On January 1, 2016, 25-year-old Lexi Reed weighed 485 pounds. In 365 days, on January 1, 2017, she knew: She was going to look completely different.
At her heaviest, Reed realized that she was putting her health and life at risk. It was dangerous for her and her body to be this unhealthy, and she was inevitably shortening the time she had with her husband (Danny) as well as her family.
As 2016 rolled around, Reed decided that she would make drastic changes to her life and resolved to lose weight. “I was just a girl fedup with being overweight & making your typical New Years Resolution to lose it,” she wrote on an Instagram post.
When Reed told her husband about her resolution, he offered her the only thing better than moral support. He offered to join her on her weight loss journey, and together, they vowed to change their lives together.
For the first 30 days, the Reeds made drastic changes to their lifestyle by refusing to eat out for a single meal. “We didn’t eat out,” Reed recalled. “We didn’t party with our friends or anything anymore; we didn’t have cheat meals. We were just constantly healthy.”
Rather than go out and be unsure of what they’d consumed, the Reeds stayed home and cooked meals so they could more easily figure out what they could or couldn’t eat. During this time, they also taught themselves how to cook better, healthier foods.
After those first 30 days, Reed noticed: things were coming to be a little easier.
“From then on, it wasn’t a resolution anymore,” she explained, “it just became our lifestyle.”
Soon enough, Reed had lost 100 pounds and decided to document the rest of her weight loss journey on Instagram. She posted photos of herself at the gym, her meals, and inspirational quotes not only for her followers, but for herself as well.
Every so often, Reed checked in by doing a “weigh-in” where she recorded how much weight she’d lost since January 1.
Over time, Reed’s Instagram gathered over 56k followers, all of whom are eager to support her and keep her motivated to continue with her healthy lifestyle changes.
As for Reed, the online response has been overwhelming. She had never realized that her weight loss goals would ever matter to anyone outside of her family and friend group – let alone thousands of people across the world and even her local radio station.
“I just hope that if [people] do come to my page, they can find inspiration; they can find somebody to say it's possible,” Reed said. “You don't have to have surgery, and you don't have to pay crazy amounts of money just to eat healthy or to have a trainer. Just move, start walking — all those things are just going to make a difference.”
Reed’s words are perhaps easier to hear than those from an actual physical trainer. Everyone can see that she practices precisely what she preaches. Reed made changes to her diet and exercise routine, on her own time, and managed to lose – by December 31, 2016 – a whopping 236 pounds.
Together, she and her husband have lost over 300 pounds.
But they’re not done yet. The Reeds have strengthened their relationship over the duration of their weight loss journeys and hope to continue losing weight together.
Reed has even decided that she wants to go back to school to study medicine and take her ability to inspire and help others to a new level.
For anyone else who’s hoping to make progress in their weight loss in 2017, Reed has some helpful advice as someone who’s still going through it all:
Set small goals for yourself. For Reed, this could mean buying a workout outfit that she can’t quite fit into until she loses a certain amount of weight. The desire to wear the outfit motivates her to keep pushing at it.
Another tip? Experiment with meals and don’t get bored with what you eat. Google healthy alternatives to unhealthy meals and learn how to make these news recipes.
Reed is happy to report that 2016 has been the best year for her yet. Every single birthday she can remember, she's wished that she'd lost weight that year. This year was the first time her wish came true and she knows, it'll come true in 2017 as well.
