It’s been said time and time again — losing weight is hard.
One of the biggest problems with that sentiment is that people often coincide “hard” with “impossible.”
While losing weight can be difficult, it isn’t impossible.
Many people who are successful at losing weight, and keeping it off, state that the difficulty lies in overcoming the mental challenges rather than the physical ones.
Thus, once you wholeheartedly set your mind to doing something, that determination can move mountains.
27-years old, Kiah Twisselman, weighed 285lbs and knew a thing or two about the struggles of weight loss. In fact, she had struggled with obesity most of her life.
“I believed for a really long time that it was just my genetics, that I just got dealt a bad hand and there was nothing I could do about it,” she shared in an interview with People.
Twisselman tried it all but found little, and short-lived, success.
“I went through a lot of fad diets, and it was just this terrible cycle where I would lose weight, but then go off the diet and gain it all back and then some.”
Twisselman came from a seventh-generation cattle ranching family. And as the Director of Consumer Affairs at the Kentucky Beef Council, she didn’t feel comfortable speaking with registered dieticians and others about the nutritional benefits of beef because she was obese.
“I felt so hypocritical up there sharing about the amazing benefits of beef and not looking like an image of health.”
Things came to a head when she was flown to a work conference and had to ask for a seatbelt extender. Though it wasn’t her first time having to ask for one, she had had enough. On the flight, she read the book that would change her life.
Twisselman read Rachel Hollis’, “Girl, Wash Your Face,” and decided to follow her Five to Thrive plan.
The daily plan includes drinking half of one’s body weight in ounces of water, cutting out a food that isn’t good for you for 30 days, waking up an hour earlier than normal, moving your body for 30 minutes, and writing down what you’re grateful for.
“I wasn’t going to completely overhaul my entire lifestyle. I was going to make baby steps and see what happens,” she said.
Fortunately, all of her hard work began to pay off and it showed!
From Oct. 2018 to Jan. 2019, she lost 25 pounds. Of course, this encouraged her to keep going.
She then set a goal of losing 100 pounds by October 2019.
She surpassed her goal and lost 103 pounds, in addition to 19 pounds over the last seven months. She went from a size 20 to a size 6.
Still, she admits that she certainly hit plateaus along the way. However, instead of giving in, she found new ways to keep her motivated including trying more challenging workout videos on YouTube and experimenting with different healthy foods.
But Twisselman doesn’t chuck her success up to luck, exercise, or eating. She says it was all mental.
“When I tried to diet before, if I messed up, I would say, ‘See, you failed, you always fail.’ But this time, I started from a place of self-love.”
She continued, “… when I failed I was more willing to forgive myself and say, ‘What can I learn from this? How can I use this experience to continue moving forward?’”
Since then, Twisselman moved with her fiancé from Kentucky back to her family’s cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo, California.
She now works as a health and lifestyle coach and runs her own marketing company.
“Failure is guaranteed. Standing up for yourself is a choice. What will you choose for yourself?”
Congratulations, Kiah! What an empowering story. You can read more about her journey and her services on her website.
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