I Went Vegan and Started Doing HIIT Workouts and Strength Training to Lose 100 Pounds'

My name is Danielle Lewis (@danie_95s), and I am 26 years old. I live in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and I work in social media. After hitting 235 pounds at the age of 20, I went vegan and started doing cardio and HIIT workouts as well as strength training six days a week to lose weight. I developed healthy eating habits, got in shape, and learned how to love myself.

I struggled with consistency, discipline, and self-love for a long time. It was so hard for me to stick to a weight loss routine. I felt like a constant failure because I could never lose weight and keep it off. I was hard on myself, and it compounded my weight gain. I also let those around me impact the way I felt about myself, and it caused a lot more damage than good. At 20, I weighed 235 pounds.

Because of my weight, I had severe issues with my knee. It was always unstable when I was working out and caused me so much pain. I decided to make a change because I did not like how being in pain made me feel, especially being so young at the time.

It was time for me to stop running away from the things I truly wanted. I started to put myself first so I could become the best version of me. My transformation was not only physical but mental as well.

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So, I decided to go vegan and cut processed sugar and carbs.

I started out eating meat once a week until I was able to go without it. Being vegan changed not only my body but also my skin and my energy levels. I increased both my fruit and vegetable intake and became more disciplined.

I set short-term goals instead of unrealistic long-term ones. I took everything day by day, week by week, and then month by month.

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When I first started, I focused on getting my eating together first

I did not yet know much about living a healthy lifestyle. I found that I failed a lot more when I tried to eat healthy and work out at the same time because it became very overwhelming.

I started working out one month after I transitioned to being vegan, and at that point I had lost 15 pounds. After that, I started working out 10 minutes a day and increased by five minutes each day until I was able to work out for 60 minutes, including my cardio and HIIT (high-intensity interval training).

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Now that my routine has changed and I am at my ideal weight, I strength train six days a week and incorporate cardio in my routine three days a week to ensure I am staying lean and maintaining muscle. My favorite thing to do now is lift weights because it makes me feel strong and confident as a woman. When I used to go to the gym, I always felt intimidated in the weights area and felt like I did not belong. Now lifting makes me feel both sexy and confident. I feel like I can conquer the world.

These three changes have led to my weight loss success.

I started Self-Care Sundays. I started doing Self-Care Sundays, so I could learn how to love myself and to appreciate my body for what it was. I avoided looking in the mirror from 2014 to 2017, and it was a very emotional road for me. I just knew that once I appreciated the body I was in, things would change.
I followed inspiring women. I found influential women on social media who I looked to for motivation instead of comparing myself to them. For years I would compare myself and my body to celebrities, and then I realized how unrealistic it was. I say unrealistic because there was nothing I could relate to them other than wanting the body they had.
I focused on personal development. Personal development was one of the biggest things for me that strengthened my mind so I could overcome my physical struggles. One thing I remind myself is that I cannot stay consistent with my physical goals if my mental health is not okay. I made the decision to pour back into myself by reading personal development books and being kind to my body.

Overall, I have lost 100 pounds, and it took me five years.

The most important thing I want women to know is that your journey is yours and no one elseâ€™s. Be patient with yourself and be kind to your body because it's yours! No matter how many times you fall back into bad habits or fail, keep trying because itâ€™s your story and you can rewrite it as many times as you want.

When you fall, do not stay there. Pick yourself up, brush the dirt off, and tell yourself that you can do this! It may take you two weeks or two years, but at the end of it all you can say you did it.

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