On her award-winning blog, No Thanks to Cake, Kelly Guy shares tasty, easy-to-make recipes, offers advice on how to eat healthy while traveling and professes her love for the Gilmore Girls. After a 66-pound weight loss, Kelly has firsthand experience with the struggle to find a healthy balance with food. I’m her newest fan.
More from Kelly in her own words –
What habits specifically led you to gain weight? Emotional eating habits. I can remember coming home after school and eating cheese and crackers, chips, cookies, and anything else that was available. I consumed way too much fast food , ate larger than necessary portions and had no physical activity.
What caused you to realize you needed to change? I was overwhelmed by the idea of losing almost 100 lbs. A good friend had just scheduled gastric-bypass surgery. It terrified me that weight loss surgery was also becoming an option for me. A few days later I took pictures with a friend who was 6 months pregnant and I looked bigger than she did.
How did you lose the weight? I followed the Jenny Craig program for about 12 months, finding great success with the simplicity of the program. I told friends that I “took it like a prescription.” My meals were planned and I didn’t have a ton of decisions to make on a daily basis. The weight started rolling off.
For exercise, I incorporated cardio, group classes, and getting out to enjoy beautiful Colorado. I also find yoga incredibly powerful for the body, mind, and spirit. It’s a great tool to manage stress, which has been a more effective than my emotional eating habits of the past.
I also found a great deal of accountability from my blog.
I didn’t expect to ever share it with anyone. It was more of a personal diary of the process. Over time, I’ve gained wonderful followers that have inspired me to continue. They’ve served as some of my most remarkable supporters.
This is one of the most genius ideas I picked up at Jenny Craig.
Volumizing! The concept is that you can add vegetables to make your portions more fulfilling. I do this with everything I make now. You can totally do this with frozen light pizzas turning a boring pepperoni pizza into a volumized veggie/pepperoni pizza! So good!
The first year and a half of this journey, I traveled three weeks per month. I’d fly to various cities, stay in hotels, and spend most days in the car. I still made it work. Most people assume that they can’t eat healthy if they are traveling, but I totally did it.
Kelly’s Healthy Eating Advice for Business Travelers:
- My first stop in a new city was a Jenny Craig location for food. Hotels were able to accommodate my need to freeze/cook food, even if there wasn’t a kitchen in my room.
- Second stop was the grocery store to make sure I had fresh foods on hand to snack on.
- Subway. I ate a lot of Veggie Delites along the way.
- I also used a food thermos and coolers on long car rides, and always kept water on hand.
Also Read:
One Minute Workouts to Break Your All or Nothing Menality
Julie Wilson Lost 100 Pounds and Now Helps Others at Retrofit Ministries
Running for Her Life. One Woman’s Escape from Human Trafficking