How Nancy Jasperse Lost Over 150 Pounds and Kept It Off for Two Years

How Nancy Jasperse lost over 150 pounds and has kept it off for 2 Years

"Love Yourself more. Love yourself more to take care of yourself before others."

"My mother's death scared me into weight loss research."

"Forgive yourself when you make mistakes and start over. Every day is a new day. Move past it."

In Episode # 10 of the Becoming Elli Podcast, Jill and Chris interviewed Nancy Jasperse about:

• Her struggles with weight
• Yo Yo dieting a teen, into college and gaining weight through 3 pregnancies
• How she cleaned up her lifestyle
• What she eats now to maintain the weight loss
• Where she gets her exercise inspiration
• How she navigates restaurant meals
• Her Sunday meal prep routine

In the tips sections, Jill and Chris share their thoughts about restaurant eating to maintain a weight loss.

Nancy said she has always struggled with her weight. This is her story:

"As far back as elementary school, I was always the biggest and sometimes tallest kid in the class. I think my love of food started around 4th grade or so. My father was in the Navy and was out to sea often. When he was gone my mother used food as both a reward and a coping mechanism when things didn't go as planned for me. I don't fault her for this, she was raised the same way."

By high school, I was maxed out on clothing options. Lane Bryant was the only clothing store I could buy pants. So I decided to diet! I didn't know one thing about nutrition, so I basically starved myself, eating handfuls of raw vegetables and spoonfuls of peanut butter. The weight came off, but of course that wasn't manageable long term.

College brought on more yo-yo dieting. With each year, I'd go up and down in weight. Right around my senior year of college, I found myself engaged and excited to plan a wedding. So dieting kicked into high gear.

Shortly after getting married, I got pregnant with my first child. It was during this extremely stressful first year of motherhood, my weight gain exploded! Instead of bouncing back, I gained 100lbs. It was the first time I'd see the 300lb number on the scale.

As scary as seeing that number was, it didn't stop me from getting pregnant two addition times -- High risk from start to finish each time. Just as before, with each baby brought on a stressful year. I gained 72 more pounds. My highest weight was a whopping 372lbs. When I saw this number, I was terrified.

I didn't know where to start. I knew nothing about weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight. But I decided the best thing I could do was try and reduce what I was eating and take a small walk each day with my children. Within the first few days, I'd lost 20lbs. Looking back, I know this was a lot of water weight and my body telling me it was so happy to have some water and a walk!

Sadly, what happened next in my life changed everything. My mother died unexpected. One day I was playing Scrabble at my dining room table with her and the next day she had a massive stroke. She was 54. I was 29 with three children.

Her death scared me into weight loss research. I knew I needed to clean up my lifestyle if I intended to watch my children grow up. I wanted to be more active with them, run after them, not be exhausted from simply hauling them out of car seats and walking them into school! Simple tasks at 350+lbs were so very tiring.

I researched Weight Watchers, Atkins, Keto, SlimFast, calorie counting, liquid diets, salad only diets, every fad diet you can imagine. I settled on calorie counting. Added MyFitnessPal to my smartphone and started tracking all the food I ate. I continued walking around my neighborhood. And in just a couple of months, I had lost 50lbs. Then the dreaded plateau hit. I was stuck! The research started again. I decided to add lifting a few weights at home and walking. After a few weeks, I broke the plateau.

The evolution from 372lbs to just under 200lbs took just over three years. here were several rounds of plateaus and calorie adjustments. I changed up my diet a few times, around every 7 or 8 months to shake up my metabolism. I believe long term weight loss is possible if you're willing to branch out and try new things, both nutritionally and physically.

I've maintained my weight loss for just over two years. Lately, I've used the Keto (ketosis) method to keep myself in check. Every now and then I'll check a keto calculator to make sure I'm eating the correct amount of macros/calories. You can find a keto calculator by simply googling "keto calculator" and entering in a few basic pieces of information such as height, weight and age. Such a helpful free tool to use!

Just recently I've decided to try to get to 185lbs. Let's cross out fingers and hope I can get there!