Weight Loss Success Story: How One Woman Shed Over 100 Pounds and Changed Her Life

Leanna Reiling's small steps made a big difference.

Before: 256 lbs

After: 149 lbs

Leanna Reiling, a 32-year-old project manager from Beaverton, Oregon, rarely ate fresh fruits and veggies as a teen, preferring comfort foods like cheeseburgers and beef stroganoff. As she entered her 20s, her waistline only grew. "It was a downward spiral," she says. After a long day on the job, she'd plop onto the couch with a bowl of cheesy pasta and watch TV until she fell asleep. By age 29, Leanna, at 5'0", weighed over 250 pounds.

The Change

Leanna's mother died at age 47 due to complications from obesity. Leanna was devastated and feared she'd face the same fate if she continued her ways. But it was only after she gave birth to her son in April 2011 that her diet and exercise routine got a real kick-start. As Leanna sat with her infant son watching an episode of Extreme Weight Loss, she cried as she related to the overweight women on the show. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was bound to miss out on important moments in her son's life. "I just looked at him and thought, It's time," she says.

The Lifestyle

Instead of deleting entire food groups, Leanna paid attention to portions and measured what she ate. She also bought an elliptical machine and logged 15 minutes of cardio each day. "I tried strength circuits I found online, too," she says. "I fell in love with kettlebells!" It took her about a year to shed 50 pounds, but once she got under the 200-pound mark, there was no going back. Leanna hit the kitchen to whip up breakfast smoothies and healthy salad dressings. She starting walking and then—slowly—running outside. "You could hardly call it a run back then," she says. By January 2013, she'd lost another 25 pounds. She upped her speed and distance each week and soon found herself cruising through sub-eight-minute miles. When her weight loss plateaued, she changed up her routine with calorie-torching hot yoga or a cycling class. By July 2013, Leanna's total pounds lost hit the triple digits.

The Reward

"I celebrated losing 100 pounds with designer jeans—in a size 4!" says Leanna. She loves her new body, but what she loves even more is challenging it in races—to date, Leanna has run more than 20. "It's such an amazing release," she says. Now she likes to run up tough hills while pushing her son in a stroller. "I did all of this for me and my son," she says.

Leanna's Tips

See it. "I update a vision board every month with motivational quotes and pictures from magazines [including this very page!]. It helps me stay focused on my dreams."

Know your shape. "I'll always be heavier on the bottom. I just do more squats and lunges so it's shaped nicely."

Read before you eat. "Sometimes I reach for a convenience-store muffin, but then I look at the calorie count, and it deters me from doing something I'd regret later."

from Women's Health Magazine - Weight Loss http://ift.tt/15GE6Jg

Read more »

How 10 Women Successfully Lost Weight During the Holidays

Yep, you read that right.

With all the temptations the holidays have to offer, you might think that you'll have enough trouble maintaining your weight, let alone shedding a few pounds before the New Year. But shrinking during the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas is possible—just check out these tips from real women who were able to enjoy festive food and holiday parties and drop weight:

@WomensHealthMag recovery is key! I commit to fitting in workouts and clean eating on the days that I'm not "celebrating."

— Ali Maffucci (@Inspiralized) November 24, 2014

@WomensHealthMag Volunteer to take care of all snow shovelling/dog walking etc. Eat whatever on Xmas but get back on the wagon the next day

— Sylvie Tremblay (@sylvieltremblay) November 24, 2014

@WomensHealthMag eat all the goodies of the season, but in the right quantities. Snack & strategically walk away to focus on other things.

— Julie (@juliegiga) November 24, 2014

@WomensHealthMag I have dessert only on weekends... that has helped the holiday temptations!

— myactiveparents.com (@myactiveparents) November 24, 2014

@WomensHealthMag Always eat healthy up until my big, cheat meal - which is the holiday meal in this case - then back on track after that!

— Shauna Carpenter (@shaunareinhold) November 24, 2014

@WomensHealthMag 1. Get outdoors as much as possible 2. Allow/limit yourself to one treat a day 3. Keep to the one plate rule

— Jemma Young (@jem_002) November 25, 2014

@WomensHealthMag I signed up for a Black Friday gym membership. Made it my goal to loose weight during the holidays & did!

— Carla Hashley (@CarlaAH) November 25, 2014

@WomensHealthMag a few xmas' ago,I stayed ,just around the corner from the hotel gym.exercised every oppurtunity and ate raw broccolli.

— courtney fuller (@courtneyjaune) November 24, 2014

@WomensHealthMag Focusing on time with friends & family rather than food helps us stick to our healthy eating habits during the holidays

— Another Root (@AnotherRoot) November 25, 2014

@WomensHealthMag #planking with my kids in AM & PM during the holidays motivates me to stay strong in food choices! http://ift.tt/15AyO27

— Jala Wharton (@fitnessmodelmom) November 25, 2014

More From Women's Health:

7 Ways to Lose Weight This Holiday Season

5 Ways to Stay on Track for Weight Loss When You're an Out-of-Town Guest

8 Creative Ways to Burn More Calories This Thanksgiving

from Women's Health Magazine - Weight Loss http://ift.tt/1rmqjS4

Read more »

6 Tricks for Training Your Taste Buds to Crave Healthy Foods

News flash: It's possible—even easy—to embrace nutritious foods you used to loathe.

