was fought there when it came to changing habits and unhealthy tendencies .
“ So , she started her program , which is really not a diet , her program is more about the mindwork that you need to do and I absolutely think that anyone who has struggled with this can benefit from that because your mind is really half of the battle , you have to fight there . You know what to eat , what not to eat ,” Sealy said . “ What we don ’ t know is why are we doing it . Why are we sabotaging ourselves , what do we need to learn ? So I think that was helpful for me .”
Some lessons were easier for Sealy to learn , such as learning to eat when she ’ s hungry , rather than eating at every meal . Nowadays , she said she doesn ’ t even eat breakfast unless she ’ s had a workout and sometimes doesn ’ t eat anything until around 1 p . m .
Getting up early to go to the gym in the morning , she said , was a hard shift , but something she found that grew to like over time , especially in comparison to going in the evening .
“ Lisa ’ s program will tell you to try and get in 30 minutes of movement everyday , but by that point I was already doing that ,” she said . “ For me , I found that I liked going to the gym in the morning .”
Again , Sealy said , motivation was the biggest reason to keep finding new tools . New things that would keep your spirits high and handle the sometimes disappointingly inconsistent successes .
“ When I got there , that ’ s when I joined her program because I wanted another tool to start using so for me that ’ s really what her program was , it was just another tool to add to the toolbox ,” she said . “ And to keep me motivated , to keep it fresh , because I think that ’ s sometimes what people can get hung up on is the fact that maybe they ’ re not seeing that success consistently , they start to give up on themselves and you don ’ t need to do that , because your body ’ s going through a lot of changes and you gotta just keep going .”
Beginning her journey at 265 pounds and now sitting comfortably at 140 pounds , Sealy said that it was not just her body that had gone through changes . Now , she felt like an entirely new person , from how she feels about getting up in the morning to work out to the foods she likes to eat .
“ It ’ s a lot different because I find that I ’ ve changed completely ,” she said . “ It ’ s like what I said about being a morning person , that wasn ’ t me before . I ’ m a different person now . I eat differently than I did before and I don ’ t miss the french fries , the fried chicken and the things like that , but now it ’ s got to where that ’ s just not what I want .”
And beyond her diet , she said that her confidence and assertiveness have taken an upward swing with every pound she shed , no longer anchored to the background by her weight .
“ I think , overall , just everything ’ s different ,” Sealy said . “ It made me , it just made me , when you have a weight issue , you tend to put yourself into the background a good bit , and you try to not be seen . And I ’ m not saying that I try to get out , try to be seen , now , but I ’ m a lot more assertive and I speak out for things , like when I applied for the assistant city manager position . I don ’ t think I would have had the courage to do that when I was 265 pounds .”
Was it her goal to be more confident ? to lose over a 100 pounds ? Sealy said that she originally wanted to lose 50 pounds before she turned 50 , and that was a goal she failed at .
And yet , she added , goals tend to hurt motivation , putting a treacherous finish line at the end of your journey that makes you lose sight of what ’ s really important , the steps you take to get there .
“ I think that we set those unrealistic goals for ourselves , not that that was unrealistic , but we put an end stamp on it . I want to get to this by this day , and you end up getting , you unmotivate yourself when you don ’ t get there , so , what I ended up doing this time is people would ask me , ‘ what ’ s your goal ?’” she said . “ I don ’ t know , I ’ m just doing this . We ’ ll see where I get and I don ’ t know if I ’ m done , I just know that I ’ m better than I was when I started and I like who I am now and I ’ m going to continue being this person .”
Sealy said that it took her 15 months to lose the first 100 pounds and nine months to lose the last 25 pounds , but it was new patience in those nine months that let her know how far she ’ d come .
“ My body decided it was happy where it was and it didn ’ t want to work with me ,” “ Looking back , the old me would have gotten frustrated with that and said ‘ screw it , I ’ m eating a cupcake .’”
Whether she loses more weight or not , Sealy said that she was happy .
“ If I lose another pound , great , if I don ’ t , I ’ m happy where I ’ m at ,” she said .
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