I Lost 65 Pounds in 2 Years With the Help of Diet and Rowing

Losing weight can often feel like an uphill battle. However, the only way to achieve your goals is to take one step at a time. Raven Norwood, 28, of Huntington Beach, California, is a great example of a weight loss warrior who made a few simple life changes to transform her life dramatically. Starting at 212 pounds, she has managed to drop down to 155 pounds, losing 165 pounds in two years. In an interview with Body Network, she explains exactly how she did it.

She Struggled with Healthy Eating

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Raven previously struggled with eating healthy. She would eat foods with several dyes, fast food, and packaged food with GMOs, too much MSG, and preservatives. She didn’t eliminate “any specific food groups because balance is the key to longevity,” but did cut the above from her diet and started cooking her own meals “as much as possible.” Creating healthy relationships with all food groups is so important when it comes to keeping the weight off, she stresses. “Balance is key, so if I want a cookie here and there, I eat the cookie… no biggie!”

Here Is What She Eats in a Day

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Breakfast: Coffee with a bit of cream, eggs, and an apple. “I love apples,” she says.

Lunch: Lunch is “something easy to make or pack that has protein and veggies,” Raven says, “so a good chicken wrap with a side of crunchy carrots or cucumbers. I usually go between this or a protein bowl. I try to keep it simple.”

Dinner: For dinner, she usually has another choice of protein (fish, chicken, or lean beef) with a side salad and a carb of her choice, perhaps rice or pasta.

Snacks: Almonds or cashews, popcorn “or the occasion bag of Popchips and dark chocolate,” are her go-to snacks.

Hydration

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Raven adds that she also drinks “lots of water.” According to the Mayo Clinic, hydration is important for a variety of reasons. Water helps get rid of waste through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements, keeps your temperature normal, lubricates and cushions joints, and helps protect sensitive tissues.

Supplements

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Raven also relies on supplements to get any nutrients she is lacking. “I take magnesium and zinc daily!” she says.

RELATED: 7 Signs Your Body Needs More Magnesium

Rowing

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As for fitness, Raven discovered rowing at her local Row House. “I love how boutique and specialized gyms are getting more recognition! When I first found Row House, I had never seen a gym dedicated to rowing,” she says. “And on top of that, you get floorwork exercises, group fitness, and the wonderful community that comes along with it! I think a lot of people would benefit from boutique gyms.”

Other Exercises

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Other exercises that help her stay in shape are shoulder presses, planks, deadlifts, abdominal twists (with weights) and rowing. “All target several muscle groups at once, an easy way to get a full body workout in a single session,” she explains.

Consistency Has Been a Challenge

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Raven has “absolutely faced challenges” on her fitness journey, “mainly staying consistent with working out or not going to the gym as many times as I said I’d go,” she explains. “I overcome it by just taking it a day at a time. I’m human, and I have to remind myself this is a lifestyle change not an overnight fix! Extending myself grace and starting over fresh the next day when I hit setbacks has helped me not harp on them too much.”

Positive Body Image

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“I think my biggest achievement is how positively I view my body these days,” Raven says after losing 65 pounds. “My number one tip is to ditch looking at the scale too often and just stay consistent with being active and eating whole foods (with enough protein). You will get there!” She also reminds us that weight loss should be a marathon, not a sprint, “and with that, there will be some lows with the highs. I extend myself grace in the moment and shake it off,” she says.

RELATED: The 9 Habits that Accelerate Aging

Her Advice: Be Consistent and Try New Things

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Her advice? Instead of trying to do everything, focus on consistency. “Most of the time, showing up for yourself is 90 percent of the battle,” she explains. “I’d also say, don’t be afraid to pivot and try new workouts you’re not used to. I never tried indoor rowing before, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. To my surprise, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made on my fitness journey.”

