{How She Did It!} Malissa shares how she lost 30 pounds!

Good evening, good evening. This is Jennifer Dent here, your health and success coach, and I'm here with Melissa Love. And today or tonight is our second How She Did It series, and I'm super excited to talk to Melissa live. This is our first time actually visually seeing each other live, so it's nice to see you there, Melissa, over in New Jersey. So what we're going to do today is just talk about Melissa's experience experience. She has recently released 30 pounds. Yay! She is a member of the SAP Guiding Forever group. And so, you know, we always like to hear success stories. How did she do it? Maybe there's something that we can glean from her experience that we can take with us and that will help propel us to the next level. So thank you, Melissa. I know you are tired. I know it's been a long day for you. Um, but I appreciate you so much for being here. And I, like I said, your story is going to inspire a lot of women. So let's get into it. If anyone is live and you guys have questions, you can type them below and we will go ahead and answer those questions while we're here live. All right, Melissa, so tell everybody how we got connected.

Um, I found— I first saw you on Facebook and I joined, uh, the online group that you had at that time. And I, I, I, we, we spoke on a private conversation we had. I think it was an hour conversation and it was quite inspiring for me because I've learned so much within that hour that I didn't thought that I would have learned in just an hour. I thought it would have had to been like days and days of talking with you because I was set in my ways doing my own thing and I'm like, oh, what is she going to tell me? I don't think she can tell me anything any different now. But I must say that I've learned a lot in that time. It was just moving from one thing to the next and it was inspiring.

So I remember that was, we had that conversation last year, right? Yeah, and I was doing the 1-hour sessions, paid sessions, um, and you told me how busy you were as a nursing professional and you were just go, go, go, and it was hard for you to like get on a schedule, right?

Yeah.

So tell us, take us back to that time when you were 30+ pounds. How are you feeling? What were you doing? What was your life like at that time?

At that time, I was so busy, just busy and with work and school and everything else, and didn't think that I had time to do meal preps or exercise or any of that, because I felt like I was just too busy. By the time I'm done with all my daily stuff, I'm tired, I'm exhausted. So it's like, no, I have no time for this. So at that time, I wasn't feeling good because I was always tired. First of all, I was always exhausted because of course I'm overweight, unhealthy, and everything else to go with it. So I really wasn't feeling good with myself at that time.

And I remember the conversation. You seemed very determined though, even though you had a lot going on. And based on your schedule and what you were telling me, I was Like, even I was like, I don't know how she's going to do it. But you seem very determined, like you're going to get your meal, your meal prep down, and you seem just like you're just like, I have to do this. So from a coach's perspective, when I see that in a person, I'm like, oh yeah, they're definitely going to succeed because they have that drive and that determination. Um, would you agree that how you felt after we talked about that? That initial conversation?

I did, on the night of the conversation, I was like, oh, I don't like how I, when I look at myself in the mirror, I absolutely don't like that person that I see in the mirror. And then speaking with you, it's like it motivated me because you said some things to me that, you know, that you you can do it. And I guess that's what I needed, the motivation, because me just looking at myself in the mirror, that wasn't enough motivation. So at that point, talking to you really, really helped me because of what you said to me, you know, like, you got this, you can do it. And I'm thinking to myself, oh no, she don't know. But I still went ahead and it sure helped.

Sometimes you just need a plan, right? Sometimes you just need someone to help you walk through a plan so you can figure it out.

Yeah.

Okay, so at that time, I know you were busy with school. How did that impact your life? How did that extra 30 pounds impact your life at that time?

A great lot. It was a big impact because it— it— you've— you just feel so, like, bad. You're tired all the time. You're exhausted. You're— it's like, it's a big impact, like a negative impact, more or less. So it wasn't the best feeling.

Yeah. And it's hard when you're carrying all that weight and you have a really, really hectic schedule. Just makes it seem even harder.

Yeah, absolutely.

So you're in the group, right? So you're a participant in the group, the Stop Fighting Forever Accountability Group, which is my— if you're not familiar with it, it's my free Facebook group. You can search Stop Fighting Forever Accountability Group and request to join. We have monthly challenges every month. And we just, you know, I'm in there keeping people accountable for what their goals are. So you posted your goals in the group, and do you remember what your initial goals were, Melissa?

My initial goal was to lose weight, to have a schedule, like, you know, that I can work with, that's doable, a reality schedule basically, not like me just saying like, oh, I just wanna lose 30 pounds, but I'm gonna lose it tomorrow. So I set a goal and a time that I wanted to work with, and which helped me with that goal. And I wanted to, for the weight loss, it's like I had to do like meal preps and exercise and all these other stuff that came with it. So that was my goal, to lose weight, which I've done and I feel great today. Because I met my goal. I even exceeded my goal, which was awesome.

