I lost 127LBS in 18 months – all it took was giving up my favorite Dunkin’ Donuts breakfasts

A 27-year-old woman has shared how she lost 127 pounds in 18 months after ditching her Dunkin’ Donuts breakfasts and making other transformative lifestyle changes.

At 24 years old, Keenan Siegal weighed 272 pounds and was 18 years old. She started her day with sugary coffees and high-calorie meals, frequenting fast food restaurants several times a week.

After shockingly realizing her knees were swollen after attending a Pilates class, she decided she needed to make some drastic changes to her lifestyle.

Fast forward a few years and Keenan, from Connecticut, is now a fitness instructor, advising others on how to adopt the healthy habits that changed her life.

She decided to try WeightWatchers just to see if she could lose a few pounds, but she completely changed her lifestyle.

After going through the terrifying experience of realizing she wouldn’t be able to physically continue participating in even low-impact exercise classes, Keenan first decided to re-evaluate her eating habits to combat her eating habits. unhealthy life.

She started by canceling her morning stop at Dunkin’ Donuts, where she bought a large, sweet iced coffee and a bagel — or two — loaded with cream cheese.

“Then I would eat lunch out and dinner was a high-calorie meal,” Keenan said. News week. “There was no intentional decision-making regarding any of my food choices.”

She admitted to constantly eating sugary foods – even when she wasn’t hungry or particularly wanting anything – and tended to favor easy meals.

“I think it was just easy to catch it, and I didn’t really care about what was involved or what ingredients I was putting in my body,” Keenan explained. “None of that worried me. I never counted calories or weighed myself.

Although Keenan didn’t hate her body, she admits that she felt physically limited in what she could do.

After taking a Pilates and barre class in February 2021, Keenan immediately noticed that her knees were swollen – which concerned her. She remembers not being able to exercise regularly, and when she tried new exercise classes it would wreak havoc on her body, leaving her unable to continue without suffering.

According to the Mayo Clinic, knees can swell as a result of direct injuries to the joint, but excess weight also contributes to wear and tear damage that can lead to knee swelling.

Keenan said she ate fast food several times a week and didn’t worry about what she put in her body, preferring foods that were easy to find.

Keenan lost 127 pounds by ditching her high-calorie, sugary meals and instead opting for healthier options and starting to exercise.

She admitted she never thought she would wear between a size 40 and 60, having previously worn a size 18.

Determined not to be excluded from physical activities at age 24, Keenan immediately sought to change her lifestyle, not having a specific weight loss goal in mind but wanting to be more physically agile.

“I was driving to work one day and passed a WeightWatchers billboard, so I thought maybe I’d go check it out and maybe lose 20 pounds,” she said. -she explains. “I thought it would just help take the strain off my knees, and that was a turning point for me.”

She added that she never “hated” her body nor was she “depressed” about the way she looked, just that she didn’t feel good doing things.

“That’s kind of what motivated it all, because one day I was working out and I just wanted to lose a few pounds,” she said.

Keenan admitted she didn’t expect much from WeightWatchers — even going to Dairy Queen and getting a burger and fries before heading to her first session.

“I said I was going to commit for a whole year, but I tell you, after going to that first workshop, I felt different,” she gushed, adding that the advice and the support of other people in the group helped her immediately. .

“I heard people sharing different ideas about what helped them, so then I went to the grocery store and started cutting up my fruit and put it on the top shelf of my refrigerator like someone ‘One suggested it,’ she said.

“Within the first week, I started seeing improvements,” she recalls. “After my first two weeks, I had lost 9.5 pounds. So I immediately saw the change.

For Keenan, joining WeightWatchers allowed him to overhaul his lifestyle and form new, healthier habits, while also teaching him how to properly fuel his body with the right foods.

Just 18 months after starting the program, she lost 127 pounds and has been working to maintain her weight ever since. She now wears size 4 to 6 clothes, which she says she would never have dreamed of before.

Keenan loves exercising so much now that she has become a certified fitness instructor.

Keenan says focusing on healthy habits helped her achieve impressive weight loss – adding that everyone can do it too

“The biggest difference I noticed is that WeightWatchers taught me how to eat,” she explained. “I don’t feel hungry and I don’t necessarily have all those cravings since I’m getting all the food groups I need to keep me full throughout the day.”

Keenan even began to love exercising so much that she became a certified fitness instructor, completely overhauling all of her previously unhealthy habits.

“I learned that the food you put into your body continues to benefit you, the same way you feel,” she said.

She added: “It’s like a form of self-respect to fuel your body and make sure you get the movement you need. It changed my mindset, my physical appearance, everything for me.

Keenan said it’s also key to remember not to focus on how quickly you can lose weight and to think about your long-term situation.

“Everyone is so focused on how fast they can get there, and I always tell people to focus on direction and not how fast to go,” she encouraged. “You can’t control how quickly weight will lose from your body because many factors come into play, like age, health, stress level.”

Most importantly, she continued, we must respect each other along the way.

“You can’t hate yourself in a smaller body, you have to love where you are right now and realize that you are more than that,” she said. “Think about how you can get to a place where you can love the skin you’re in.” »