Also, Take Photos

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She also recommends taking photo of your journey, even if it’s hard. “Sometimes your mind will play tricks on you, and make you feel like you haven’t done as much as you have,” she says. If she feels discouraged, she will look at her “Day 1” photo and it will provide instant motivation. “Take photos because your mind will play tricks on you, but those photos won’t,” she says.

💪🔥Body Booster: Make sure to take photos of yourself on a regular basis during your weight loss journey. Sometimes you need to be reminded about how far you have come.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, it can seem hopeless and impossible. However, Samantha Costa, a 23-year-old influencer, lost a whopping 60 pounds in 3 months. In a viral YouTube video, she explains exactly how she did it, and a lot of it had to do with shifting her perspective and overall approach to weight loss.

Losing 60 Pounds in 6 Months with PCOS

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She starts with her backstory: In 2018 she was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), which resulted in weight gain. “I fluctuate weight a lot and it also affects my periods. With that being said, because I was diagnosed with PCOS, I put on a lot of weight very fast, and it wasn't a type of weight that was healthy,” she said. Costa, who is five-foot-one, topped the scale at around 200 pounds. “Being in a place where I knew I wasn't healthy was really scaring me.” At the time she was able to drop 50 to 60 pounds in “five to six months” by going to Orangetherory and eating right. “I think I weighed around 196 pounds and I got down to around 135,” she specified.

Related: #1 Way to Flatten Your Stomach for Women, According to a Pelvic Floor Expert

The Power of Whole Grains

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Her main dietary change at the time involved swapping out white carbs with whole grain and whole wheat. “I literally had grilled chicken, pasta, grated cheese, and tomato sauce every single day because that's what made me happy,” she said. After graduating from college in May 2022, “and I honestly was a very steady weight of around probably 129 pounds to 140 throughout all of my senior year of college,” she felt like she was at a healthy weight for herself around 135 pounds. She spent the summer lifeguarding. “I was having a really fun time, and honestly everything was going very well,” she continued.

A Stressful Job Ruined Her Health and Happiness

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However, in August she started her “big job at a big four company” and it was “the downfall of everything,” she claims. “I'm not going to talk too much about it, but the stress of that job, which I am no longer working in, was very, very hard for me.” She stopped working out and spent most of her free time isolating. Over a period of about 7 months she probably gained 60 to 70 pounds, and was “very, very sad,” she says. “I wasn't happy with how I looked and I was having a hard time with it, but it was more that I knew I wasn't healthy and I knew I needed to get healthy because of this. I would always tell myself, ‘You know what? You did it once. You can definitely do it again.’”

From 10,000 Steps to 500

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She couldn’t motivate herself to go to fitness studio again, “something that I used to love going to do,” she says. While she used to walk 10,000 steps a day, she “was lucky if I hit probably 500 steps a day because I was always at my computer, always doing something for work, and there was really just no time for me to do it.”

She Lost 10 Pounds in a Week and Kept Going

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Every day she looked in the mirror and told herself “in three months from now, you will look so much better. You'll feel so much better, which is the most important, and you will want to do things because you started.” Eventually she started seeing progress, claiming that she lost 10 pounds in one week, which she knew was water weight. Within a few weeks she noticed a “little bit of a difference” and once she started to see that difference, “it was a lot easier to believe in myself and notice that there was real progress happening and that there was change happening, which allowed me to keep going within my journey.”

Related: 11 Shoulder-Sculpting Workouts for Impressive Definition

The Secrets to Her Success

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She revealed that she did keto, which is “very hard to sustain,” she admits. “It was very hard for me to eat a certain amount of carbs every single day, and it was very hard for me to cut out sugar. I'm someone who loves sugar, but I knew that in order to be in a healthy place again, and in order to get to my goal in the most efficient way, especially with summer coming up, I needed to do something that would really change and really allow my body to adapt.” She also emphasizes the importance of protein. “Eating carbs is something that obviously we all need. I am not saying don't eat carbs. Please eat your macros. Please eat carbs. Please allow yourself to have the energy that you need. I'm just saying what I did was I lowered the amount of carbs that I ate, but I was still eating enough to feel energized to be able to go to the gym and to give my body what it needs.”

