Courtesy of Lauren Haden; Graphic by Dana Davenport
The “Freshman 15″ weight gain can be a real struggle for a lot of us, and it’s one that can really mess with confidence levels, both during college and after the graduation caps have been tossed. It’s easy (and fun!) to give in to unlimited dining hall portions, free pizza, late-night study snacks, and all that alcohol. While losing the extra pounds isn’t always a priority, for Lauren Haden, a 22-year-old marketing coordinator from San Francisco, it was a major part of finally feeling her best—inside and out.
“When I arrived at college at age 18, I weighed 190 pounds,” says Haden. “I have never been truly physically fit, but in my first two years of college, I really let myself go.” Haden, who is 5’8″ explains, that whatever healthy eating habits she had at home were put on hold when she first moved to college. “I stopped caring what I was putting into my body, and portion sizes weren’t on my radar. Combined with a constant sadness about being away from home, I used food as a crutch.” And while she exercised occasionally, “I didn’t feel super comfortable in my body, which also kept me from feeling confident at the gym.”
By her sophomore year of college, Haden weighed 209 pounds. “I was shocked, but that didn’t even motivate me to make a change,” says Haden. “I felt very self conscious about my weight. It was something I have always dealt with, but gaining so much in college made the task of losing feel almost impossible.”
However, after losing about 10 pounds her junior year due to a busy schedule that left her little time to eat, Haden noticed that she felt better and decided to make a real, lasting change her senior year (that didn’t involve accidentally skipping meals). “I was working through some intense personal issues, and I decided I wanted to spend my last year focusing on self-care, which was a huge breakthrough. I left my job and chose not to get too involved with campus activities. I don’t know what clicked in my head, but I recognized the extra time I had in my schedule could be used in a really productive way.”
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.
1. She found a way to enjoy working out.
Even though she knew diet was important too, “I felt like focusing on exercise [first] would help clear my mind of negative thoughts and give me an outlet to love myself,” says Haden. She started just by tracking her activity with 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!”
One of the best investments Haden says she made, though, was signing up for sessions with a personal trainer. “She evaluated what I wanted to get out of our sessions (my goals were strength, toning, and a healthier body image), and created workouts tailored just for me. 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 her stay motivated. “I loved when I started being able to move up to heavier weights during training sessions.”
She also found that exercising with friends made her look forward to working out even more. “My sorority sisters, also motivated to improve their health, joined in and we had a group of six or seven of us who would religiously meet for classes [at the university’s gym]. What I love about group exercise is that it pushes you to keep working!”
2. She focused on making conscious choices about what she ate.
Haden didn’t count calories or macros, but she did set up some guidelines that helped keep her on track. “In general, my rule of thumb was to eat a healthy and filling breakfast every morning, followed by a protein-packed lunch, pack a snack just in case, and use dinner as an opportunity to eat something I didn’t get enough of that day!” For breakfast, that often meant a smoothie or Greek yogurt with berries and granola, and lunch was often a salad with lots of veggies, black beans, feta cheese, and a hardboiled egg or grilled chicken. Dinner was often roasted veggies with chicken or soup, and if she went to a restaurant she kept tabs on portion sizes. “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. “What I realized is that if you stop keeping processed foods in your home, you stop craving them, too!”
Listening to her body was key. “If I woke up and wasn’t super hungry for breakfast, I wouldn’t make a full meal but would take a banana or protein bar with me to class. I made sure I ate something every single meal, but it changed my perspective on portions and what I truly needed to feel satisfied.” And she made sure to drink lots of water, so she wasn’t confusing hunger with thirst.
3. Finally, she realized the importance of healthy relationships—with others and herself.
“I started putting my energy into relationships that mattered and stopped focusing on the ones that weren’t blessing my life,” says Haden. “At first, I was nervous this meant I would be left with no friends. I found the opposite to be true—by putting more time into hanging out with people who would stick with me through hard times, I made even more new friends and felt freer than ever! My close friends were so supportive of me adopting a healthier perspective on life. My best friend from high school is a die-hard CrossFitter, and she would text me encouraging messages that kept me motivated.”
More importantly, she got to know herself even better. “I did more things alone, and became okay with that. I enjoyed the ritual of cooking at night, of reading before bed, of taking care of myself in every form possible! Weight loss, in a way, is a very selfish thing. But, I think adopting a healthy lifestyle brings out the best in people, which blesses all of your relationships—and your entire life.”
“I learned that loving yourself is possible! My focus on self-care and self-love during this process has played such an important part [in my life],” she shares. “I may still weigh more than I’d like to, but I am so proud that I can run a consistent 10-minute mile for four to five miles or kick ass at my SoulCycle class! Yes, I loved seeing toned shoulders appear and how my calves shaped up a little more, but practicing that combination of healthy and intuitive eating, exercising, and thinking has made all the difference.”
You may also like: 13 Incredible Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do At Home
Related:
- 7 Honest Revelations From Someone Who Lost 100 Pounds, Gained It Back, Then Lost It Again
- 14 Motivational Fitness Quotes To Inspire You Every Time You Work Out
- 1 Reason Your Workout Is Preventing You From Losing Weight
The post 3 Lifestyle Changes That Helped One Woman Lose The Freshman 15 (And More) appeared first on SELF.
No comments:
Post a Comment