The weight loss story of this cattle rancher will inspire you to pursue your fitness goals this year. You’ve heard of many diet programs and looking for something that works for you is sometimes difficult.
Even though Kiah Twisselman started her journey nearly two years ago, her method is perfect for our current situation in quarantine.
Believe it or not, the 27-year-old has never been in a gym, nor does she attend weekly support meetings. Her food also comes straight from the source: her family’s own cattle ranch.
“Quarantine life hasn’t looked too different from everyday life,” she told PEOPLE.
Two years ago, Kiah’s situation looked a lot different. In 2018, she was living in Kentucky, working as the Director of Consumer Affairs at the Kentucky Beef Council. Although this female rancher had a great job and a loving boyfriend who is now her fiancé, she still struggled with one area of her life: her weight. At 285 pounds, she was at her heaviest at the time.
“I really battled with obesity for my entire life,” she explained. “I went through a lot of diet programs, and it was just this terrible cycle where I would lose weight, but then go off the diet and gain it all back and then some.”
Kiah gave up and thought there was no way she could ever change.
“I believed for a really long time that it was just my genetics, that I just got dealt a bad hand and there was nothing I could do about it,” she said.
But a role she had in her job motivated her to start improving herself.
As the Director of Consumer Affairs at the Kentucky Beef Council, the rancher was assigned to oversee their nutrition program. The task involved having to stand in front of a group of influencers, teachers, and registered dieticians.
Kiah had to tell them about the nutritional benefits of beef, and that made her so uncomfortable. She knew then that she was far from a picture of health.
And I was like, ‘I want to walk the talk,’” she said.
One book gave Kiah the ultimate push to change for the better. While on a flight to a work conference, she read the book “Girl, Wash Your Face” by motivational speaker Rachel Hollis.
“That book was kind of my wake-up call to me that if you want to change your life, or live a better life, or create this life that you always dream about, then it is 100 percent in your control and nobody else’s,” she said.
She decided to follow Hollis’ Five to Thrive Plan, which recommends adopting five simple habits. Kiah started waking up an hour earlier, exercised for 30 minutes a day, drank half her body weight in ounces of water, and began writing on her journal and eating intuitively.
Thanks to her consistency, Kiah lost 25 pounds from October 2018 to January 2019. That victory encouraged her to keep going. She set a new goal: lose 100 pounds by October 2019. Her weight loss continued to be steady, but she hit some plateaus.
“It was about continuing to make those baby step changes forward and not getting too comfortable in my routine,” she said.
Kiah started doing harder YouTube workout videos and exploring different healthy foods to boost her energy. These habits gave her excellent results, but it was her mindset that got the most significant improvement of all.
“When I tried to diet before, if I messed up, I would say, ‘See, you failed, you always fail.’ But this time, I started from a place of self-love,” Kiah explained.
“I had to love myself enough to show up and do the hard things each day, and when I failed I was more willing to forgive myself and say, ‘What can I learn from this? How can I use this experience to continue moving forward?’”
Kiah hit her goal and shed 103 pounds in a year, plus another 19 pounds over the last seven months. She’s moved back to her family’s cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo, California, where she lives with her fiancé. Kiah has also changed careers and is now working as a life and health coach with her own marketing company.
Now, she says the numbers reflected by the scale doesn’t matter as much as it did before.
“It’s less about hitting a number or a goal weight and more about showing up and loving myself today,” she said.
Kiah surely did a fantastic job of transforming her life! Are you currently following any diet programs? Were you inspired by the weight loss journey of this rancher? Share this story with your friends and family!
Follow Kiah’s fitness journey on Instagram.