‘I Started A Vegan Diet And Strength Training By Lifting Weights To Lose 50 Pounds’
My name is Hope Peterson (@hopebby_fit), and I’m 21 years old. I live in Las Vegas and I’m a full-time student working on getting my bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. I’m also a personal trainer. After gaining weight in high school, I started a vegan diet and started lifting weights and doing cardio to lose 50 pounds.
I was really active as a child and I played a ton of sports. As I grew older, I ended up becoming less active, and my bad eating habits really caught up with me.
After high school, I was working a lot and eating fast food for almost every meal. I gained a lot of weight pretty quickly, and I didn’t realize how bad things had gotten until I went to a doctor’s appointment and learned I had gained 80 or 90 pounds. I was in shock! That was definitely the biggest wake up call I had ever had in my life.
After I learned my weight at the doctor’s office, I also had my vitals taken and got bloodwork done. After this appointment, I also realized that I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides. I also had so many stomach issues and food allergies, too. I was really tired of feeling bad all the time.
After getting those test results from my doctor, I decided I really needed to make a change.
I started going to the gym and eating a little healthier. At the time I also thought I wanted to enter the Navy, which also put some pressure on me to achieve my goals in a specific time frame.
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After I went to a vegan restaurant with my friends from college for the first time, it shifted my mindset on how I wanted to eat. I have been vegan for about four years now, and I absolutely love it! I enjoy the vegan lifestyle because I have a lot of energy from eating tons of carbs, and I have less stomach issues as well.
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Here’s what I eat in a day.
Breakfast: Coffee with chocolate protein soy milk and oatmeal with chocolate chips, chia seeds, and peanut butter.
Lunch: Two Boca veggie burgers, veggies, rice, and some Valentina hot sauce.
Snacks: Green smoothie.
Dinner: Lentil pasta with marinara sauce.
Dessert: A spoonful of crunchy peanut butter with a few chocolate chips.
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I started exercising immediately, but I didn’t really have any idea or plan of what I was doing.
I used to go to the gym and do a ton of cardio and nothing else. By doing that, the only progress I saw was weight loss. Once I started lifting weights, I started noticing how much my body was changing.
I then signed up to get my personal training certification and learned how to structure workouts and hit my goals! Now I lift five days a week, and I absolutely love it. I usually do a push/pull/legs workout split.
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These three changes made the biggest difference in my weight-loss results.
I made working out fun. It’s common to hear people talking about exercise as such a drag or a chore and that mentality doesn’t help. Working out isn’t only good for weight loss goals but it also helps with feeling better and just improving your overall health. I lift weights because it is what I love and it makes me feel mentally and physically strong! Do workouts that make you feel good and have a positive attitude about it!
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I stopped saying “I’ll start tomorrow.” This is a really toxic mentality that definitely doesn’t help the weight loss process. You can make decisions right now that can change your course. I love this mindset because it can ground you and help you focus on one decision at a time and start the changes now!
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I loved myself where I was at. Making changes to your body can be super exciting and rewarding, but don’t forget to love yourself where you’re at. Life is too short to focus on the negatives about yourself. Be thankful for your body and pour love into yourself. I promise it will help with this process so much.
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I have lost about 50 pounds so far.
I lost that weight fairly quickly when I started my vegan lifestyle, probably in about six or seven months. It definitely hasn’t been linear, and no one’s journey is. My weight has fluctuated a few times, but this is the healthiest I have ever felt and maintenance has gotten a lot easier.
Weight-loss journeys are a process. They never really stop, either. I’ve learned to not compare myself to others so much because you can’t compare your start to someone else’s finish. I’ve also learned how much trial and error goes into weight loss journeys. Sometimes things don’t work out, and when that happens, you gotta be able to make a change and keep on pushing. Make sure to enjoy the process—that’s my best advice!
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