- Alaias Bertrand lost 75 pounds by focusing on her health over her looks.
- She had previously tried a number of fad diets, but they made her obsessed with food.
- Surrounding herself with like-minded people helped her stay motivated.
Alaias Bertrand lost 75 kilograms in three years and has kept the weight off for seven years. After years of failing to reach her weight loss goal, she realized that the key to success was to make the journey enjoyable.
As a high school senior, Bertrand, now a 25-year-old content creator and marketer based in Florida, was told by a doctor that she qualified as obese. This came as a shock, but it prompted her to evaluate her daily habits and resolve to lose weight.
Growing up, she played a lot of sports, but her diet was poor.
“I really didn’t have any form of diet or care. I would just eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted,” Bertrand told Business Insider. “Super processed, high carb and sodium, and most likely sweets too, because I have a sweet tooth.”
Bertrand initially tried to lose weight through restrictive diets, including keto and intermittent fasting, but they made him preoccupied with what he was eating and it didn’t work for a long time.
“I feel like I’ve tried everything under the sun. Nothing was working,” she said.
Looking at her habits, Bertrand said it was when she started prioritizing her health over her weight that she naturally began to lose weight.
Bertrand shared the three biggest lessons she learned from her weight loss journey.
Bertrand tried restrictive diets, but they made him obsess over what he ate. Alaias Bertrand
1) You can’t shame yourself into losing weight
When Bertrand was restricting what she ate to lose weight, it came from a place of shame, she said. And it didn’t work.
She didn’t like the way her body looked and believed she needed to change it to be able to love and accept herself. “When I first started, I thought I honestly hated myself, which breaks my heart to say, but I really didn’t have much faith,” she said.
Once she started making healthier lifestyle choices, such as eating more fresh produce, she naturally felt better about her body. It made her realize that she never liked herself, but the choices she was making.
Over time, her fits became less about needing to look a certain way and more about feeling a certain way. “I want to feel good in my body. I want to feel confident,” she said.
2) Find healthy habits that you enjoy
Bertrand learned that finding healthy habits you enjoy is the key to sustainable weight loss.
Losing weight in a healthy way means leading a healthy lifestyle and being consistent, she said. Choosing something for six months and then stopping won’t work, so, she said, it helps to choose habits you’d be happy to do every day.
“If you like walking and you like it, I could walk every day for the rest of my life, then do it,” she said. “It will add so much value to your life and it won’t feel like a strain.”
3) Find someone to hold you accountable
Bertrand with her varsity track and field team. Alaias Bertrand
If you want to lose fat or start eating healthier, find someone to hold you accountable, she said. Friends or a community, as well as a trainer or coach, are all good options.
Adding a social element to your fat loss journey will likely help you stick with it, said Bertrand, who was part of her college track and field team.
In a 2015 longitudinal study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine that looked at the behavior of 3,722 married or cohabiting couples, each partner was significantly more likely to lose weight over a four-year period if the other was also trying.