Meet Kate McGinty, 34, who decided to take her life in her own hands, and make the best of it. Kate had been trying to lose weight for years – unsuccessfully because she had been trying to do it the wrong way, through different types of weight-loss pills and appetite suppressants.
As most people know, however, there’s no magic pill that’s gonna make you lose weight. It is done through healthy, conscious eating habits and staying active, something that Kate had not been doing. But it all changed one day in 2015, when she decided she’d had enough.
Suffering from knee pain from multiple leg surgeries, inactive, weighing over 200 lbs, and exhausted from her lifestyle, she saw a picture of herself from a few years ago when she had been 50 pounds lighter and that sparked a desire to change within her. She recently sat down with Popsugar and shared her story – something she also does daily through her Instagram account.
After seeing that picture, Kate immediately hit up the elliptical which she’d had upstairs at home, but had to quit shortly after since, she said, “my legs were burning and I was so out of breath.” But then she saw a weight-loss program her friend had shared to Facebook called 21 Day Fix program, which promised 30-minute workouts she could stream at home, and a simple nutrition plan which was not overly restrictive – it even included chocolate and wine. So she and her friend Lauren started the program together and now, Kate looks like a completely different person.
The program Kate uses provides their clients with a nutritional guide that has small, color-coded containers, and uses real, nutritious food that’s easily attainable and doesn’t take a long time to make. She also had the chance to keep eating a lot of the foods she likes, but this time they had healthier alternatives for ingredients.
Kate, who is a vegetarian will usually have a protein shake with fruit blended in for breakfast, spaghetti squash or zoodles with tomato sauce for lunch, and tacos made with two corn tortillas, vegetarian ground beef and filled with vegetables and topped with salsa and guacamole for dinner.
She will usually snack on fresh fruit with nut butter and granola or popcorn, and not stick to designated eating hours – she’ll eat when she is hungry.
Kate has now lost 82 pounds, but the journey wasn’t easy.
When she first began to work out, she started with 30-minute home workout videos, every day of the week. In five days, she’d do cardio and strength training, while two days were “active recovery”, consisting of pilates and yoga.
Kate explained that it soon became her routine, and even though the workouts were hard, she liked that it challenged her “both mentally and physically.” She said she sometimes felt so tired she would burst in tears, but after the workout was over, she’d feel amazing, accomplished, energetic.
Even the new eating regimen was difficult since she explained it was “mentally exhausting” to put energy into her food for the first time. Until then, she’d been ordering takeout almost all the time, and didn’t know how to cook. But by week 3, after the end of her 21 days, she had started to get adjusted and decided to go for another three weeks. And then within the first ten months, she had lost 70 pounds!
Two years into this routine, she switched it out, increasing the amount of food and changing her workouts, and then she lost another ten pounds. She is now 82 pounds lighter than when she started and dropped from a size 16 to a size zero or two.
Other than her leaner body and more athletic condition, Kate’s weight loss also brought a number of other victories, like no longer needing cortisone shots in her knee, being cured of heartburn, and she even started to sleep better.
She stays motivated by witnessing how her life has drastically improved these past few years – but her husband deciding to join her was also an extra push. “Now we have 30 minutes together every day, where our goal is simply to be better versions of ourselves,” Kate explains.
Kate is now a Beachbody coach, aiming to “mentor other women through the programs,” and help them improve their lives. Her advice to people beginning their weight loss journey is to keep in mind that “it will be tough. This isn’t easy for anyone, so don’t expect it to be easy for you, either.” She added that you should focus on the short-term goals because then those victories will be more attainable and they will eventually add up to “big results.”
Read more of her story here.
