Weight loss is a journey, not a destination. It's about improving overall health and well-being, not just appearance. Maintaining a healthy weight can reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension, improve mobility and energy levels, and boost mental health. The following stories highlight the experiences of women who have successfully lost 70 pounds, showcasing their strategies, challenges, and triumphs.
The Importance of Weight Loss
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), maintaining a healthy weight can significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases and improve overall health. Even a modest weight loss of 5% to 10% of total body weight can lead to significant health benefits, such as improvements in blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugars. For women, weight loss can mean better management of menopausal symptoms, increased energy to keep up with family and work responsibilities, and a boost in self-esteem.
The American Heart Association notes that weight loss can reduce the burden on the heart, decrease the risk of certain cancers, and enhance respiratory function. The Mayo Clinic adds that weight loss can also lead to better sleep and reduced symptoms of sleep apnea. A study by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America found that weight loss can lead to a reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety. This underscores the importance of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
Ashley (Aevie) Vielma: Breaking the Cycle
Ashley (Aevie) Vielma, 35, comes from a large family where gatherings centered around food and relaxation were the norm. She had been considered overweight for as long as she could remember. Throughout her adolescent years, doctors would make comments about her weight. When she was around 10 years old, she remembers being self-conscious about her weight and thinking about diets.
Her weight increased to 205 pounds, and she had issues with her thyroid and blood pressure. Plus, she saw family members with high cholesterol and diabetes, and she expected the same future for herself. In September 2019, she needed a physical for work and discovered that she was borderline diabetic. Since then, she’s found ways to eat mindfully, build her strength, improve her blood-sugar levels and lose 70 pounds.
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Finding a Sustainable Solution
Vielma wanted to break the unhealthy cycle that had plagued her family for generations. She realized that deprivation and high-intensity workouts wouldn’t work for her long-term. She listened to the "Losing 100 Pounds with Corinne" podcast, which focuses on lifestyle changes. The podcast taught her that if you’re going to change your lifestyle, you should make it something you can stick to for the rest of your life.
Reconnecting with Pilates
Vielma recalled that her rehab after knee surgery had included some Pilates-based movements. She looked up studios near her home in Houston, and Club Pilates popped up. Pilates is a full-body conditioning program designed to stretch, tone, and strengthen your body with a focus on breath and posture.
She began going to classes once a week and started paying attention to her inner awareness, how she was breathing outside of class, and her posture when she was sitting and standing. She made small changes, and Pilates was a constant part of that process.
Learning About Mindful Eating
Vielma began keeping a food journal, not to count calories but to be aware of what she was eating and how it made her feel. She never eliminated anything; she just lowered the quantity. She experimented with how she felt after, for example, eating less cheese or drinking less sugary drinks. By eating mindfully, she improved her relationship with herself.
Stacy Larson: A Costco Employee's Wellness Journey
Stacy Larson, 55, was overweight, unhappy, and ready for a change. Her weight loss journey started on October 25, 2015. She works for Costco, and they offer their employees a wellness program called Prevent. She was sick of feeling like she was just existing instead of actually living her life. She had no energy or desire to do anything, so she pushed herself to sign up for the program.
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The process started with an initial weigh-in. She learned that she weighed 206 pounds. The first step was revamping her diet. She cut out pizza, bagels, Mountain Dew, bread, sugar, and diet soda. She started having scrambled eggs (one whole egg, one egg white) with fruit for breakfast. For lunch, she'll have a protein like chicken or fish with some veggies, and dinner is usually protein again with some quinoa and even more veggies. Throughout the day she likes to snack on any kind of fruit she can get her hands on, or she'll have something crunchy like celery.
She made exercise a part of her daily routine, too. At the gym she uses the elliptical, she walks on the treadmill, and she spends a good 10 or 15 minutes just stretching out afterward to give her muscles some TLC. She lost 70 pounds. She just started wearing a size 8-she hasn't been a size 8 in forever! Being healthy is her lifestyle now. She feels better about herself, and she has more energy. She actually wants to get up in the morning, whereas she always used to want to sleep in.
Jennifer Squire: A Son's Heartfelt Plea
Jennifer Squire weighed 210 pounds, and her joints were riddled with arthritis. The wake-up call came just before Christmas 2023. Looking in the mirror became unbearable. Her 24-year-old son, Nico, told her, "I feel like you've just given up," and that broke her heart. He said: "Mom, it feels like you don't even want to be here. I want you to be around-especially if I have kids someday."
Hearing that was the push she needed. With their love and support, she committed to turning her life around. On January 30, Squire committed to transforming her lifestyle by giving up daily takeout meals and fully dedicating herself to workouts. Recognizing she needed support, she enlisted the help of Ultimate Performance, a global personal training company, where she began working with a personal trainer.
