Success Story #18 CK

Name:                            C. Kober
Improvement:              20 lbs. Weight Loss / 4.5% Reduction of Body Fat
Time:                              3 months
Program:                       2013 Total Transformation Challenge

What was your biggest challenge / obstacle (s)?
My biggest challenge was making myself come first. I always put my kids, spouse, and family first. For the first time in years I put myself first. I allowed time for exercise and I bought foods that were healthy and nutritious. In the end my changes made my family healthy too. My 10 year old son eats salads every night and protein shakes for breakfast. We don’t have any soda, white bread, fatty foods, cookies or cake in the house anymore and we only have healthy snacks. I’m no longer on a “diet” I just changed how I eat and make healthy choices.
 
What motivated you to stay on the course?
The best motivation is success. When I started to see the weight come off it really kept me motivated. The Transformation Challenge was very helpful in keeping me motivated because it forced me to weigh in weekly and it forced me to be aware of the amount of exercise I was doing. I also walk daily with a friend “Raina” at lunch. We start at the front of the hospital walk around to the parking garage up to the 6th floor and back to the front door. It equals about 1.5 miles so even if I don’t get to the gym every night I have the support of a friend to make sure I get one workout in a day.
 
Did your diet change? If so, How? Please be detailed!
Absolutely! I only eat 100% whole wheat bread, oatmeal, quinoa and brown rice. I eat most of my carbs at breakfast and lunch and I avoid carbs after lunch time ( including fruit).  I eat breakfast every morning and I always pack my lunch including healthy snacks. I eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. I eat dinner by 7:00pm every night and never eat after dinner. My favorite snack is Greek yogurt with fruit. I never get so hungry that I overeat which helps keep good portion sizes. I focus on high protein and low fat foods but what I think was the most important was the sodium content. I stopped eating processed foods like Lean Cuisine frozen dinners because of their high sodium content. I also continue to try new healthy recipes that taste great like kale salad, spinach/mushroom omelets, brown rice sushi rolls (make at home) and homemade soups.
 
What advice could you give to others that want the same results?
Stay with it no matter what the scale says. I started about one year ago to change my diet and exercise. I stopped because I was frustrated by weight gain. I ended up gaining an additional  10 pounds more which just made things worse. I tried counting calories, I tried Weight Watchers, I tried Atkins, I tried South Beach Diet, but at the end of the day none of them worked for me. I just had to change the way I eat. It took me 6 months to lose 3 pounds but then it started to come off slowly (1 to 1.5) pounds a week.
 
How is this experience going to affect you going forward?
My cholesterol and my blood pressure went from high to normal. I think after one year of making changes I will never go back to my old ways. I am more active, I sleep better and I have more energy. Why would I go back? So I can feel terrible and have no energy? My next goal is to help others. My mom has lost over 25 pounds since we started and is doing great. I have several friends that want to lose weight and exercise so we started to walk on the weekends and sometimes after work if we can’t get together we walk and talk on our cell phones to keep each other company. My next goal is to get my husband to quit smoking.​