Straight from the Captain Obvious department: About 90 percent of women often experience the intense desire to scarf down foods like cookies, potato chips, and other diet disasters, according to new research. Here's what you don't know: You can kill your worst cravings without waging an all-out willpower war. Turns out, most junk food-related yearnings are learned over time, based on years and years of steady exposure (flashback to grade-school sleepovers and late-night dorm ordering). But it's never too late to retrain your taste buds to lust after nutrient-dense fare—even those veggies you swear you can't stand. Get to it with an assist from the folks who study how to do just that.

1. Taper Off the Trash

Frequent consumption of sugary, fatty, or salty foods both hooks and dulls your taste buds; eventually, you'll need to shovel in more to score the same level of satisfaction. Luckily, the opposite is also true: The less of a food you eat, the less of it you need to score a rush, says David Katz, M.D., a nutrition expert at the Yale School of Medicine and author of Disease Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well. The key is cutting down in baby steps. If, for example, you typically take three sugars in your coffee, try adding only two this week, then one the next. Within a month, you'll notice that smaller amounts of your guilty pleasures are enough to hit the spot—leaving your palate more receptive to new flavors.

2. Try, Then Try Again

Even if you didn't grow up loving legumes, there's still hope. Studies show that kids who keep trying just a single bite of a health food they dislike (think: those Brussels sprouts) will eventually lose that aversion. "Such training works the same way with adults, and often faster," says Brian Wansink, Ph.D., a professor of marketing at Cornell University and author of Slim By Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life. After sampling something three to five times, you'll start to think, "This isn't so weird or awful." says Wansink. "Before you know it, you'll actually enjoy the flavor."

3. Mix Old with New

Still having trouble downing bitter greens, or feeling kind of meh about root veggies? Pair them with a sprinkling of something you do like. Stir-fry bok choy in a bit of soy sauce, for instance, or dust roasted turnips with some Parmesan cheese. "Initially, what you're doing is masking their flavor, but after several exposures, your brain forms a positive association with both tastes," says Alan Hirsch, M.D., neurological director of Chicago's Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation. "You'll soon find you like the new food on its own."

4. Don't Follow Your Nose

It may not be the flavor of, say, cauliflower or broccoli that you object to, but the smell. "Green peppers, for example, have a bitter taste but a rather sweet scent, so most people find them agreeable to eat," explains Hirsch. To make odoriferous vegetables more palatable, boil or steam them to remove sulfurous (a.k.a. stinky) compounds. Then serve them in a different room. Note: Your sense of smell is at its weakest in the evening. So if we've inspired you to play around with your food choices, know that nighttime's the right time to start getting adventurous.

5. Keep Up Appearances

Pretty plating can also put you in the mood: In a recent study, diners rated an artfully arranged salad as 18 percent more yummy than less attractive salads containing the exact same ingredients. While you're at it, place greens on the right side of your dinner plate. "Americans typically tackle that side first," says Wansink. "Putting vegetables or nutritious food there means you'll eat it faster."

6. Adjust the Volume

Though experts aren't quite sure why, the soundtrack to your meals can influence your fickle tongue. Loud noise (e.g., techno) tends to make food taste less flavorful, according to a study in Food Quality and Preference, while music that could be described as more pleasant (like piano-based tunes) seems to enhance flavors. It could be that your brain is so intent on processing jarring sounds that it underperceives tastes—a reaction you can use to your advantage. Play mellow tracks (or whatever takes you to your sonic happy place) to keep yourself eating the healthy food you already dig; pump up the volume when introducing bitters such as okra or collards into your diet.

More from Women's Health:

7 Ways to Eat More Veggies

3 Ways to Curb Sugar and Carb Cravings

7 Ways Nutritionists Deal When They Get Cravings for Unhealthy Foods

from Women's Health Magazine - Weight Loss http://ift.tt/1FrLanW

Read more »

How Much Should You Exercise to Lose Weight?

Breathe: You don't need to sweat 24/7.

This article was written by Leta Shy and repurposed with permission from POPSUGAR Fitness.

The contestants on The Biggest Loser spend hours a day in the gym with one goal in mind—to lose the most weight. But how frequently should you exercise to drop pounds in the real world? For Michelle Bridges, a trainer on the Australian version of the show and author of Total Body Transformation , the amount of time you work out every week can unlock a key to weight-loss success that is about more than just caloric burn.

Bridge's magic number for her weight-loss clients: six days a week, ideally for 50 to 60 minutes at a time. But while hours of exercise a week will surely help you create a calorie deficit, that's not the only reason the trainer wants her clients to find time for a work out almost every day. "We're setting up habits and rituals," says Bridge. "Think about the last time you had to psych yourself up to brush your teeth," she says. In other words, when your workout becomes just another part of your day, you're more likely to do it without a second thought.

If the idea of almost-daily hour-long workouts sounds exhausting, Michelle assures you that it won't feel like that. She recommends you break up your workouts into three "hard" days of exercise, such as interval training, along with two moderate days and one "passive" or light-exercise day. "You don't have to train like an Olympian all the time, but it's [about] building in those habits," says Bridge. "I guarantee that someone who has the habit of training six days a week, even if they miss a couple, is going to be more consistent than someone who only trains three days a week." Just like how regular brushing maintains your bright, healthy smile, a habitual workout routine will produce real weight-loss results.

More from POPSUGAR Fitness:

What It Really Feels Like Trying to Lose Weight

Do These 10 Things in Your Kitchen to Lose Weight

20 Tried-and-Tested Weight-Loss Tips That Work

from Women's Health Magazine - Weight Loss http://ift.tt/1xCt523

Read more »