Focusing on Nutrition
Together, the pair focused on her fitness and diet. Squire initially reduced her calorie intake to 1,300 per day. The biggest change for her has been understanding diet and nutrition in a way she never had before. She'd never tracked or logged her food, and in the past, she tried every diet out there-juicing, Keto, you name it!
Read also: Before & After Weight Loss Stories
With a consistent regimen of weight training three to four times a week, 30 minutes of cardio, and maintaining 15,000 steps daily, the office manager's weight dropped to 149.5 pounds. Now in the maintenance phase, she has increased her calorie intake to approximately 2,200 calories per day, ensuring she sustains her progress.
Kathy Woods: Pushing Past the Plateau
Start TODAY member Kathy Woods contacted because she was frustrated by the fact that she works out consistently and eats right, but her weight hasn’t changed in months. Plus, she gained 7 pounds over the holidays that has stuck around. When she began her journey she was 242 pounds. She lost 70 pounds and continues to make her health a priority and maintain her weight loss with daily workouts and healthy eating.
Small Lifestyle Changes
I was able to meet up with Kathy in her home, take a good look at her daily routine and identify areas where we could make changes to improve her mental and physical health.
Here are the 7 strategies I encouraged her to implement:
- Try a morning mindset reset
- Start the day with water, then enjoy a coffee
- She walks on an incline on the treadmill and even wears a weighted vest! Because Kathy is so high-strung, high-powered and pushes so much in her everyday life, my worry is that a hard workout will only put her body under more stress. Therefore, I recommend that a few times a week she replaces these workouts with more relaxing movement, like stretching, yoga, light strength training or Pilates. I encouraged her to listen to her body and practice “intuitive exercising," slowing down when her body needs a rest.
- Add foods that make meals more filling
- Put healthy foods front and center
- Ditch the electronics in bed
- Create a relaxing nighttime routine to make bedtime “me time”
Kathy finally was able to push past the plateau and has lost five pounds by making no other changes than the strategies I gave her.
A UPS Employee's Journey to Becoming a Certified Personal Trainer
I live in Maine, and I work for UPS and am currently studying to become a certified personal trainer. I stopped drinking and started keeping a food journal to develop a better relationship with food, lifted weights, and lost 70 pounds.
I struggled with my weight since I was in the first grade. I forever felt like the third wheel anytime I was around friends or at social events. I skipped events (such as my high school prom) because I didn’t feel good next to my thin friends. I always felt like I couldn’t do certain things due to my weight, and it only got worse as I got older. I used alcohol to mask my feelings about my body, which in turn only helped rack up the pounds.
Making a Change
By March 2018, I felt that I really needed to do something about my weight. I had always been an XL in clothes, but I had creeped up into an XXL…then sizes beyond that. I knew I had to make a change before my health spiraled (completely) out of control. Initially, I started working on my nutrition using a food container system. It taught me how to be more mindful of my portions and what I should be prioritizing in my overall diet. Eventually I stopped using the container and portion system and started journaling my food. I also started to drink much more water.
Diet and Exercise
Here’s what I eat in a day now.
Breakfast: Organic greens and a post-workout Kaged Muscle protein shake used as cereal milk in Highkey protein cereal; or a blended shake with protein powder, unsweetened almond or cashew milk, spinach or frozen cauliflower, and frozen cherries and/or strawberries.
Lunch: My spin on a "Chicken gyro" using Joseph's pita, Cedars hot pepper/garlic Tzatziki, air-fried chicken breaded in paleo powder breadcrumbs, Alexia sweet potato tots, and air-fried steamed broccoli. Or ,when I'm on the go, I always prep big salads packed with assorted veggies and lean protein such as chicken breast.
Snacks: Berries or sugar snap peas are my go-to raw snacks; protein bars in moderation (Built bars and Quest bars are my faves); Smart Sweets; Laughing Cow cheese wedges; fat-free cottage cheese with Everything But The Bagel seasoning; or a homemade baked protein good
Dinner: Steamed broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, air-fried with lean protein (chicken breast, lean ground turkey). All of my dinners include a vegetable base and a lean protein
Dessert: Fage 0% Greek yogurt topped with berries (I love adding cinnamon or nutmeg). Sometimes I'll add 1-2 tbsp sugar-free cheesecake pudding mix with a little cashew milk for a cheesecake "dip" flavor
I also started working out right away. It was hard. In the beginning, I needed to use modifications for nearly every move. I continued showing up everyday and I got stronger. My workouts were feeling easier and I was starting to feel really good afterward. Over time, I realized I really enjoyed lifting weights. I continued doing mostly strength training workouts, and I started focusing on doing what I enjoy versus what everyone else was doing. That's when I noticed the biggest changes. I did what made me happiest.
