This Woman Lost Over 200 Pounds By Shifting Her Mindset
At 28, Stacy Blair knew she had to make a change when she was at risk of not seeing her 30th birthday. So she decided to transform herself.
Stacy Blair had a major breakthrough one morning in 2017 that motivated her to take back her health and lose over 200 pounds.
"One morning I was getting ready for a work function and looked in the mirror and was devastated by what I saw," Blair told Good Morning America. "My health was getting progressively worse, and it was getting painful just to move and stand."
At 28, Blair, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, weighed 352 pounds.
At 28, her health had taken a toll
At the time, she was taking medication for high blood pressure and her asthma kept getting worse.
I was convinced I looked pregnant in the dress I was wearing to work for some events that particular day. I felt miserable, uncomfortable, and humiliated due to my size.
Stacy Blair to Women's Health
Blair struggled with binge eating and food restriction for years, which resulted in extreme weight fluctuations. She’d made many attempts to lose weight in the past, but looking back, she’s admitted that her approaches weren’t sustainable in the long term.
If ever she did lose weight, she always ended up gaining it back, and then some.
She was afraid she wouldn't see her 30th birthday
Worried she wouldn’t live to see her 30th birthday, she switched her focus to improving her quality of life and her end goal was health.
That moment kind of changed my mindset from I want to lose weight to be skinny or look good to 'I want to lose weight because I don't want to die.
Stacy was also afraid that she wouldn't be able to be there for the people around her.
“I wanted to be able to play an active role in my little brothers’ lives rather than watching from the couch. I wanted to be able to be a mom one day,” said Blair.
I wanted to be able to move without being in pain. I wanted to live instead of just exist.
Stacy Blair
Discipline was the key
To achieve her goal, she started by logging everything she ate in MyFitnessPal and tracking calories which she said was an essential part of understanding the basics of nutrition.
Then, she switched over to consuming a strict ketogenic diet.
“I don’t ever feel hungry or deprived, which makes it easy for me to treat it as a long-term lifestyle versus a short-term diet where I’m just waiting for my next cheat day,” said Blair.
She also began meal prepping all of her meals for the week ahead of time, which she said was a big game-changer.
Before starting her transformation journey, she got into the habit of grabbing fast food after a long day of work and always had the perfect excuse: there was either nothing to eat in the house or she was just too tired to cook.
“Meal prepping eliminated this excuse for me by providing good and healthy options at my fingertips that I could just grab and heat up no matter how tired I was feeling,” she said.
Looking for ways to become more physically active, she discovered bouldering and developed a passion for it, until a knee injury in January 2018 forced her to quit and prevented her from exercising during most of her weight loss journey.
But, instead of letting the setback get her down, she focused on what she could do — not what she couldn’t do.
Stacy hoped to inspire others
She’s shared her weight loss journey on Instagram to keep herself accountable and inspire others in similar situations.
By staying consistent with her new habits, Blair lost 220 pounds in under two years. Now, she stays focused on moving for at least 30 minutes a day, every day and in any way she can.
“I love going on walks and hikes with friends and my dog, and I've found that this is my favorite unstructured way to enjoy fitness,” said Blair.
"Everything is different," she said. "The biggest thing that I love is not having to think about my size before I do something."
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