“When I arrived at college at age 18, I weighed 190 pounds,” says Haden.
“I stopped caring what I was putting into my body, andportion sizesweren’t on my radar.
Combined with a constant sadness about being away from home, I used food as a crutch.”
Courtesy of Lauren Haden; Graphic by Dana Davenport
By her sophomore year of college, Haden weighed 209 pounds.
“I was shocked, but that didn’t evenmotivate meto make a change,” says Haden.
“I felt very self conscious about my weight.
I left my job and chose not to get too involved with campus activities.
By the time she graduated at age 21, Haden had lost about 36 pounds.
She has kept it off for over a year, and now says she is more confident than ever.
Here are three lifestyle changes she made to get there.
She started just bytracking her activitywith a Fitbit Flex.
“I fell in love at first sync.
I loved the encouragement it gave me throughout the day to just keep moving.
Many of my sorority sisters bought ones, and soon we were hosting friendly competitions through the app!”
I immediately started seeing improvement in my body composition and overall energy levels.”
Being committed to something also opened her up to other healthy habits.
“As soon as I committed to personal training, my mentality around food and exercise started changing.”
Keeping track of her progress also helped herstay motivated.
“I loved when I started being able to move up to heavier weights during training sessions.”
She also found thatexercising with friendsmade her look forward to working out even more.
What I love about group exercise is that it pushes you to keep working!"
Haden didn’tcount calories or macros, but she did set up some guidelines that helped keep her on track.
“I made sure to listen to my stomach and really savor what was I eating.
If I felt full, I stopped.”
She stopped keeping snack foods in her apartment, too, and noshed on veggies instead.
Listening to her body was key.
And she made sure to drink lots of water, so she wasn’tconfusing hunger with thirst.
At first, I was nervous this meant I would be left with no friends.
My close friends were so supportive of me adopting a healthier perspective on life.
More importantly, she got to know herself even better.
I did more things alone, and became okay with that.
Weight loss, in a way, is a very selfish thing.
“I learned that loving yourself is possible!
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