By Chanda Temple
When Jennifer Smith’s best friend asked her to be in her 2001 wedding, Jennifer accepted.
But deep down, what Jennifer couldn’t accept was anyone knowing her true size: 18/20. Since the other women in the wedding were under a size 6, Jennifer ordered a size 12. She figured her dress order wasn’t a “lie” because she had five months to become that size 12.
She didn’t make it.
The week of the wedding, a seamstress had to add an extra panel to the back to make it fit. And even though the alterations worked, the experience forced a then 24-year-old Jennifer to get serious about her weight, which had fluctuated since she was a child.
“More than anything, I was embarrassed,” Jennifer said. “And I just got tired of being sick and tired.”
First, she started walking in her neighborhood. Then, she tried fad diet after fad diet. The weight went up and down until she finally reached a size 22/24.
“I would feel good when I was losing, but when I couldn’t sustain it, I’d get tired, and fall off,” she said.
She continued to walk. But In 2014, she hired a trainer, who taught her about strength training. She also started doing marathons. She lost a little bit more weight, visited the gym more and dropped to 205 pounds, replacing fat with muscle.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the gyms closed, her trainer was unable to see her and her eating habits still weren’t the best. Jennifer worried what would happen to her because she relied on physical activity.
She found her answer while listening to the radio in her car, where she heard a pastor encourage his listeners to make the most of the pandemic by using the extra downtime to come out better than they were before Covid. If listeners did not do that, they would miss their opportunity, the pastor said.
Such words moved Jennifer to study the body and food because “80 percent of how someone looks, feels and their health is the food,” Jennifer said. “It’s not necessarily the exercise.”
Prior to hearing the pastor’s message, Jennifer would still eat cakes and such. And then, she’d try to outwork her bad diet by going to the gym twice in one day, for example, just to try and work off a dessert. It became a hamster wheel of indulgent eating and working out.
But once her research showed her that the strength of weight loss lies in the food one eats, things changed for her. She read labels, avoided processed foods and ate more whole foods.
“And when I got it, I got it,” she said. “It was the food. Working out won’t get you the Teana Taylor look. It’s the food.”
“Now that sounds crazy or boring, but studies have shown that people who eat typically the same foods, they tend to maintain their weight, they don’t have the stress of trying to figure out what they’ll eat,” said Jennifer. “Then, after 20 or 21 days of eating the same thing, your body will crave what you give it.”
Her body began to crave what she fed it: pan seared boneless, thinly-sliced chicken; steamed broccoli; and peeled and sliced sweet potatoes in the shape of shoestring-shaped fries, seasoned and oven baked in a pan drizzled with olive oil.
But along her weight loss journey, Jennifer realized that she still craved sweets. So in 2021, she started experimenting with how she could make a protein dessert bar that was naturally sweetened with no preservaties. It took her four months to create a bar made with almond butter, almond flour, cocoa, oatmeal flour and honey. For some bars, she adds semi-sweet chocolate chips for extra flavor.
Also in 2021, she became a certified fitness trainer so she could learn how to train herself after the pandemic forced her to find a new way to stay fit. In 2023, she became a certified nutrition coach. Through both roles, she offers virtual training sessions for clients via her website, http://www.jennifersmithfitness.com.
Today, at 5 feet, 8 inches tall, Jennifer is 48, wears a size 6 and weighs 160, which is what she weighed as a senior in high school. She said she got here by eating the right foods and exercising daily, still remembering when she hovered around 280 pounds at one point in her life.
“This journey that I’m on and will be on, it is not always easy,” said Jennifer, a married mother of three living in Hoover, AL. “It’s not easy eating the same foods. It’s not easy waking up early to workout. But every choice in life, you have a hard, and you have to figure out which hard you will choose.”
“Everyone gets the chance to choose their hard. Which hard will you pick?” she said.
Jennifer shares tips on what she does to maintain her healthy lifestyle, saying exercising and eating right have become as natural to her as brushing her teeth each day.
* Every day, she walks at least 30 minutes on her treadmill with an incline of 12, speed on 3 and not holding the handrails. She walks after lifting weights. (Anyone considering starting a new health plan should consult their doctor first.)
* For anyone who has been inactive for a while, it’s OK to start small first. Try walking five minutes on the first day and then six minutes, slowly building time and endurance. “It’s you against you, and every single day you do something you are better than the day before,” Jennifer said.
* She weight trains three to four times a week
* She does mat pilates at home, twice a week
* She does not negotiate on her food. If she knows she will be traveling or visiting a different environment that may not have the food she eats, she meal preps and takes her own food.
* When eating out, she looks for grilled chicken or grilled fish (sea bass or salmon), making her plate 40 percent protein, 35 percent fat and 25 percent carbs. She avoids pasta dishes and alcohol.
* When she meal preps, she weighs six ounces of her oven-baked sweet potato fries per meal and 7.5 ounces of lean protein to meet her daily intake goals. She also has green vegetables.
* She still enjoys the occasional dessert, planning her earlier meals to be heavier in proteins and devoid of carbs, so she can have a dessert at dinner. She eats out once or twice a month. She eats a dessert, maybe twice a month.
*Stop saying you are going to lose weight for a cruise, a party or a wedding. That’s not good enough. “You need to want to do it for your life,” she said. “When you are trying to do it for a certain event or a person, no. you don’t stick with it.”
*Motivation will get you started, but discipline will make you stay. Fight the urge to avoid working out just because it’s too cold or doesn’t fit your schedule. Find a way to stay active at home, at the gym or in your neighborhood. “Sure, it feels good lying in bed when it’s warm. but then I think that I don’t want to be in a drugstore line having to get some medications because I didn’t get up now,” she said.
*Shop the outer areas of the grocery store, focusing on fruits, vegetables and proteins. The inner aisles contain processed foods and refined sugary foods, which are full of preservatives and fail to contribute to a healthy lifestyle
*Jennifer reads her food labels, and if she cannot find a certain ingredient from the label on the shelf, she refuses to buy that product.
*It’s never too late to start a healthier lifestyle. “As long as you are still breathing and waking up, it’s not too late,” Jennifer said.
Savor This! To learn more about Jennifer, visit her website or email her at curvygirlfit@yahoo.com.
Chanda Temple is an award-winning writer living in Birmingham, Ala. She blogs at http://www.chandatemplewrites.com. If you have a food story idea, email her at chandatemple@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram at @chandatemple.
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