'After Breaking Up With A Toxic Boyfriend, I Embraced Portion Control And A Vegan Diet And Lost 65 Lbs.'

From Women's Health

I'm Sky Landish (@skylandish), and I'm 30 years old. I live in New York, where I work as a fitness model, and I have been living a vegan lifestyle for the past four years. I started off walking to lose weight and practicing portion control. It took me seven years to get to where I am now with my health, but I've never felt better.

I always wanted to lose some weight. But I see-sawed for the first four or five years of my weight loss journey. Thankfully, a bad breakup changed that cycle for me. I was dating a personal trainer who told me something along the lines of that I could be a "perfect 10," but I’d always only be a seven because I was lazy when it came to working out.

Well, we broke up not long after, partly because of that comment (and he cheated—go figure!). But that comment honestly motivated me to make some changes in a revenge body kind of way. But in three months, I lost 25 pounds—and my original motivation to make my ex regret his cheating disappeared. It was no longer about him anymore. My self-worth increased 10-fold—and I just kept going for *me.*

The first change I made that helped me see results was practicing portion control.

I learned how much I needed to eat for fuel, instead of just overeating emotionally. I also kept a food diary with the MyFitnessPal app on my phone, which helped me learn about the calories in certain foods and held me accountable daily.

I also cut out soda and juices from my diet, unless they were cold-pressed, and I only had one glass of wine a week. I really tried to limit myself to three healthy beverages: lemon water, coffee, or tea.

I also got really good at making nutritious food swaps or tweaks. For example, instead of eggs I would do egg whites, swap fries for a side salad, and whole milk for plant-based milk. Heathy swaps were probably the biggest key to changing my lifestyle in subtle yet effective ways. It saved me pointless calories. And now that I’m vegan, I feel like swaps are just a way of life.

Here's what I typically eat in a day.

• Breakfast: Vegan peanut butter and banana protein smoothie or tofu and a quarter of an avocado.

• Lunch: Any type of dairy-free salad, or a wrap and a green juice.

• Dinner: I love soups, slow-steamed veggies with beans and tofu, or chili. I typically make a big portion of something in my crockpot and store it to have for dinner during the week.

• Snacks: I love hummus with cucumbers, carrots, and celery as a savory snack; or a piece of dark chocolate as a semi-sweet snack. Another go-to is peanut butter with apple.

I first started exercising by walking a fast-paced mile daily.

That plus a 20-minute bodyweight workout was about all I could handle. I had to keep things simple.

Now, my workouts are at least an hour and typically 30 minutes of fast-pace cardio, followed by a 45-minute workout with weights. I went from not being able to complete a 13-minute mile run to running a mile in 8:30. And I used the Nike Run Club app to keep track of my progress.

I became super consistent with my workouts—and taking photos also motivated me. Being able to revisit my progress gave me that extra push of motivation when I needed it.

It took me seven years to drop 65 pounds and keep it off, but I'm so proud of my journey.

I have a much more controlled, healthy relationship with food. To see myself go from having low self-worth to now being in fitness campaigns with genuine confidence—it's like night and day.

I hope that my story inspires others trying to lose weight and also reveals how not every journey happens with months or even a year. It takes time to change or break bad habits. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. I'll never regret investing in myself.

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