For the moms out there, you’ll be able to relate to Mandi Jane Wilson (@mandi_wilson_fitness on Instagram), a 34-year-old mom who gained weight during her pregnancies. At one point, Mandi reached almost 300 pounds, then lost 140 pounds, regained weight again with two more pregnancies, and was able to lose 115 pounds.
Mandi’s History With Weight and Fitness
Growing up, Mandi was a dancer, and although she stayed pretty active, she didn’t really have any knowledge of nutrition or how to eat well. “I really started having a hard time with weight gain when I became pregnant at 20. That pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, and I had my first child at age 22,” Mandi said.
She had gained 50 pounds with that pregnancy, and combined with the weight she gained from her first pregnancy, Mandi was 80 pounds overweight. “I thought that the weight would ‘just come off’ with breastfeeding, and it did not,” Mandi said.
When her son was around 1 year old, Mandi started working out at home with videos and eating healthier, and she said, “I lost around 25 pounds before becoming pregnant again. That pregnancy ended in a late-term miscarriage.”
Mandi’s Weight-Loss Journey Begins
At age 25, Mandi started her weight-loss journey at around 295 pounds in November 2010 after a family vacation to Knott’s Berry Farm. Her youngest son was 5 months old, and she knew she had baby weight to lose but was in denial about how much. When she tried to take her 3-year-old son on a children’s ride and couldn’t get the seat belt buckled around herself, they asked her to exit. “I knew at that point that I had to change something,” Mandi said.
“I tried things off and on that I couldn’t stick to because I wasn’t realistic about my goals or expectations,” Mandi said. In June 2011, after seeing her son’s first birthday photos and realizing she was nowhere near where she needed to be, she made a huge life change with health and fitness.
That month, she started by committing to working out 20 out of 30 days and monitoring her calories every day using My Fitness Pal. “I lost 140 pounds in two years,” she said. “Forty the first year and 100 the second when I got serious about changing my lifestyle.”
That wasn’t the only big weight loss Mandi experienced. Mandi got pregnant in 2012 and had her third child in 2013. She gained 80 pounds and lost 60 pounds before getting pregnant with her fourth child in 2015. She gained 90 pounds through that pregnancy, which she said was difficult. Six months after her fourth child was born, Mandi lost 115 pounds in about a year and four months.
Mandi’s Diet
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