My name is Rachel Kearney (@recreating_rach), and I am 26 years old. I am from Westminster, Colorado, and I’m a hairstylist. After years of struggling with my weight and binge eating disorder, I used the keto diet to jumpstart my weight loss. Combining that with walking on the treadmill and weight training, I lost 140 pounds in total.
I struggled with being overweight my whole life, and as a kid, my weight issue was always in the foreground. I remember feeling self-conscious at a young age and compared myself to others, especially my twin sister. She was so petite, and I always wondered why I didn’t get to be like her. I was also bullied about my weight.
I spent my childhood restricting and binging, punishing myself. That mentality carried me into early adulthood. By the time I was 18, so much life and loss had happened to me. The pressure of maintaining a healthy weight while handling difficult circumstances all felt too overwhelming. It seemed like I had been dieting my whole life with no results, so I just gave up.
From then on, I hid from myself and started using food as a coping mechanism, which led to an extremely unhealthy binge eating disorder. I was consuming close to 5,000 calories a day for many years without even knowing it. By the time I realized what was going on, I weighed in at 275 pounds. I physically struggled to get out of bed and tie my shoes.
One of the main things that helped me in my weight loss journey was when I reconnected with horseback riding.
Horses were an outlet for me when I was a child, and riding was so healing and grounding when I picked it back up as an adult. I bought my horse when I turned 22 and felt inspired to try to lose weight shortly after that.
I never made any definitive decision to lose 140 pounds—I honestly didn’t think I was capable of losing weight at all. The motivation to lose more weight came after I lost the first 10. I went from saying, “I can’t lose weight,” to “Oh my gosh, I just lost 10 pounds–I’m going to go for 10 more!”
At first I started with a ketogenic meal plan that I designed myself after doing tons of research.
I followed a keto lifestyle and tracked my carbs and calories with an app called Carb Manager. I spent a lot of time studying the diet and fell in love with it because I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. And it worked! I lost 10 pounds in the first week.
A key component to my weight loss journey was being prepared. Food prep was pivotal and made sticking to my meal plan easy. I have always loved cooking, so prepping my food for the week was fun (but also a lot of work!). Keeping it simple was the only way I was able to stay consistent. I used Pinterest to find all my recipes, and prepped two casseroles each week and just divided them into lunches. I always kept my breakfast simple and prepared easy dinners at home. I cut drinking and eating out, and focused on eating as clean as possible consistently. I didn’t have a cheat meal for the first eight months of my weight loss journey.
In the last year, after following a ketogenic lifestyle for two years, I found that it wasn’t serving me anymore, so I hired a bodybuilding coach and she helped me reintroduce carbs back into my diet. My diet these days mostly consists of chicken, lean beef, turkey, rice, fresh fruit, avocados, and peanut butter. I’ve developed a slight obsession with cream of rice, and couldn’t imagine a life without bananas again!
Here’s what I would eat in a day while doing keto.
- Breakfast: Eggs, turkey sausage, low-carb tortilla
- Lunch: Portobello mushroom cap “pizza”
- Snacks: Berries and low-carb yogurt
- Dinner: Salmon and Nori or Zoodle pasta
- Dessert: Lily’s chocolate
I started working out right away, first by walking on the treadmill, and the weight started melting off.
At first, my capabilities were very limited because I hadn’t been active for so long, but I slowly built up my stamina. I went from walking 30 minutes a day to running a 5K on Thanksgiving Day within the first year of my weight loss journey.
After I got more comfortable with being in the gym, I started incorporating weight training. I had no idea what I was doing, so I downloaded a fitness app and followed a beginner’s program. I fell in love with the way I started to feel after lifting weights and my mental health started to stabilize. I was feeling strong and happy for the first time in my life, and underwent skin removal surgery.
I struggled with post-op depression following the procedure. After being on such a high from losing so much weight, I didn’t expect to feel so sad after I got the body I had always dreamed of. The surgery brought up a lot of trauma and unveiled things I had suppressed about my weight and body image. Healing from the trauma of my past was one of the most difficult parts of my journey, but it was also the most beautiful way to be set free from all of the reasons why I got to be 275 pounds in the first place.
After working through it, I felt the need to share my story, so I decided to compete in the woman’s transformation bodybuilding division with the hopes of inspiring other women and to surround myself with people in the weight loss community. Since competing, the gym has become my therapy, and I’ve fallen in love with the sport. I have support from a coach who designs all my workouts for me, and I enjoy training five days a week. I’m currently working towards competing in my second bodybuilding show in August 2022.
These three changes have led to my weight loss success.
- I established my routine and committed to a lifestyle change. To sum it all up: Consistency is key!
- I healed my relationship with my body. This part of the journey for me was never linear, and came after I had lost 100 pounds. I have good days and bad days, but I try to love my body for all its imperfections, scars, and stretch marks.
- I changed my “I can’t” mentality. Saying I can’t do something is so limiting. It takes a ton of bravery to try something new, but in my experience, you’ll probably surprise yourself with what you can do.
I have lost 140 pounds in three years.
Just dive in—metamorphosis is such a privilege. Losing 140 pounds was the most beautiful and hardest thing I’ve done in my life so far. If I had the chance to do it all again, I would. I don’t regret nearly eating myself to death because I got to fight to bring myself back to life.
