15 Feb Casey Bradburn: Diet as the Key to Success
By Lifebook Member Casey Bradburn
If you even briefly met me at any time during my first 31-ish years of life, you would have known that I was tough. I just exuded an aura of bad@$$ery. I was fit, I was strong, and I was confident. I even birthed two 8- and 9-pound (posterior) babies naturally. I was one of those people that if I put my mind to something, there wasn’t anything that would stop me from reaching my goals.
Fast forward a little bit and the last few years have been tumultuous with various stressors from multiple categories, and over time I slowly got worn down and lost a lot of that. Of myself. I knew I needed to kick it back in gear and this challenge was the perfect motivation to do just that.
Okay, so now for the challenge. What were my goals, what were my results, what happened?
Well, my main goal was to lose 10 pounds, which was pretty aggressive. My secondary goals were to be able to do 2+ pull-ups and 12+ push-ups again.
I’m happy to announce that I hit all of these goals!
I surpassed my main goal and lost over 13.2 pounds in less than 30 days, which is about 8% of my weight.
How did I do it? I’m glad you asked…
We know that diet and exercise are generally the two main weight-loss components and I tried to focus on both as much as possible, but if I’m being honest, diet was the main key to my success. I started out knowing I needed to not only eat less, but also be conscious and cognizant of what I was consuming and focus on planning for healthier options. I knew if I could incorporate hitting the gym, playing basketball, and doing yoga more consistently, that would help boost my progress too.
The first couple weeks I was good at incorporating more workout time into my routine and cutting down on snacks and alcohol, etc. I even (mostly) behaved while in Florida for work. 🙂 I lost a few pounds, but then I plateaued. About that same time, we had company visit and we all went out on the town for a couple days in a row and that almost threw everything I had worked for (weight-wise) out the window.
I needed to do something major to step it back up, so I started a cleanse. I knew how strict it was and what I was getting myself into, but I also knew it gave results and I could continue the same dietary principals to get more fit even after it was finished. While on the cleanse, I have continued to increase the consistency of my workouts and really focus on sticking to the strict rules. It’s tempting to cheat, but I read something not too long ago that said “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” and I use that for motivation.
Of course there are a whole slew of other ancillary factors that come into play too, but when you look and feel good, you’re already halfway to being unstoppable!
It has been a fun journey and I know there are still a couple days left of the challenge, so for now, I’m going to keep rocking it! 🙂