Taekwondo is the key to mom's 35-pound weight loss in 6 months

fitness

by tracy swartz

Divorce was the shock she needed.

A California mother of a toddler said she lost 35 pounds in six months by practicing taekwondo after her marriage broke up.

“I feel healthier and happier,” Sara Albasri, 30, told SWNS. “I feel like I've become brighter.”

A biomedical engineering doctoral student from Irvine, she studied martial arts when she came to the United States in 2013 after fleeing the war in Syria.

“I felt scared. I wanted to be strong,” Albasri explained. “It took away all my stress and anxiety. I thought it was amazing. I fell in love with it right away.”

Meanwhile, Albasri married her now ex-husband in 2019, became a Taekwondo instructor in 2020, and continued Taekwondo throughout her pregnancy.

However, when his marriage failed, Albasri found himself struggling with weight and depression, which kept him away from practicing taekwondo.

Albasri weighed 185 pounds at his heaviest.

“I felt very isolated. Physically, my posture had changed,” Albasri lamented. “I've lost confidence.”

Al-Basri said she gained weight during the COVID-19 pandemic and was unable to lose the weight she gained while pregnant with her now two-year-old daughter.

She tried everything to lose weight, from diets to weight loss pills, but nothing worked.

She decided to break up with her ex-boyfriend in March 2023. After struggling for several months, she returned to taekwondo in August of the same year.

Albasri started training two to three times a week, six hours per session, and started running while pushing her toddler in a stroller.

“I was running with my daughter, and she would get upset if I walked,” Al-Basri said. “I always have her around my waist when I work out. I want to be this version of myself for her.”

Immediately, without changing her diet, she began to see results. She boasts that her weight has dropped to 150 pounds and her size is a size 8.

Now she feels “happy” with her body.

“I feel much closer to myself now,” Al-Basri said excitedly. “It’s a life event. [separation] That I have been transformed. Nothing will help you lose weight if you are stressed. ”

Taekwondo, which involves movements such as kicks, punches and jumps, burns about 937 calories per hour, Red Bull reports.

“Find happiness in what you love to do,” Albasri advised.