Mom Drops 93 Pounds After Breaking This Common Habit

Everyone knows the struggle of trying to lose weight while juggling life's demands. Whether you're reaching for comfort food after a stressful day or fighting the urge to skip another workout, the journey can feel overwhelming. But what if you could find a sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off? Ursula, a fitness enthusiast, wife, mom, and career woman, shares her incredible transformation story of losing 90 pounds through mental toughness and consistency. Her journey offers practical insights that can help you achieve your own weight loss goals.

Understanding Emotional Eating

According to the Mayo Clinic, emotional eating occurs when we eat to suppress or soothe negative emotions such as stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness, and loneliness. This pattern can severely disrupt weight-loss efforts, especially when it leads to consuming high-calorie, sweet, and fatty foods.

Breaking the Emotional Eating Cycle

"I'm an emotional eater, and I eat my feelings if I'm happy, if I'm sad, if I'm bored, if I'm stressed," Ursula admits in her post. She explains that despite maintaining a consistent exercise routine, her weight remained unchanged at 225 pounds because she couldn't control her eating habits. "I always had the exercise part down, but I never really had the eating part down," she shares. Her biggest challenge was processed sugar: "I'm talking about cakes and candies and pies and ice cream and muffins – you name it, and I was eating it every single day."

The Science Behind Mood and Food

Mayo Clinic research shows that emotions can become so tied to eating habits that people automatically reach for treats when angry or stressed, without conscious thought. Food often serves as a distraction from painful situations or upcoming events, creating a temporary escape that ultimately leads to guilt and further emotional eating.

The Mental Transformation Challenge

In May 2023, Ursula embarked on the 75 Hard Challenge, which became the cornerstone of her success. "I started it as a mental challenge, not a weight loss program," she shares. "I needed discipline if I was going to learn how to say no to the things that I shouldn't be eating." The challenge required following a diet, drinking a gallon of water daily, and exercising twice a day. Through this process, she lost 30 pounds in 75 days.

The Power of Proper Nutrition

"I really learned how to eat, to be quite honest," Ursula explains about her experience during the challenge. She focused on counting macros, which allowed for flexibility while maintaining structure. "I eliminated processed sugar and really focused on increasing my protein throughout the course of that challenge," she says. "I was never diagnosed as pre-diabetic, but I believe that if I wasn't pre-diabetic, I was probably at least insulin resistant because the moment I let go of that processed sugar, I started to see a really big difference in my weight."

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Finding Your Exercise Passion

"Running is a very addictive sport," Ursula explains. "It's very taxing on your body, but it's so freeing to the mind." After completing 75 Hard, she returned to running and incorporated strength training into her routine. "You can lose as much weight as you want just doing cardio, but you're going to be losing a lot of muscle and you're not going to look the way you want to look unless you actually strength train," she emphasizes. This combination helped her reach 148 pounds by February 2024.

Tackling Physical Challenges

Success brought its own challenges. "The loose skin around my abdomen was starting to impact my running. It was heavy. My compression pants wouldn't stay up," Ursula reveals about her decision to undergo tummy tuck surgery. Despite the required six-week recovery period, she maintained her focus: "I signed up for a marathon that was scheduled for November. And so I didn't really have time to sit on the couch and not be disciplined and lose my momentum."

Embracing the Marathon Mindset

Marathon training pushed Ursula to new limits. "As you get further down into the training, you have to run 14 miles at one time, 16 miles at one time, 18 miles at one time," she shares. "This past weekend, I had to run 20 miles at one time, took me three and a half hours." These challenging runs taught her valuable lessons about persistence and dedication.

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The Power of Discipline Over Motivation

"Motivation was gone on day two," Ursula states frankly. "You can't rely on motivation because motivation relies on a feeling. Discipline doesn't rely on how you feel. Discipline says, do it regardless of how you feel." She emphasizes the importance of following through: "Sometimes it just feels like autopilot. You're just going at it and it takes all of the emotion out of it."

Practical Steps for Breaking Emotional Eating

Mayo Clinic recommends several strategies to combat emotional eating, including keeping a food diary, practicing stress management techniques, and performing regular hunger reality checks. "Ask yourself if your hunger is physical or emotional," the experts advise. "If you ate just a few hours ago and don't have a rumbling stomach, you're probably not hungry."

Building a Support System

Research shows that people are more likely to give in to emotional eating without a good support network. Mayo Clinic emphasizes the importance of leaning on family and friends or joining support groups during your weight loss journey.

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Creating a Healthy Food Environment

Mayo Clinic experts suggest removing tempting comfort foods from your home environment. However, they caution against extreme restriction: "When trying to lose weight, you might limit calories too much, eat the same foods repeatedly and banish treats. This may just serve to increase your food cravings, especially in response to emotions."

Celebrating Small Wins

Ursula's journey taught her the importance of acknowledging progress. "Those small wins do really build up into a much larger win," she reflects. "While I lost 30 pounds during the 75 hard challenge, or I lost 16 pounds in marathon training, looking at the bigger picture, I'm like, oh my gosh, I am really down 90 plus pounds."

Maintaining Long-Term Success

Today, Ursula's relationship with food has transformed completely. "I have a box of M&Ms in my pantry right now, and I can go in and eat a couple of M&Ms a day and be fine with that," she shares. "The fact that I can do that and not eat the entire box in one or two sittings is a real testament to how far I've come." This control comes from building mental toughness and establishing consistent habits.

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The Key to Sustainable Weight Loss

"Everything that you want in terms of losing weight is all on the other side of consistency," Ursula emphasizes. She encourages others to find their own path: "Maybe 75 hard isn't the challenge for you, but find whatever it is, whatever it is going to take to build that mental toughness, to build that discipline, to have you really focused and honed in on what it is that you want. Because when you can master that, then you will see results."

Her total journey from 225 pounds to 132 pounds stands as a testament to the power of discipline over quick fixes. Ursula's story proves that with the right mindset and dedication, transformative weight loss is possible for anyone willing to commit to the process. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.