My name is Timbra Yoakum (@timbra_yoakum), and I’m 40 years old. I live in Texas, and I’m a director of special programs. By finding a Beachbody program that emphasized whole foods and learning to heal from my past restrictive eating habits, I lost 85 pounds.
I’ve long struggled with overly restrictive and disordered eating patterns. At 19, I reached my highest weight of 225 pounds. When I became pregnant with my first child, I began to binge eat. I continued in the cycle of binging and restricting for years. I was very young and felt the emotional distress of my unhealthy eating patterns.
For years, I was able to lose most of the weight following a variety of diets, such as Atkins, keto, and South Beach. Even though I lost weight, I didn’t have a healthy relationship with food. I would obsessively count calories and macros. I would try to severely restrict my calories and also obsessively exercise. I was eating primarily highly processed, low-carb foods, as well as consuming several diet sodas and sugar-free energy drinks daily.
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My turning point was in my late 30s.
The diets I had followed in the past were no longer working. I began to slowly gain weight and body fat, despite restricting my calorie intake more. My body was aching, and I was becoming depressed. My children were both teenagers, and I realized that they were watching the example I was setting. I didn’t want my children to live a life of restriction, low self-esteem, and poor health. I wanted to teach them true freedom from emotional eating, but I had to heal first. In August 2018, I was 37 years old and knew I needed to make a change. I needed healing.
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I was already a member of Beachbody for the at-home workouts. But they released a new lifestyle-based approach to nutrition, and I began to learn as much as I could about it. Now, I approach nutrition now as a way to nourish my body and feed my soul. I love to cook and believe in family dinners. I began to experiment with recipes and menus for my entire family. This lifestyle works for me because it focuses on whole, natural foods. I’ve also learned what works for my unique needs. There are no off-limit foods or food groups, only strategies to help you make choices that serve you and your goals.
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Here’s what I eat in a day:
- Breakfast: Two eggs and half of a sweet potato with drizzle of honey.
- Lunch: Large taco salad made with lean ground turkey, black beans, avocado, pico de gallo, fresh lime, and cilantro.
- Snacks: Shakeology smoothie or string cheese.
- Dinner: Honey glazed salmon and asparagus.
- Dessert: Dark Chocolate and hot tea.
I always exercised, but not in a consistent or healthy way. In August of 2018, I began to do strength training.
I exercise at 5 a.m. at home every morning before I go to work. On the weekends, I enjoy long walks and yoga.
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These three changes made the biggest difference in my weight-loss results.
- I learned to eat real food. I completely stopped buying or consuming foods with long ingredient lists of artificial food. Now I focus on fresh vegetables, healthy carbs, and lean protein.
- I started weighing myself every morning. I have finally learned to use the scale as data and determine what is working for my body. Before, I would weigh once a week, which reinforced my binge/restrict cycle. Now, I weigh first thing in the morning and make the adjustments immediately to my daily choices.
- I drink water before every meal. It helps slow down my eating and gives me time to think and make healthy choices. My goal is to drink one gallon of water a day.
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I have lost 85 pounds.
It took several years, but my journey has become so much more than weightloss. It has become a journey of healing. I thought that losing weight would solve my problems and give me confidence. But what I truly needed was healing from emotional eating and disordered thinking around food. There is no one-size-fits-all for health.
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