How I lost 20 lbs in 8 Weeks!

How I used the #HBRMethod to loose 20 lbs in 8 weeks!

I’ve struggled with my weight all my life. I remember being eleven years old working out in my room to videos of Jane Fonda.  She’d be wearing this hideous G-string swimming-suit-looking apparatus over neon spandex, with leg warmers covering her calves. She was so skinny. Long thin legs and graceful arms. I was “chubby” as my mother would say. “It’s baby fat.” She’d tell me, patting my protruding belly or grabbing my round chubby face. “One day you’ll wake up and it will all be gone.” She promised. I waited, and waited some more. But my baby fat loved me, it had no intention of abandoning me that easily.

What’s “baby fat” called when you’re forty? Sloppy? Saggy? Ugly? Plain-old fat?

I’ve tried every diet known to man. Weight Watchers. Atkins. Phentermine. Trainers. Matabolife. Green Tea. Slimfast. Bulimia. Marathon running. Spinning. Starvation. The Southbeach Diet. The Nutrisystem lean 13. The list goes on for days. Each time I would try something new I’d think; there is no way this is going to work. I NEVER lose weight. No matter what. I’d tell this to whoever was trying to help me reach my goals. “This is really waste of time.” I’d say.

And you know what it totally was. I’d lose maybe five pounds with weeks of grueling effort (#TheHustle). Then I’d give up, because why bother putting yourself through all that without results?

See I had #TheHustle down. I put in the work; that was never my problem.  But you wanna know a secret? Work alone is not good enough. People say, if you just work hard you will get results. But that’s bullshit. There’s a very unique cocktail that success is made from, it’s not just a single ingredient.  I call this concoction the #HBRMethod.

I’ve applied this method to everything that I’ve ever been successful at over the past six years, but I’d never truly applied it to my weight loss. When I first began learning pieces of this method back in 2009, I applied what I knew, which was to change my thinking about myself and my body (#ThinkIT). I did that through using daily motto’s to turn my destructive negative thoughts about my body, into positive ones. That definitely helped, and with the aid of a broken heart (from my ex-husband leaving) I was able to lose about forty pounds.  But the problem was that I only applied #TheHustle (#DoIT) and #ThinkIt, not the other six steps, and eventually the weight came back on.

In July of this year I realized that I’d gained about thirty of those pounds back over the last three years, and boy did I feel every single one! It hadn’t come back over night, but when I realized I was almost back to where I’d started, I became very depressed. I stopped wanting to be social. I didn’t want to take pictures with my kids or my friends. I felt like shit. I realized that it had slowly began to affect every part off my life, and I’d finally had enough. I remember having a total breakdown trying to find something to wear for my girlfriends Fourth of July party, nothing fit.  I couldn’t stop crying and even tried to get out of going. That’s when I knew I’d had enough.

This was the day I felt like hell… this dress was a size 14.

And that’s the day I DECIDED to become successful at this battle. See I’d never truly DECIDED before. I’d never BELIEVED I could be successful and so I never had been. But this time I convinced myself that not only would the weight come off, but that it would FALL OFF.  That it wouldn’t be a struggle, it would be gone if I BELIEVED (#BelieveIT) that it would. So I began using my mottos again and changing my thinking (#ThinkIT). I began visualizing the weight falling off and what I’d look and feel like when it did (#SeeIT). I started seeing myself on the red carpet of my VIP book launch in NYC in a gorgeous red dress, looking and FEELING stunning (#DreamIT).  I started using the app MyFitnesss Pal (which I’d used last year btw) and wrote down everything I ate and logged my workouts (#WriteIT). And of course I DID THE WORK (#DOit). I started on my Stairmaster at my apartment’s gym. Every day for thirty to forty minutes. EVERY DAY. I traded coaching with a trainer and put in two sessions a week to add that extra kick.

About five week’s in…

By week five I’d lost sixteen pounds. By week eight, I’d lost twenty. It simply FELL OFF.  I didn’t deprive myself of anything specific in my diet. It just fell off!  This is the first time in my entire life I’ve ever dropped weight like this, EVER.  Let me be very clear…. I have always worked out (that’s not new). I’ve actually done various combinations of these steps at different times, but I’ve NEVER used all of them in concert to reach my physical goals until now. That was the only “new” element to my equation.

See, you can’t reach your goals with work alone. You must also BELIEVE that if you work hard you will actually reach your goal. If you don’t you’re just hustling in a circle and won’t get any results. You must also be COMMITTED to your goal. If you aren’t then when you “aren’t feelin’ it” you will quit. You will start looking for reasons to quit. But when you’ve made a concrete decision and have decided that come hell or high water you are going to keep going until you get what you want, then NOTHING can stop you (#RelentlessPursuit). It’s impossible to get results in ANYTHING, if you are not bought into this.

There’s a big difference between saying “I want something,” or “I don’t like something” about yourself or your life, and actually being willing to do whatever it takes (including changing your thoughts and beliefs) to make it a reality. And that’s the reason why “rock bottom” is such a great place to eventually get to. What! You say? Rock bottom is the most powerful motivator and decision maker there is. It’s hard to commit to change when you’re living an “ok” life. But when you’ve reached your lowest point, and can no longer live with yourself the way you are, that is a powerful way to really look at the problem and say that ANYTHING is better than this, and I’ll do anything I need to do to change it.

So whatever your goals and dreams are, ask yourself… how bad do I want it? Is it a “wish” or a “command”?

Shoutout to my trainer Isaiah Holt, he believe I could do it from the jump. Two months, down 20 lbs

#TheHustle SNAPCHAT: sarahcentrella