At first I tried to love my new body
The first attempts to put myself in order ended in failure. I started and quit, without seeing any results, and started again after a while. I tried to prove to myself and others that people think stereotypically, and you can be beautiful and curvy. That’s why I went to the television project “Model XL”.
I only got into the top thirty, but a few days behind the scenes were enough to understand the main thing: “I no longer want to be lush and luxurious, I will never accept myself and love myself like this.” Plus, for me, being overweight has always been a problem of health and weakness of character.
What made you change your body and your life?
I allowed my body to grow in width. I kept telling myself, “Well, I just had a baby.” When my daughter was 6 months old, I realized that the weight after having a baby wasn't going to come off and I couldn't use motherhood as an excuse.
I gained weight to 84 kg from 58 kg in high school. I was still 160 cm, but I weighed almost 27 kg more. I thought that I just had to accept my body as it was and there was no way to change anything.
My story of how I lost weight began with the fact that the fighter in me woke up. What was I thinking? I was in my 20s; I don't need to take anything. My body was mine! I can do whatever I want with it. It takes time to show my body the love and care it deserves.
As a mother, I wanted my daughter to grow up with a positive role model. I want her to grow up in a healthy home and not think, “I don’t want to look like my mother when I grow up.” Every minute I spend at the gym staying healthy is time I earn for my family later in life.
There are no excuses here. I take my daughter to the gym with me and she plays in the daycare while I play with the weights. She gets to interact with other people while I get some time to focus on myself and my goals. I have already lost more than 29 kg, and therefore, I believe that I am a better mother and wife.
Was : age 24, height 160 cm, weight 84 kg, fat level 35% Now : age 24, height 160 cm, weight 54 kg, fat level 15%
I work because I love my body and want to take care of it, not as a punishment for the way it looked in the past.
And I didn’t stop there!
Two or three times a week I went to the stadium near my house and ran. After some time, I registered for the “Run under the Chestnut Trees” race in Kyiv, and this began the era of my new hobby - running. On my 27th birthday, I ran my first half marathon. I changed externally and internally, I began to weigh even less than before the illness - 72 kg with a height of 175 cm. I fell in love with myself again.
Everything, as it turned out, is very easy: just take it and do it, because there is no other secret in life. But whining and feeling like a victim does not lead to anything, it only drives you further into this hole, from which you may never get out.
Allowed food
Here I will provide a complete list of permitted foods and their acceptable intake schedule:
| 1. Fruit | 2. Vegetables | ||
| - apples (up to 5-6 pieces every day) - grapefruit, orange (half a day) - watermelon (up to 3-4 kg per day) - quince (up to 2 per day) - cherries, sweet cherries, plums, peach and apricot - up to 1 kg per day - raspberries, wild strawberries, blueberries and strawberries - up to 0.5 kg per day | - sauerkraut, white cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and other varieties (up to 1 kg per day) - greens (virtually unlimited in salads) - tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, carrots, beets, onions, radishes and zucchini (up to 0.5 kg per day) - potatoes (0.5 kg, once a week, exclusively in soup) | ||
| 3. Meat | 4. Sweets | ||
| - chicken fillet (once every three days, 300 grams per day) - chicken liver (once a week, 500 grams per day) - squid meat (up to 1 kg per week) - unpeeled shrimp (up to 2 kg per week) | - honey (2-3 tablespoons every day, can be added to tea) - high-quality condensed milk (one can every 3 weeks, only in exceptional cases) | ||
| 5. Porridge | 6. Drinks | ||
| - buckwheat and wheat porridge, rice, barley, oatmeal (every day, up to 300 grams) | — black, green tea (up to 4 cups every day) — juices (0.5 l every three days) | ||
| 7. Canned food and dairy products | |||
| - peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash caviar, corn, pineapple (one 500 gram can once a week) - low-fat hard cheese (up to 100 grams every day) - milk, sour cream, kefir, low-fat cottage cheese (once a week, up to 200 grams) | |||
Now I have a new life
Now I don’t give up sports, I train regularly, but more for tone and health than to change my body. I have a loved one who supports me in everything, and I enjoy life. I can confidently say that you need to not give up, wish and wait, and the result, happiness and success will definitely come!
If you would also like to share your transformation story, please email
How has your transformation helped you change your life?
Who would have thought that losing weight could help me improve my life? My transformation has helped me in many ways. I was finally able to be myself again. I have tons of energy and I dance whenever possible!
I can be the mother I always wanted to be. I can run with my kids and husband. I have a good daily routine and am able to accomplish much more than before.
I have the confidence to do things I thought I would never be able to do. Even the little things that most people don't even think about. For example, I can wear shorts with ease! For the first time, I feel comfortable in a swimsuit in the Texas heat. And the fun begins!
How I lost 30 kg
Article by a third party
Many people are aware of the problem of excess weight. Unfortunately, this is the trend of the times. Up until the eleventh grade, I was satisfied with my uniform. There were no cubes, but I didn’t observe any critical fat deposits on myself. And then the university began. I started drinking a lot of beer, eating fast food, and gave up on exercise. By the fourth year my weight was 105 kilograms. I felt terrible, but at the same time I took absolutely no measures to change anything. I enjoyed drinking with friends too much. And where there is beer, there is a whole cohort of all sorts of unhealthy snacks...