Key Changes
These three changes made the biggest difference in my weight-loss results.
- I started to meal prep.
- I adopted the mantra: Rise and grind.
- I started listening to my body.
In one year, I have lost a total of 70 pounds.
Nikki: Finding Balance
Nikki discovered a sustainable approach that helped her lose over 70 pounds through Weight Watchers. "Growing up, I always struggled with my weight. I struggled with binge eating where I liked to eat food in private," Nikki says in her post. "I would take snacks from downstairs and hide them in my room until I was able to go up there and eat them." Even as a college volleyball player, she continued to battle with her weight.
Commitment to Change
This readiness came after hitting rock bottom for Nikki: "I was working 50-hour weeks at a bakery while running my cookie business on the side. Some nights, I'd get only 30 minutes of sleep," she says. "My toes would be numb at work. I felt sick all the time. I was out of breath going upstairs, my knees hurt, and my back hurt.
One night, scrolling through Instagram, Nikki discovered Weight Watchers' online program. "I decided to ask my husband if he would want to sign up to try something new," she says. Despite her initial reluctance, Nikki committed to taking progress photos.
Tracking Progress
Nikki was shocked by her initial discoveries: "When I first started, I was eating triple my points in a day in just one meal. This time around my focus was just 30 days of tracking every meal. In the past, I would always set specific weight goals and it would just bring me down." The results were immediate: "Within the first week of tracking my meals, I saw progress.
After losing 35 pounds through nutrition alone, Nikki found her perfect exercise match: "In the past, I would force myself to do things that I did not enjoy - running or going to the gym and doing burpees. This time, I started rollerblading.
A New Way of Life
For Nikki, this was crucial: "I used to cry every single day in 2019 and 2020 before I made the choice to take control of my life. Mental health is just as important as physical health. Nikki lost 70 pounds in one year - 50 in the first five months and 20 over the next six. The transformation affected every aspect of Nikki's life.
Nikki agrees: "Consistency is so important. Take it one day at a time. Don't overwhelm yourself with a bunch of changes at once. These small changes start to make you feel better, and each day gets easier when you develop these healthier habits that you can stick to.
Zealthy Success Stories
Zealthy has emerged as a beacon of hope for many women, offering a unique combination of GLP-1 medications, personalized coaching, and comprehensive support. The following success stories highlight the transformative impact Zealthy has had on these women's lives, showcasing not just weight loss but also improvements in overall health, confidence, and quality of life.
Lindsay's Transformation: Embracing a Healthier Self
Lindsay's story is one of renewed self-confidence and physical wellness. She joined Zealthy with the hope of feeling more comfortable in her own skin. "In the two months that I have been on GLP-1 medications, I've lost 20 pounds, which is amazing," Lindsay shares. With guidance from Zealthy's weight loss coaches and a newfound commitment to regular gym visits, Lindsay has banished her cravings for junk food and fast food.
Krystina's Year of Transformation
Krystina's struggle with weight loss had been long and challenging. Despite trying various methods, nothing seemed to work until she found Zealthy. "I lost almost 70 pounds in a year," she proudly states. The reasonable pricing and comprehensive support from Zealthy were key factors in her success. Krystina's journey also included overcoming emotional eating.
Kat's New Relationship with Food
For Kat, Zealthy has been more than a weight loss program; it has reshaped her relationship with food. "It's teaching me to have a new relationship with food. It's not all I think about anymore," she says. In just four weeks, she lost 12 pounds and is excited to see further results.
Janelle's Steady and Sustainable Weight Loss
Janelle's weight loss journey has been marked by steady and sustainable progress. Having tried various diets and exercise regimes without success, she turned to Zealthy. "When I joined Zealthy, it wasn't just about the GLP-1 medications. It was also the support that you get through your weight loss coach," Janelle explains. This combination helped her lose weight gradually and healthily.
Geri's Convenient and Effective Journey
Geri's story underscores the convenience and effectiveness of Zealthy. "I started about 11 weeks ago and I have lost 12 pounds and I feel wonderful," she reports. Geri chose Zealthy for its affordability and ease of use. The automatic delivery and intuitive instructions made the process seamless and successful for her.
Carol's Encouraging Support System
Carol joined Zealthy after seeing the success of her friends. "I have actually several friends that have joined and are taking the weight loss injections and seeing incredible success," she notes. The support and encouragement from Zealthy's coaches have been instrumental in her journey. In five weeks, she has lost 11 pounds and feels better every day.
Stephanie's Simple and Effective Routine
Stephanie's routine with Zealthy is simple yet effective. "Once a week I just inject with this tiny tiny needle. It helps me manage the amount of food that I'm eating," she explains. Having lost half of her weight goal, she feels more motivated to stay active and go to the gym.