Shameka Humphries

HER HEALTHYWAY

“ SHaMEKA HUMPHRIES ”

“My inspiration was my son. He’s 3 years old and I didn’t want to have my weight or health hinder me from being active with him. I joined Weight Watchers (WW) early February 2020 because I was battling with high blood pressure and I was also pre-diabetic”

CHANGE STYLE

LIFE

I workout everyday for 30-40 minutes at home in my gym downstairs. I first started walking outside during the summer and increased my walking workouts by one mile each month. I eventually got up to walking 4 miles everyday by August 2020. Once I felt confident enough, I started incorporating workouts on YouTube through Leslie Sansone and I’m now focusing on strength training to tone my body.

My starting weight was 232 lbs and I’m now down to 180. I hit my goal early November 2020. I have made my weight goal and now I’m working on maintaining at this time. My height is 5’5”. My diet consists of low carb high protein. I eat a lot of protein in the morning to sustain until lunchtime. For breakfast, I drink a protein shake, eat 2 eggs and a banana.

For lunch, I eat tuna with mini saltine crackers (or on bread) with grapes or another fruit (clementines). For a snack, I’ll have a Light and Fit Strawberry yogurt, which is packed with protein.

For dinner, it varies depending on what I decide to cook for my family. My advice to others that would like to lose weight is focus on why you want to lose weight and find a source of motivation.

Also start slowly and work your way towards your goal. Set realistic goals for yourself and don’t feel like this journey is a race. (For example, my goal weight by June 2020 was to get down to 200 I made that goal by early June 2020.).

It took me close to 9 months to lose 52 pounds so your journey may look different from someone else’s. Even when you have rough days, still push through. Know that it’s okay to struggle within your journey, but seek out support (weight loss groups, friends who are losing weight) when you feel like it’s too much. Know that only you can change your situation and no matter what anyone says, always stay focused. This is your journey and don’t let anyone derail you from your goal. Also, your weight loss journey does not solely depend on the number on the scale, so don’t focus always on that. Be patient with yourself. I would also advise to focus more on your diet first then exercise. Once you have established good eating habits, you are set and can then focus on exercise. Slow and steady always wins the race. My goal was to naturally lose the weight on my own without feeling deprived of eating foods that I liked sparingly and in moderation.

My primary care physician had a very straightforward conversation about how I need to lose weight to improve my health. A coworker of mine joined WW and had success with the program. From there I decided to join and have continued to be on the program every since. I followed the program’s point system and first worked on eating better before incorporating exercise. I cut out drinking soda and juice. I drink a gallon of water everyday and have one cheat meal every week. I focus on eating moderately and mindfully. I also create a menu every week at home so I can focus on cooking more and making meals at home as much as possible.