When she started: She started on June 28, 2021, and reached her current weight in November 2022.
Age: 51 years
Height: 5 feet 4 inches
Starting weight: 202 pounds
Current weight: 150 pounds
Total pounds lost: 52 pounds
Personal life: “I live in Johns Creek. I’m married with two children. I’m a compliance manager for a mortgage company,” said Reid.
The lifestyle change: “I was not healthy and I did not feel well, that was the main thing. I had some health changes before I got started I knew I couldn’t sustain that at the weight that I was.” A friend led her to Nancy Masoud, a metabolic specialist at LockedIN Wellness (www.lockedinwellness.com). “(My friend) mentioned inflammation and getting older with her not being able to lose weight, and that was exactly what I attributed my weight plateau or gain to. Nancy addressed food sensitivities, and how I could lose weight and reach my goal weight. (With) how out of whack things were, you hear insulin resistance, but what does that mean — when you see it kind of quantitively, that was really eye-opening for me.”
Change in eating habits: “I think the biggest change was the portion sizes and not all the extraneous snacking. Before, I did a lot of snacking on carby stuff. There’s not really many carbs; protein and veggies, and some fruit. Improving the quality of protein as well: less fatty cuts of meat or chicken, and more fish.”
Melissa’s steps to change:
1. “Made the choice that I wanted to improve my health and just being committed to that.”
2. “Once I made that choice that I wanted to improve my health, being open to what that could be. Don’t be locked in to what that needs to be, just receive it.”
3. “Do it scared — just do it. Don’t think too hard about it. ... You’re never going to have all the information.”
Exercise routine: “I did a lot of walks, and then, towards the end, I incorporated more strength training. It was six days a week of some kind of cardio, stretching, or strength training.”
Biggest challenge: “I plateaued, at a weight loss of 20 pounds; it was difficult to overcome that. That’s when I realized it was mental. ... To really get to where I needed to be for my weight goal, it was mental. It was addressing my relationship with food.”
The struggle: “Imagining myself at this weight. That was really difficult. I haven’t been this weight since 20-plus years ago. Imagining myself how I wanted to be, but it was hard to imagine that.”
Melissa’s top tips:
1. Stick with it: “To stick with it; just really to stick with it.”
2. Bigger picture: “Not to be only locked in on the weight loss, but how you feel and when you go to the doctor, look at the bigger picture, not just I want to get to this weight — it really is all of those things.”
3. Remember your why: “Why are you doing this?”
How her life has changed: “I just feel so much better. With the food sensitivities, my joints would hurt. I thought, ‘Oh, you’re getting older,’ No, it really isn’t that — becoming active and eliminating those things that caused the inflammation in my joints. I don’t take the elevator at work, so I take the stairs and now it doesn’t hurt, every time I’m on the stairs. I say, thank you, this is exactly how I wanted to feel. I think I didn’t want to be in pain and out of breath with my hips hurting when I got to the top of the stairs — I feel healthier in general. I was taken off a couple of medications as well. Those were all things that improved my quality of life.”
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