Weight Loss Solution: Betty Bride

I'd like to feature a client every week (not necessarily real ones!) and let you know about a problem we solved to help each of them move forward with their weight loss. My hope is that you may have a similar issue going on and can benefit from these stories.

This week I'd like to tell you about "Betty Bride". Betty came to me because she wanted to lose about 15 pounds before her wedding, which was three months away. This is not an unreasonable amount to lose--just over a pound a week--and you could tell she was very determined to do what it took for that period of time. We reviewed her usual eating habits. At first glance, I was at a loss as to how she could eat much better: She enjoyed a healthy breakfast, a light lunch, a balanced dinner with controlled portions, and she snacked very rarely. It didn't look like there was opportunity to cut back very much.

And then we went through her day again, reviewing everything she ate and drank. Bingo! There it was . . . A morning latte (200 + calories), a late morning fruit punch (nearly 200 more calories), a 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew with lunch (another 200), and more soda later in the day. Well, suddenly there appeared an excess 800 calories we had to work with!

It only takes reducing your daily intake by 500 calories each day to lose one pound a week. We had just found the 500, plus some! Betty was quite surprised at the number of calories she ingested each day just by drinking. She was agreeable to finding beverages without all the sugary calories--like water, diet sodas, unsweetened teas, and crystal light--and start substituting those in place of the high-calorie drinks she was used to.

And the story has a happy ending, I'm glad to say. Betty lost all the weight she wanted to, and fit beautifully into her wedding dress. She also kept up her healthier habit of drinking low- or no-calorie beverages and stayed two sizes smaller as she enjoyed her new married life :)