Okay, so we're going to rewind there for a second. Michelle is telling us she can't hear clearly. I'm not sure who she can't hear, but Melissa, I think your earpiece is hitting your necklace, or your neck. Yeah, or maybe it's your hair, so it's giving you a little bit of feedback. So, Melissa— I'm sorry, Michelle, tell us if this sounds better and move the microphone closer. So I don't know whether it was— who she can't hear clearly, but we want to make sure. Michelle, can you hear us now? We'll see if she types back in the comments. Okay, so back to you, Melissa. You lost how much weight? Total?

30 pounds. 30 pounds total.

And what was your goal initially?

My goal was 20 pounds.

Okay, so you exceeded your goal by 10 pounds.

Yeah.

Okay, so what did you do exactly?

Um, I first, I started with my diet. I changed my diet completely because I went on this, uh, low carbs, no sugar high protein and high fat, surprisingly. That, um, it's actually a form of the keto diet. I, I've been on that, and so I wasn't having as much carbs. I was— my carbs was probably about 20 grams of carbs every day. That was the max. And, um, my sugar was like none at all, absolutely no sugar. And my protein was high because I was having protein basically for every meal, and that was it. And I did, I go to the gym like 3 times a week, that was my minimum. Some weeks I'll go 4, some weeks I'll even go 5, and my water, I try to do as much as 3 liters every day or sometimes more.

Yay!

Yes, and I was less hungry because I was doing my water. Okay, that's it, that's it, that's it right there. Yeah, that's it. So that was very helpful and it's like I was a motivation to the people at my job. The people I'm around because it's like everybody, I even, um, at my job I won a Biggest Loser challenge in that whole time as well because, um, there was a challenge going on at the time. That's why I love challenges. It motivates me. It's like you have to be accountable. Somebody's looking out for you. So it's like, like even in this challenge that we have this month, I feel like, oh my goodness, I have to post. I have to, I have to do the right thing because me not doing the right thing because it's an accountability thing. So I love challenges.

You're very inspiring for this month's challenge for sure. Every time I log on, I was like, there's Melissa, she's posting. That is awesome. So Colette, tell me how I sound now because Colette told me that you sound beautiful, Melissa. However, I sound muffled, so I'm not sure what the problem is. So you mentioned the keto diet, so your sugar, you cut your sugar low, your sugar grams low, carbs are low, um, high fat, and then you go to the gym, high protein, um, 3 times a week. What kind of workouts did you do?

I do classes. I do spin class, I do, um, boot camp, I do like I take kickboxing. I love classes because I need motivation. I'm just not the person who's just going to get up and get it done. I need motivation. So if I'm in a class, I don't want to be the odd one, so I'm going to work as hard as possible. But if I just have to go in the gym, I'll probably just do like half an hour and I'm out. But if I'm in a class, like every class is like an hour. There's not much classes that are less than an hour. So I work very hard. I love to spin. That's my favorite. If I can spin every day, I'll spin. So that's good.

So you found something that you like.

Yeah.

Apparently I'm still muffled. I don't know what to do. So I'm going to let you do most of the talking, Melissa, because you have the story. But that's good that you found a workout that you like. So you were more motivated to go. How has the group helped you?

The group has helped me a lot because it makes me feel like I have people that are motivating me. As I said, I love motivation. I'm big on that because I can't do it on my own. So the group is like motivation for me. Like every day I look online and I see like, you know, you post a lot of inspiring things. Like just recently you posted this liquid chlorophyll and I've never seen it before. I've never heard anything about it. So I looked it up and sure enough, I'm ordering it very soon. So I'll start trying it. So that's— it's like the group is just the motivation for me. I love it because it's like a bunch of women that have this common goal. So everybody's like posting stuff. One of the girls, I don't remember her name, she had posted a smoothie that I tried. So it's like I look forward for the motivation. I look forward for— I love to try new things. So if I see somebody post something that looks interesting, it's like, okay, let me try it out. Let me look it up. Let me see. So it's a great motivation for me. And I would advise anybody, come on in, join, because you need motivation. You need help. This— the road is not easy. The weight loss journey is not easy. So if you have a bunch of people with the same common goal, yes, let's do it together.

I love that. Thank you. I'm like, "Hey, come join the group." Yeah, definitely. Yeah, the challenges are fun. The monthly challenges are fun. And you can always come back. Let me move my microphone closer because maybe Colette can tell me if that's better. But people can always come back to the group. And sometimes we fall off. Life happens. We get busy. We get off track. We get off schedule. And things change, but we can always come back to the group. We are here. We are here. Have you ever worked with a coach before? Before we had our session, our one session, have you ever worked with a health coach to get you on track with your goals?

