Mom loses 85 pounds in 8.5 months — thanks to 7 easy fixes

health

by tracy swartz

She found a clear path to weight loss.

Kristel Saturday, a mother of two in the Atlanta area, says she was able to lose 85 pounds in nearly nine months with a few simple lifestyle adjustments. She credits cutting out her evening meals, limiting her non-water drinks to just one drink a day, eating less food, and power walking 15 to 30 miles a week.

“Somehow I thought I was going to be heavy for the rest of my life, and then a switch went off,” Saturday, 40, recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“I was tired of making excuses and I was tired of feeling like trash. I was 39 years old and had kids who valued me to the fullest,” she continued. “I was feeling overwhelmed and depressed, but I decided to just focus on one thing at a time.”

Today, Saturday has amassed nearly 70,000 followers on Instagram by sharing her weight loss journey, which began in January 2023 when she weighed 225 pounds.

By October 2023, his weight was down to 140 pounds.

“Step one is to stop eating at night and leave a four-hour gap between dinner and bedtime,” Saturday explained in a February post.

The real estate agent told the AJC that her family, which includes husband Ryan and their two young sons Levi and Jace, eat dinner at 5:30 or 6 p.m. and don't eat anything else before bed. .

She said on Instagram that she follows a 16-hour fast from dinner to breakfast the next morning, and that her 7:30 a.m. coffee doesn't count.

“I don't have my first bite of food until 10:30 a.m.,” Saturday told the AJC. “I use water when I’m hungry, and I break my fast on special days, and it’s become a habit.”

On Saturday, it is recommended that you drink half your body weight in ounces of water. That is, if a person weighs 200 pounds, he should consume 100 ounces of water per day. She also advises eliminating non-water drinks from your diet, except for one drink a day. (Coffee does not count.)

Other tips include tracking your calories, limiting added sugar to 30 grams per day, and introducing weight training.

Saturday launched the “Commit to Change” program to help others lose weight and learn the healthy habits she has been fine-tuning over the past 15 months.

“There is a demand to help people, and I take this responsibility seriously,” Saturday told the AJC. “I'm upfront about the fact that I'm not a trainer, nutritionist, or influencer. I help people on an intimate level, giving them tools they can use for a lifetime rather than having a momentary impact. ”