How to Lose 4 Inches off Your Waistline: I did it so can you.

For many of us, maintaining a weight in which we are comfortable in our own skin is the ultimate goal. Consequently, we can find ourselves on the--seemingly--never ending weight loss journey.

For most of this decade I too found myself on this journey. Since giving birth to my two beautiful daughters in the early part of the decade, I’ve been fighting to get my waistline and stomach back.

Refusing to accept I would forever have what I lovingly called my “mommy pouch” was my motivation.

Prior to a serious car accident in 2012, I was extremely active being a former athlete. I enjoyed playing sports and working out. But most of that had to stop for a number of years due to pain and physical therapy efforts.

Eventually, I began to get better and eased my way back into exercising. This helped a bit, and I toned my arms, back and legs, but my waistline wouldn’t budge. I even got to a point where I had defined upper abs and the beloved “mommy pouch.” 

In 2018, my wonderful mother came to visit me, and I watched her navigate eating her meals without sugar due to the fact that she is a diabetic. This visit sparked my determination to not be in her shoes one day. I figured if I quit sugar now it will help my chances of not dealing with this disease in the future.

Everything Begins with Choice

In the past I had dabbled in the low carb lifestyle, and understanding that a lot of complex carbohydrates also contain sugar I chose to give up my beloved carbs altogether. At this point I realized that I might as well try the keto lifestyle, so I quit sugar and carbs. 

There are a lot of benefits to living the keto lifestyle aside from losing weight. I wrote an article on these benefits. Be sure to stop by and give it a read.

Read: 5 Benefits of the Keto Lifestyle

That summer I embarked on living the keto life. I immediately saw the numbers on the scale drop. I lost 6 pounds in the first week. This was all water weight, but it did make me feel good to see the change. However my waistline and stomach were the same.

Nevertheless, I kept going. My efforts to quit eating sugar were the most challenging. Prior to my lifestyle change I had never realized that sugar is an addiction. I found myself going through withdrawal and being quite cranky. 

Eventually the withdrawal lessened, and it became easier to not consume sugar. I stopped craving my beloved Snickers bar and Sweet & Sour Skittles. No longer did I need to put sugar in my morning cup of tea. Sodas didn’t tempt me when I was thirsty.

Once again, I began measuring my waistline and noticed that I had lost some inches on both my waistline and belly. In July of 2018 my waistline measured 30” and my belly measured 33”. I was wearing a size 10 or 12 (depending on the cut) in clothes.

By August 3rd of the same year my new measurements were: waistline 28” and belly 30”. I couldn’t believe it.

Left: July 2, 2018 Right: August 3, 2018

This change seemed too good to be true. I mean I had heard anecdotally that if you quit sugar you lose weight, but I never had the courage to try it. If I had known that I could lose inches off my waist like this I would have tried it years sooner.

Add Some Exercise

At this point my motivation was through the roof so I began exercising more. I had been doing vinyasa yoga regularly, but I wanted to try something a bit more challenging. So I found a great Youtube channel by Lucy Wyndham-Read. She has these amazing 7-minute workout videos for women to do at home workouts.

One video, in particular, intrigued me the most. It’s her 7 day 7-minute workout challenge. The challenge is that if you do the exercises for 7 days consecutively you will lose 1-2 inches on your waist and/or hips. 

I accepted the challenge and completed the challenge. Needless to say the first three days were killer. I was so sore in my hips and legs, but I kept at it. I wanted to lose inches from my waist. My “mommy pouch” was so close to going bye-bye!

On August 3rd my hips were at 39.5”, and you already know my other measurements. I completed the challenge on August 10th. Here were my new numbers: waist 27”, belly 29.5” and hips 38.5”.

I couldn’t believe it. It actually worked. Altogether I lost 2.5 inches in seven days.

Left: August 10th, 2018 Right: July 2, 2018

What's Next

By December of 2018 I had dropped down to a size four in my high waisted pants. My waistline was significantly slimmer from my belly and hips areas. 

Left: December 19, 2018 Right: July 2, 2018

The downside to this was all of those wonderful high-waisted pants and skirts no longer fit me. I wasn’t able to have most of them tailored due to some rule about not sizing clothes down more than two sizes. (Remember I started at a size 10/12.)

This was no good because I love my wardrobe and didn’t want to go through forming another one so I eased off my exercising for several weeks. I gained a few pounds and settled at a size 6 on my high-waisted clothes and a size 8 in my other clothes.

Now I work on maintaining my efforts from 2018. But the one thing I refuse to indulge in is the sugar. I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. Breaking the sugar addiction was such a challenge for me. 

Besides, I enjoy all of the benefits of not consuming sugar. The small amounts of fruit that I eat (fruit has natural sugar and too much doesn’t help with my ketones level) tastes so delicious now. It’s like their flavor had been muted in the past, and now I taste them as they should be. 

What little remains of my “mommy pouch” I can live with, and I enjoy the fact that my waistline is back to where it was before my beautiful daughters came along. But most of all I love how I feel not being hyped up on sugar. My energy comes from my workouts and getting enough rest. It’s a great way to live.

Oh and yes I still eat ice cream and brownies. I just make them with things like erythritol and Swerve or monk fruit sweeteners.

So I get the best of both worlds-enjoying foods that I love and fitting into clothes that I wore before becoming a mommy.

That’s Cynthia’s mindset on ​How to Lose 4 Inches off Your Waistline

​Don't forget to share the Mindset. Click any of the share buttons, and it's off!

Be sure to leave a comment to share your mindset.

---

Recommended Articles for You