Courtesy of Dawn Estelle Archer; Graphic by Dana Davenport
There are a ton of reasons to work out that have nothing to do with weight loss, and Dawn Estelle Archer, a fitness instructor in Richmond, Virginia, definitely knows this to be true. By focusing her efforts on living a happy, healthy life (instead of pounds or inches), she completely transformed her mental health—and lost weight in the process, too.
Archer, now 30, had been overweight for most of her life. She’d tried to lose weight in the past without much success, and when she hit 220 pounds, she’d resigned herself to the fact that she just couldn’t do it. She was also dealing with a deep depression that she didn’t know how to turn around. But on New Year’s Eve in 2012, she decided to ditch her scale for good and just focus on making choices that would help her feel better mentally and emotionally.
She started moving more and getting outside to improve her mental health, and her new active routine started her on a journey that changed her entire outlook on life. By changing her habits with the simple priority of feeling good again, she also went from a size 18 to a size 6 in one year. Here, she shares her journey with SELF.
Archer knew that she needed to lose weight after a prediabetes diagnosis, but she felt discouraged when the quick fixes she tried didn’t bring results.
Archer admits she wasn’t particularly physically healthy growing up, but at 23 years old, her mental health also took a turn. After breaking her ankle badly in 2009, she spent six months in a wheelchair and three months on crutches, and watched the weight creep up—as well as a deep depression. Two years later, after continuing down a path of inactivity and unhealthy eating, she was diagnosed with prediabetes.
“I had gone to the doctor, and it was the first time I’d ever had anyone call me obese,” says Archer, who was a size 18 at the time. “She gave me pamphlets and information on how to take care of my prediabetes, but I still didn’t use that as a wake-up call.”
Archer resorted to trying a lot of quick-fix options for a while, rather than focus on making incremental, healthy changes. “I would do things for a week or two, and then I wouldn’t see any results so I would stop.”
During her attempt to get a handle on her prediabetes, she moved from Richmond, Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia to be with her boyfriend, and her depression became all-consuming. “I got out of a seven-year relationship, I was cheated on, I was homesick, and I was trying to pay back student loans. It all just snowballed.” These stressors made her feel like her life was spinning out of control—so her depression did, too.
She started getting active as a way to feel better mentally and emotionally—and finally found herself losing the weight she once thought she couldn’t.
Courtesy of Dawn Estelle Archer
“I heard this sermon on New Year’s Eve of 2012, and the preacher said, ‘when you wake up tomorrow, you can have a period of mourning [for the past], but get going, just move, just start.’ I thought, wow, that’s right, I have complete control over what I do for myself, and I’m worrying about things I have no control over. So the next day I got up, and I was like OK, instead of sleeping all day, I’m going to get up and I’m going to move.” Archer, then 26, committed to a New Year’s resolution—one that would change her entire life for more than just a year.
“I would leave my cell phone at home, along with all of these things that would distract me, and I would just go. I started walking to the store instead of driving to the store. Eventually, I was like wow, this is cool, I feel so much better just getting outside and getting fresh air.” She also fell in love with Zumba’s dance cardio workouts. “I wasn’t getting on the scale because I didn’t think I could lose the weight. I thought, my family’s like this, this is just my body type, it’s how I’m going to be.”
Her new activities inspired her to give her diet a makeover too, so she could feel fueled and strong during her workouts. As her lifestyle became healthier, her mental health improved, which kept her motivated to keep up her new habits. She no longer wanted to sleep all day and found herself feeling stronger, physically and emotionally, than ever before.
She also felt encouraged when she realized her shape was changing, too. After a couple months of exercising, she tried on a pair of shorts that she never felt comfortable in before, and was surprised by her transformation. She sent a photo to her sister, who couldn’t even believe it was her. “That was the moment where I started to realize that I was actually losing weight.”
Throughout the process, she also started to discover her self-worth. “Becoming more active allowed me to think clearly and understand that if I could lose weight, I could do anything I put my mind to. It made me feel powerful, and I had control over my body, my emotions, and my future.”
Now, exercise and healthy eating are just a part of her lifestyle—and she’s sharing her journey with others.
Courtesy of Dawn Estelle Archer
Archer also moved back to Virginia and began organizing group workouts in a parking lot. In July 2013, Archer got her Zumba certification and continued to teach her informal parking lot sessions. “When I first started teaching in the parking lot the feedback was shocking,” she says. “People began to tell their friends and family and it grew faster than I could imagine. I think that people connected with me because I was in their shoes. I talk, cry, and laugh with them.”
In January 2014, she decided to go even bigger—she sold her car, packed up her things in a storage unit, and toured the whole country sharing what she’d learned, with the goal of helping just one person in every state.
“I was teaching classes and taking people to the grocery store to show them how to shop affordably and healthy. I also helped people on a one-on-one basis with self-esteem issues.” When she returned she decided to open up her own studio, theSWEATbox, where she continues to transform other lives by sharing her story.
Her philosophy is simple: move more, eat clean, and be consistent.
Courtesy of Dawn Estelle Archer
Throughout her journey, Archer recognized a few critical keys to her success. “Not weighing myself was a huge factor for me,” she says. “I wasn’t looking for weight-loss results. I think that when people stress about it, it can consume them, and when they don’t see those results they stop doing what they’re doing.”
“There’s no secret to weight loss—there’s no diet pill or special thing you can do to make you lose weight overnight. But if you’re consistently working towards your goals, then you’re going to see results,” she adds.
She tells her clients now to keep it simple: Stay active, eat nutritious foods, and be consistent with your efforts. Take away the stress and the overthinking, she suggests, and focus on your bigger picture of health.
“This journey has made me realize how important it is to move every day. I realized that the more I exercise, the better my mental health is,” she shares. For Archer, finding her “why” led her to the weight-loss success she never thought she could have–along with a whole new outlook on life.
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The post How Exercise Helped One Woman Break Free From Depression (And Go From A Size 18 To A Size 6, Too) appeared first on SELF.