She Increased Intake of Proteins and Exercised

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Amping up your protein intake may help you lose weight. According to clinical trials, consuming more protein than the recommended dietary allowance not only reduces body weight (BW), but also enhances body composition by decreasing fat mass while preserving fat-free mass (FFM) in both low-calorie and standard-calorie diets. She also went back to fitness studio four to five times a week, starting with gentle workouts and working her way up to more intense ones. She also recommends taking rest days.

Stay Motivated and Positive on Your Journey

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“In the beginning, you're probably going to feel like you can't do it and it's probably going to feel impossible, and if you are someone who doesn't feel like that, I give you so much credit because I've been there so many times and I felt like it was impossible every single time,” she adds. “The number one thing I want to tell you is to prove yourself wrong. Prove every single person that may have doubted you wrong. The only thing that matters is that you believe in yourself. The only thing that matters is that you have the mindset that will allow you to feel better, and every single time you question yourself, make one of those videos, take progress pictures, tell yourself that you are so much better than you were even one day ago, and if you are really having trouble starting, just try for one day.”

Related: Fitness Expert's $5 a Day Meal Plan for Fat Loss

💪🔥Body Booster: Increasing your protein intake and decreasing your carbohydrates is a scientifically backed tactic for weight loss. However, you still need a sufficient amount of carbs to stay energized.

Kiki (@kikivirk) is a weight loss influencer who has amassed a social media following for sharing all the tips and tricks that enabled her to lose a whopping 60 pounds and keep it off. In one of her viral videos – viewed over 8 million times, Kiki reveals the biggest weight loss mistake she made on her journey – and also what ultimately led to her weight loss success.

She Says Doing High Intensity Workouts Were a “Huge Mistake”

“I was so motivated to lose weight and I wanted to see results fast, but I didn't do my research and I jumped straight in, literally into a high intensity, 90 day workout plan. Huge mistake,” Kiki says in the video.

After 45 Days She Hadn’t Lost Weight

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After a month-and-a-half, she didn't feel like she'd lost any weight. “I was overdoing it. The long, painful HIIT workouts were actually doing my body no good. They were causing it too much stress and loads of other problems,” she says.

Related: 5 Pilates Exercises for a Flat Stomach in 14 Days

She Had “Weight Plateaus” and “Felt So Hungry and Fatigued”

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In another video, she specified that she was doing “high intensity cardio” five times a week in hopes it “would burn fat fast and give me my dream body,” she explained. “But instead, I had weight plateaus and felt so hungry and fatigued.

Her Fat Began to “Melt Off” When She Started Strength Training

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“Literally, as soon as I started strength training and less cardio, the fat began to melt off, and the lean muscle mass I gained gave me the tone look I'd always wanted,” she continued.

Her Program: LISS, Walking, Strength and Resistance Training, and a Short HIIT Workout

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Her program starts with doing 45 to 60 minutes of LISS cardio four times a week. She also walks 7 to 12,000 steps every day, does strength and resistance training three times a week, and a 15-minute HIIT workout once a week.

Related: Patrick Mahomes' "Natural Dad Bod" Has Everyone Talking. Here's How to Ditch It, According to Expert

An Expert Weighs In

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“What she says is definitely spot on,” says Kendra Gamble, HIT Fitness Training, Huntingdon Valley, PA, NPTI Certified Personal Trainer and Nutritional Consultant. “Intense cardio and intense HIIT more than twice a week will do the body more harm than good and is not the way to lose fat and get that toned look.” Instead, she agrees that “increasing your everyday steps is more of the most important and beginner things you can do to start losing fat along with getting your diet right.” Unfortunately, “fat loss is not an immediate thing and will take time and dedication but she explains it all perfectly.”

💪🔥Body Booster: If you are a beginner trying to lose weight, starting by increasing your steps and modifying your diet instead of going overboard with higher intensity workouts.