No, I haven't. No, I haven't. I always felt like, oh, what could they tell me? It's not like they're gonna see me every day to know if I'm doing it or not. So I always had like, oh, I don't need it because nothing is gonna change. But then I was wrong. I was absolutely wrong.

That's pretty funny. Well, you, um, learned a lot in that 1-hour session, and now you're making me think like maybe I should reinstate those 1-hour sessions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, coaching packages. Um, but you are definitely one of those few people who can take advice in an hour and run with it and go with it. Other people need a little bit more time.

I absolutely— I— that is true because I thought that I would have need like forever. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be a process. But I think because there's still the group online, so even though you had the hour, you still have everyday quotes, messages, you know, you still have things that keep on going. So it's not just like, oh, it's just an hour and like stops there. So that's why the group is good because you still have other stuff going on every day. Somebody's going to wake up and say, oh, I did this workout. So I'm like, oh, I'm curious, I've never heard of this, so let me check it out, let me see, you know. Or I, I had this to eat, or, or I used this. So it's not just like, okay, the hour and like, stop, you know.

So yeah, good, excellent. I love that you've gotten so much out of the group. Sometimes, you know, it's easy to go on and scroll, scroll, scroll, so it's nice to see that and not comment. But it's nice to see that you are reading and understanding and getting it. You're seeing it. You're seeing it. So is there anything else that you want to add for someone who's maybe struggling with like 30 pounds, who's busy, who have a lot going on? You know, what kind of advice would you give them?

I would say to them, just don't give up because even Like, it's never going to be easy. It wasn't easy for me. I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, it was so easy. It's 1, 2, 3. No, it was a struggle. But you got to keep on going, pressing on, because you would fall. During the process, I have fell in the process because I love to eat cake. That's my weak point. Like, I just love cake. So I see a cake and it's like Christmas, it's a birthday, it's just a holiday that I saw a cake and I want to eat it. So I've had days when I ate that cake and then I'm like, oh, I'm gonna run around the park, or I'm gonna do this, or I'm gonna do that, but then I ate the cake and I'm tired now, I wanna go to sleep, and I went to sleep. But you just gotta keep pressing on. And if you're struggling, here is the place for you to be. This group is gonna help you. You can talk to Jen, she's gonna help you, she's gonna encourage you 'cause she's gonna tell you, oh, it's okay, you lost a few pounds but then you gained back, but it's okay, it's no judgment. You know, so this is the place for you to be if you're struggling, if it's hard, if life is not easy. So it's not, it's not going to be easy to just drop 30 pounds. I worked, I really, really worked to get to the 30 pounds down. So just keep pressing. You're going to fall, but just dust yourself off and get up and go again. It's going to happen.

How long did it take you to lose the 30 pounds?

I didn't, uh, it took me about probably about 4 months, 4 or 5 months.

Okay, that's good.

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, that is excellent. So what is your maintenance plan?

Um, meal prep. Meal prep is so important because it's like if I'm hungry and I have my food set up. Like, I'll set my stuff out in the morning that I'm gonna take. I'm— I'll cook on Sundays. This Sunday I wasn't able to cook because I was busy, so I didn't even cook the whole time. But I have like leftovers, so I'll— once I meal prep, I'm okay because that way it's gonna save me from eating on the street or eating a candy bar or eating some cake that I love. So this way I have food, I have my breakfast, my lunch, my snack, I have water, I have whatever I have for work, so I'll take it with me. So even on my way, I'm driving somewhere, I have a little snack that I can munch on versus me stopping at McDonald's or Wendy's. So meal prep is very, very important 'cause as I saw you had posted something, the 80/20 rule, And it's all about what you eat, what you put in. There you go. There you go. So in order, I mean, nutrition is most important. Because if you can exercise all you want and then you eat all the junk, you're not going to get anywhere. So it's my maintenance plan is for me to watch what I eat. Meal prep, cook my food, I'll be fine, and exercise, and stay away from all the bad stuff like the cake. But it's hard.

Very simple. Now, cake every now and then is okay, right? Cake is okay. I call it your fun meal. You can allow— that's your 20% in the 80/20 rule, right? So because no one can understand what I'm saying right now, Except for you, Melissa, I'm going to end this interview. But thank you so much for your information, your inspiration, your spirit, your motivation. This is great. This is really, really great.

You are so welcome.

And I will see you in the group. Keep inspiring us with your posts.

Definitely. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this, and I'm happy to share my story as well. And thank you. Because you have been there from the start, so I really appreciate you, Jen.

I appreciate you too, darling. See you in the group. Have a good night. Get some rest, okay?

Okay, you too. Thank you.

Okay, bye-bye.

All right, bye.