I Unintentionally Lost 10+ Pounds in 2024. Here’s What I Learned About Food, Exercise, and Health
I’ve never been a person who can lose weight when I want to. The first time I ever lost weight was after college. I was finally able to cook in a clean kitchen. I brought home my puppy Remy and was running around trying to train her and walk her. This time, I lost weight because I’m dealing with a chronic illness. I tried everything to heal, including a very strict diet. Let me rewind to share how this strict diet came to be. I had to be very motivated to stick to it, and here’s how that happened:
At the end of 2023, I had surgery and it “failed.” A few weeks after the surgery all of my symptoms came back. It was the first time it ever sunk in that this wasn’t just a short, weird illness. But I wasn’t going to give up. I radically changed my diet. I cut out gluten, dairy, sugar, and processed foods. I had already given up caffeine and alcohol a while ago. It was essentially the carnivore diet (meat, eggs, and fruit). Weight loss was never my goal. Managing my health was the goal. Here’s what I learned in the process:
Have a strong “why”
Reflecting on it, I realize that the reason why weight loss or diets never worked for me in the past is that I didn’t truly care about the end result as much as I think I did. I wanted to keep eating how I was eating, yet I wanted to lose weight. So I would try to exercise more, which made me hungrier, etc. Deep down, I didn’t have a strong “why” for changing my diet. I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone in the world but having a chronic health problem provided me the motivation that I needed to significantly alter my diet. I knew processed food like picking up an occasional decaf Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks wasn’t great, but it didn’t seem like that bad of a sin—until I was sick.
You don’t have to be sick to have a strong “why.” Changing your diet—or quitting alcohol or caffeine—could stem from a place of curiosity, experimentation, and just seeing which habits make you feel better.
If you’re trying to lose weight, focus on your diet (not exercise)
In my opinion, weight loss is 95% diet. I wouldn’t even bother trying to pick up a workout routine at first. I would focus on the habits that make eating healthier like eating in, cooking, meal prepping, research, and the mindset that is involved with giving up certain categories even in social situations. There are probably less drastic ways to lose weight but that’s not my personal story so just sharing what happened for me.
Results take a very long time
Another reason why I think weight loss failed for me in the past is I wanted faster confirmation that the changes were working. I would quit before the changes even got a chance to occur. I radically changed my diet in January 2024 and didn’t see a significant difference until May-August. Your body needs time to acclimate to the new lifestyle. Keep this in mind: If you’re only driven by results, you might get bored early and quit. What else are you driven by? What is your “why”? If you’re making a lifestyle change and not a diet change to lose weight, those are two very different things. Try to divorce your efforts from results for a while.
If you’re a woman and you regularly exercise, consider cycle-syncing your workouts
I lost weight this year and I stopped doing traditional cardio or pushing myself hard. I do pilates with Bailey Brown on her Align app which has a cycle-syncing program. You’re not supposed to do cardio or heavy weights for almost half of your cycle. If you do, you push your hormones too hard. We’re not supposed to work out like men do. This has freed me from so many previous expectations that were difficult to meet.
If you cut out gluten and dairy, you’re cutting out most processed foods
Most processed food has gluten or dairy—except for at Whole Foods where they have a lot of processed foods targeted for the gluten-free audience
I didn’t eat packaged or processed food for a lot of 2024. And I noticed a huge difference.
Eat a high protein and high fat, filling diet
In 2024, I’ve never had a more satisfied stomach. I eat so much protein. Omg so much protein. And my husband, Trace, makes these delicious stews and chilis full of fatty grass-fed ground beef, or fatty turkeys. I was eating so many healthy fats. So many avocados. So many eggs. I used to snack all the time, just mindless eating that never filled me up like pretzels or popcorn. But that’s because those snacks aren’t real food. My brain wasn’t registering fullness because there was no nutrition. If you eat a nutrition-packed diet full of protein and fat, you will not be hungry or even really need to snack between meals.
This is a more radical lifestyle change, but it’s part of our diet so I’ll share it
My husband raises and processes animals himself, or buys meat from our local farm, All Grass Farms. The meat available at the grocery store is likely full of stress hormones. Those animals also eat primarily corn/soy diets which translates into us eating all of that when we eat them. On my first date with Trace, he told me he has hens for eggs and also meat birds to process for a year’s worth of chicken. I wasn’t used to that lifestyle, but I was intrigued. It requires hard work but it’s so healthy. Trace told me his goal was to avoid going to the grocery store and it’s opened my eyes so much. This is a good book if you’re interested in any of this: The Independent Farmstead. Trace also makes homemade bone broth. It was like I was supposed to meet him to heal in more ways than one.
You don’t need to start raising chickens or processing your own meat. But a very good place to start is to get your meat from a local farm that treats its animals really well and feeds them a healthy diet. It also helps to save cooking scraps like bones and onion peels to make bone broth at home. You don’t have to do all of this right away, but if you start investing in your nutrition and the skills of spending time in the kitchen, you will reap health rewards for years to come—and weight loss is just a small fraction of that reward.
My cheat sheet to feeling better
This has helped me lose weight, have more energy, less anxiety, no period cramps, no headaches, less skin problems, etc.
Things I Never Touch
Alcohol
Caffeine
I regret the years when I would drink just because it was the norm. Caffeine makes my heart race. When I drank caffeinated coffee, I used to get headaches and occasional migraines that made me vomit, which I don’t get anymore.
Things I Avoid, But Occasionally Eat on Special Occassions
Processed food
Gluten
Dairy
Decaf coffee—decaffeinated using the swiss water method, not chemicals
Chocolate
Avoiding gluten and dairy is just avoiding processed foods. American gluten is over-processed. Regular dairy is also very processed and potentially moldy if you’re eating a product like shredded cheese from the grocery store. And last, my body just doesn’t seem to tolerate chocolate. I think this is an odd one that most other people don’t have. It makes my heart race and my sinuses congested.
What I Primarily Eat
Meat
Fruits
Vegetables
Eggs
Dried Fruits: dates, mangoes, figs
Rice cakes from Whole Foods or any other packaged food that is just a few real ingredients
Coconut yogurt (I add blueberries on top)
Overnight oats with bananas is a fast meal-prep breakfast when you need it on the go
Real sugars like pure maple syrup and local, raw honey. We’ve been trying to purchase these types of products in glass jars when possible.
Loose leaf herbal tea. I love the Wellness Tea Assortment from Smith Tea
Sometimes I make gluten-free banana bread or something like that
Bone broth
Fronen ice cream. This is a brand I found at Whole Foods. Their vanilla ice cream is just coconut cream, water, honey, and vanilla extract
