATED: 7 Signs a Diet Will Just Leave You Hungry, Miserable—and Even Heavier 

The Change
I recently got back in touch with an old friend (who's now my boyfriend). He used to be a really scrawny guy, but he started working out and is in incredible shape now. When I went to go visit him, we started catching up on what we've been up to, and he told me that he's really fallen in love with fitness, especially how he feels after working out. He told me that he's become so much more confident than he ever was.

After I got home from my trip to see him, I started to wonder how much better I could feel if I began making positive changes to my life. But I kept making excuses. I knew losing weight and getting in shape was going to be hard, and I've never been one to take on a challenge. I told myself that other people should just accept me for who I am.

But after visiting my friend again a few months later, I realized that getting healthy isn't about what other people think of me—it's about feeling confident in myself. When I got home, I took a look in the mirror and decided to stop making excuses.

 

Time to get it in, so sleepy, I fought myself all day full of excuses of why it wouldn't work for me today. But thanks to #bae I got my ass in here. #workout #selfie #fitness #healthy #weightloss #beast #beauty #noexcuses #fit #gymrat

A photo posted by Brittany Wolfe (@bwolfe303) on May 29, 2015 at 4:36pm PDT

Luckily for me, I work for a company that manages fitness centers across the country—which means I get a free gym membership. My first attempt at working out was a little intimidating, but I told myself that I would just go to get my picture taken and see how it went. I was worried that people would be judging me, but after jumping on the treadmill and walking a mile for the first time in I don't know how long, I felt so awesome. Not long after that, I completely kicked my pack-a-day smoking habit—cold turkey.

Then, I started to Google. I began researching weight-loss strategies and realized that if I wanted to lose weight effectively, I needed to stop with the processed foods and start eating real stuff. I began prepping my meals each week to help curb my crazy portion sizes. I stuck with foods that had nutrients that my body needed, like chicken, veggies, fruit, and eggs. I also bought a food scale to help me stay on track with how much I was eating. For lunch and dinner, I typically ate four ounces of grilled chicken, asparagus, and a boiled egg. Though that was not a totally balanced meal, I started including a lot more veggies, fish, and turkey as I learned more about nutrition.

Since I was so motivated to lose weight fast, I skipped breakfast during the first few weeks of changing my eating habits. But I was so hungry and temped to binge eat at night! So I started eating protein shakes and fruit for breakfast each day, and it helped me a lot. Eating more in the morning helped me feel fuller during the day and made me less likely to binge at night.

 

#finally #gymislife #gymrat #healthy #fitness #fuckfat #fattofit #weightlossjourney

A photo posted by Brittany Wolfe (@bwolfe303) on Jun 29, 2015 at 5:34pm PDT

Since changing my diet, I feel sharper at work, I sleep better, and I'm happier than I ever was before. Plus, I am making huge progress at the gym. After walking that first mile, I gradually spent more time doing cardio. I worked my way up to an hour of cardio per workout session. I also started incorporating more strength training into my gym routine. I do about 40 minutes of it five times a week. Four months into my weight-loss journey, I've lost 41 pounds.

RELATED: How Often You Should Switch Up Your Workout to Keep Losing Weight

The Reward
Though I haven't hit my goal weight of 180 yet, making these changes has helped me become truly happy for the first time in my life. This is one of the few challenging things I've done that I haven't given up on, and I'm so proud of myself. 

RELATED: Why Your Brain Doesn't Want You to Keep Weight Off—and How to Fight It

Brittany's Tips
Don't be afraid of failing. It was hard for me to start my new healthy habits because I was scared of failing. But I realized that I had to try, or I'd never improve my life.
When you're frustrated, give the scale a break. When I hit a plateau, I got so frustrated because I was working really hard. I decided to wait a while before my next weigh-in. After a month of keeping up my habits and ignoring the scale, I lost eight pounds.
Don't take shortcuts. At first, I thought that skipping breakfast would help me reach my weight-loss goals faster, but it just made me hungrier. I've learned that I can't rush my progress because it totally backfires. 

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