However, there was a turning point that made me think seriously about losing weight.
Almost every winter the skin on my fingers cracks. This is normal for me because I often forget to wear gloves. As a rule, these problems go away on their own by spring. But not at this time. The skin on my hands continued to crack and peel until the summer. At some point, this alarmed me greatly, and I went to the dermatovenerology clinic. There they took tests from me and then sent me to a gastroenterologist. The latter, in turn, sent me for an ultrasound. An ultrasound showed deformation of the liver. The reasons, of course, are clear as day – alcohol and obesity.
I was immediately prescribed a strict diet that excluded the entry of allergens into the body. Coffee, chocolate, pasta, sausages, cheese, milk, red and orange vegetables, citrus fruits, nuts, mushrooms, eggs, and canned food were banned. I’m generally silent about alcohol. At first, such a ban seemed to me unnecessarily harsh and impossible to implement. But, of course, a solution was found, albeit not immediately.
The initial plan was extremely simple: steam a chicken breast (or boil it in a saucepan), add some rice porridge and a cabbage and cucumber salad (without sauces). I didn't have enough for a long time. Cooking chicken fillet every time is very long and tedious. And if you cook more of it at once, then it becomes dry and tasteless. And it all tasted too bland.
And then an idea came. Instead of cooking the chicken breast and rice again, I decided to throw everything together. I minced the chicken fillet in a meat grinder. I mixed the resulting minced meat with boiled rice. Salted and peppered. I made meatballs from the resulting mass and set them to cook on a double boiler. It turned out very tasty and nutritious. And most importantly - healthy and non-greasy.
I ended up making four meals a day, consisting of three of these meatballs, microwaved with a small salad containing cucumber, Chinese cabbage, and a can of peas. As a matter of principle, I do not add any sauces or oils (even olive oils) to the salad. Instead of butter, I simply pour pea juice into a salad bowl with all the ingredients. This is enough so that the salad does not feel dry.
When the weight dropped and my liver was almost in order, over time I began to cook durum wheat spaghetti for breakfast. You won't get fat from them either, provided you eat them before lunch.
And these meals are enough to not feel hungry during the day. Additionally, I began to drink a lot of water. The need for water appeared by itself after I put other drinks under the knife (soda, coffee, juices, etc.). I left only green tea without sugar. Here, too, lies a life hack - when you give up sugar for at least a few weeks, and then drink a cup of coffee with sugar, as before, then this cup already feels terribly oversweetened.
But proper nutrition alone is not enough. Physical activity was needed. In this regard, I am a terribly lazy character. The solution was simple and ingenious.
I didn't go to the gym or run. Just walks. Walking tours around the city. Believe me, there is a huge, even purely aesthetic thrill in this. Walk, enjoy the views of the evening city, listen to something on headphones, breathe fresh air. And even the season doesn't matter. It takes from 1 hour 40 minutes to a couple of hours, which is approximately equivalent to ten kilometers. You can do more if you wish. Such walks especially go well with audiobooks or podcasts. But in this sense I was luckier: over time, a classmate began to hang out with me. Thus, during the conversation, time flies very quickly. My legs get very tired, no worse than after running. At the same time, you do not bring yourself to exhaustion, but do everything for pleasure.
As a result, my weight is now 76 kilograms. I never even dreamed of this. Six months have passed. I feel much better and happier. It was as if I had started living again. With all this, I occasionally allow myself to drink beer with friends, eat fish and chips, and barbecue. But not often. Holidays are best for this.
You will succeed. Just find the approach that suits you. And take note of mine.
What advice would you give to other people who are trying to lose weight?
Number one: stay consistent. No matter the outcome, never give up. You don't have to lose 20 pounds a month to be successful. Progress may be slow, but it is still progress. You don't even have to lose weight to make progress.
Sometimes progress is greater than the bathroom scale says. Body fat percentage and your internal health are not visible on the scale. Keep moving forward and looking for ways to live a healthy lifestyle.
Look for new products to make healthy versions of your favorite foods. Never try to “cheat the day.” Instead, come up with a plan in advance to “cheat the food.”
Try new exercises all the time to keep your workouts fun and interesting. Enjoy the transformation and always remember that you are the main character in your life's story. Lifestyle does not happen in one day. Start with small changes - going to the gym three times a week, tracking progress through food journals, monthly photos and training journals.
What problems have you encountered? How did you overcome them?
Of course I had my own struggles and problems during my transformation! There were days when I didn't feel like eating healthy. There were days when I didn't want to go to the gym. I could come up with 100 excuses to just go back to my old habits and give up my healthy lifestyle.
But that would mean that I had lost and that I was allowing myself to accept the fatigue. I have a life to live. I have a family. I have a fitness following on Facebook and Twitter, photos on my phone. I go to health meetings and see people who motivate and inspire me.
You won't get anything with excuses. Progress will never come. You need to take responsibility for your actions in order to change your condition. I have come a long way towards a healthy lifestyle.
