I Ate A Protein-Focused, Portion-Controlled Diet After My Third Baby And Lost 65 Pounds

My name is Morgan Mitchell (@morganninspires), and I am 33 years old. I am from Surprise, Arizona, and I am a group fitness instructor at Life Time. At my heaviest, I weighed 255 pounds. I became a fitness instructor, focused on consuming a high-protein diet, and started practicing mindful eating.

Before my weight loss journey, I had just had our third baby. With her, I had gestational diabetes and it was so hard. After her birth, I experienced postpartum depression. I was just sad all the time, emotional, and napping nearly every day. I was just so unhappy with myself, and I was physically and mentally exhausted.

My big turning point was in July 2017.

I was watching my kids play at the park, and I was just so exhausted that I couldn’t even play with them. I remember when I tried to go down the slide with my daughter, I had the hardest time getting down because I was so big. I was 30, and my daughter had just turned one. It was then that decided to go all-in and made the decision to focus on my health and not look back.

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I had tried to lose weight before, but failed a lot. I knew whatever I was going to do this time had to be sustainable and work with my family.

I found that just making small changes made a huge impact.

Eating for me had always been connected with emotion, so I tried to be mindful of when I was eating because I was hungry or eating because of my feelings. I would describe my diet as protein-focused.

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Here’s what I eat in a day.

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and two pieces of toast.
• Lunch: A big ol’ salad with lots of veggies and a protein, or a protein shake with Greek yogurt and peanut butter. I’ll throw some fruit in as well.
• Snacks: Beef jerky, cheese and nuts, Greek yogurt and granola, protein shake, or a protein bar.
• Dinner: Veggies and a protein, such as zoodles and ground turkey or cauliflower fried rice.
• Dessert: Greek yogurt bar or ice cream. Sometimes I’ll have decaf coffee with my favorite creamer, too.

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Exercise became my therapy.

I started working out from home, because with three kids it is just hard to get to the gym when they are so little! I would go to a Zumba class every now and then because that workout never felt like a workout to me – it was just fun! As my body started changing, I started trying different workouts such as barre, strength training, and other group fitness classes.

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I loved it so much that I also became an instructor. Now, a typical week for me is doing my own workout at 4:30 a.m., six days a week. Sometimes it’s agility training, dance fitness, or weights. I also love strength training. It’s my favorite thing to do right now. And I’m into trying out other instructors’ classes because I’m always up for something new.

Finally, I teach six times a week now at Life Time.

These three changes made the biggest difference in my weight-loss results.

• I found my “why”. Know your why and make it deeply connected with you! For me, I just wanted to feel good in my skin again, I wanted to run with my kids, and I wanted to be truly happy. Dig deep and on the days it’s hard to keep going and you won’t stop.

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• I made sustainable changes. Make sure that what you’re doing for weight loss is something you can do for a lifetime. It also should be sustainable. Eliminating my favorite foods doesn’t work for me. I do have my treats, but I portion them out.

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• I learned to fail forward. This is a journey and not a race. It is you versus you, so remember to learn from your mistakes. Don’t dwell on them though, just make minor changes to do better.

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I’ve lost 65 pounds, and it took about three years.

Remember that this is your journey, and some days will be harder than others. Community was huge for me along the way, so find like-minded friends to hold you accountable. Whatever your goal is, when you reach it (and you will!), you will be so dang proud of yourself. Don’t give up. Keep trying over and over again!

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