- Brianna Oyewo lost 100 pounds and kept it off by making simple changes to her diet and exercise routine.
- She started losing weight during the pandemic, but her habits became too restrictive.
- Now she has a more flexible diet and exercise routine to stay healthy and spend time with her kids.
The pandemic was a wake-up call for Brianna Oyewo.
In 2020, after giving birth to her first child, she was worried about her ongoing struggle with emotional eating and weight. Coupled with concerns about COVID and impending motherhood, Oyewo felt it was time for a change.
“I’ve been overweight my entire life,” she told Business Insider. “I had to do something differently, I wanted to be a mom that was very active, running around on the playground.”
Oyewo, based outside of Buffalo, New York, took advantage of the extra time at home to focus on working out and eating healthier food.
Within six months, she had lost 100 pounds and counting.
But as Oyewo continued to shed pounds, doubling down on workouts and her strict eating plan, friends and family started to voice concerns that she was losing too much weight.
By 2021, she realized her habits had become excessive, and after her second pregnancy, Oyewo worked on re-building a healthy relationship to food and exercise.
Now, Oyewo is 37 years old and a busy mom of two with a full-time office job in government and a side gig as a personal trainer. She’s figured out a more balanced approach to nutrition and fitness that has allowed her to maintain the weight loss.
The key has been reframing her approach to focus on sustainable eating habits and exercise, while emphasizing wins that have nothing to do with the scale, like having more energy to spend with her kids.
“It’s not about what I could lose, but what I’m gaining,” Oyewo said.
She eats a flexible high-protein diet
Oyewo said she overhauled her diet as part of her weight loss effort.
“The moment I became pregnant, I started paying more attention to my health,” she said.
Initially, she lost weight through cutting carbs and intermittent fasting, limiting her meals to an eight-hour window each day. But over time, Oyewo said she started to go longer and longer without eating, and her routine became too restrictive.
Now her diet is flexible, with a focus on eating more healthy foods and foods she enjoys as long as they fit into a broad calorie and protein goal. She aims to get at least 80 grams of protein daily, usually more, and no more than 25 grams of added sugar.
“I pay attention to those numbers because they matter, but I don’t log every single thing I eat,” she said.
A typical day of eating involves foods like:
- Breakfast: Greek yogurt with fruit, eggs, and a protein shake
- Lunch: a big salad with protein and plenty of produce
- Snacks: pretzels, granola, lots of fruit like berries and apples
- Dinner: chili, soup, or chickpea pasta.
She said if she could change anything about her initial weight loss diet, it would be less restriction from the start.
“I would focus on what I can add, eating more protein, more veggies, and more healthy fat,” Oyewo said. “I’m going to listen to my body, if I want to have something, I’ll have it in moderation.”
She sticks to short, simple workouts
Oyewo started her fitness routine with Youtube, finding exercise videos that were easy to do at home, including Tabata and HIIT workouts.
Over time, she ramped up to longer and longer sessions, eventually realizing she was overdoing it by exercising as much as two hours every day, pushing through even when she was sick.
“I didn’t believe in rest days,” she said.
She scaled back to avoid overtraining, and now works out between three to five days a week, depending on her schedule, for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour per day.
Oyewo works a full-time desk job, so part of her routine is moving throughout the day, including taking time over her lunch break for a walk or run up and down some stairs for 10 to 15 minutes.
At home, she still sticks to YouTube videos, and aims for activities her kids can join in with their own set of toy dumbbells.
“Outside of work, I try to incorporate my children into my workout routine so I don’t have to feel like I’m sacrificing time,” she said.
Oyewo doesn’t sweat it if she can’t fit a whole hour of exercise, preferring to be consistent instead of strict.
“If all I can get in that day is 15 to 20 minutes, I’d rather do that than nothing,” she said.
She has strong social support
Oyewo said one of the biggest lessons she learned is that making healthy, sustainable lifestyle change is a team effort.
She had support (and accountability) from friends and family, including her husband, a physical therapist.
She also consulted medical professionals such as her primary care doctor, a nutritionist, and a therapist, which were key to transitioning from unhealthy, extreme exercise and dieting to more sustainable habits.
“If I could back and give myself advice, I would say — you don’t know everything, and it’s important to get assistance you need right from the beginning,” Oyewo said. “I wasn’t trying to be superwoman. I asked for help.”
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