100 Pounds Lost
Weight Loss Success Stories: Stephanie Lost 174 Pounds By Hitting the Gym Hard
How eating healthy and working out changed Stephanie Briseno’s life and career.
Vitals: Stephanie Briseno, 23,Brownsville,TX
Occupation: Student / Certified personal trainer
Height: 5’5″
Time Required to Reach Goal: 1 year, 4 months
Lesson Learned: “Nutrition is 80 percent of the battle. You need to fuel your metabolism.”
Secret Weapon: “My food journal. Writing down my daily and weekly goals, plus some inspirational quotes, really kept me focused.”
Weight before: 314
Weight after: 140
The Gain
Growing up, Stephanie Briseno paid too much attention to the TV and not enough to her plate. Her couch-potato ways took a toll. “I ate two fast-food meals a day,” she says. By her junior year in college, Stephanie’s blood pressure was sky-high and her XXL shirts were tight.
The Change
In August 2007, a free fitness test lured Stephanie into a Gold’s Gym. The 21-year-old was shocked to learn that she weighed 314 pounds and was a target for hypertension and diabetes, diseases that ran in her family. “It hit me that I had to do something,” she says.
The Lifestyle
Stephanie’s health scare turned her into a gym rat overnight. She worked up from 10- to 15-minute walks on the treadmill to hour-long elliptical sessions. But it wasn’t until October 2007, when Stephanie signed on with a personal trainer who got her to keep a food journal, that she realized how poorly she was eating. She traded her longtime drive-thru habit for a healthy new one: reading food labels. It wasn’t long before she was choosing healthier options. “Now I can’t live without baby spinach,” she says. Her trainer varied her workout routine with intervals, swimming, and light weights. Stephanie rang in 2008 weighing less than 200 pounds, and by May, she’d dropped 50 more. This past January she settled around 140, less than half what she weighed the first time she ever set foot in a gym.
The Reward
In addition to energy and confidence, Stephanie discovered a career path. She changed her major to exercise science and nutrition and completed her personal-trainer certification last August. “Motivating people, changing lives—that’s what I want to do,” she says.
Stephanie’s Tips
Plan what’s next “At weekly weigh-ins, I always set a new goal to work toward.”
Get your fill “I mix a scoop of protein powder with water or have a protein bar every day.”
Up the flavor “I hated oatmeal until I started adding blueberries or strawberries to it.”
Source: Womenshealthmag
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Letetia Parker
August 7, 2015 at 3:41 pm
What an inspiration you are!
Audrey Wheeler
August 7, 2015 at 10:55 am
<3
Norma Larrazolo
August 7, 2015 at 10:04 am
Wow
Karen Enslin Dukerich
August 7, 2015 at 9:08 am
You look fantastic
Becky Ralph Hines
August 7, 2015 at 8:57 am
Awesome!
Holly Franklin Ralph
August 7, 2015 at 7:46 am
Holly Franklin Ralph
En Em Malik
August 7, 2015 at 3:46 am
Meow Khan
Thandie Mashoany Mpopo
August 7, 2015 at 3:23 am
Just read the story and I’m so motivated
Raundi Wilson
August 7, 2015 at 3:13 am
Thank you, I forgot I promised 1 plank today.
Wendy Swanepoel
August 7, 2015 at 3:03 am
you look fantastic you are a winner well done
Marie Johnson
August 7, 2015 at 1:24 am
You look fantastic!!
Roxann Shively
August 7, 2015 at 1:19 am
Awesome, Shannon, see we CAN
Connie Johnson
August 7, 2015 at 1:11 am
Wow. Great job. And an inspiration to others
Penny Helms
August 7, 2015 at 1:11 am
Awesome..”
Roberta Germain
August 7, 2015 at 12:36 am
You look amazing