I Shed 44kg and Reversed My Diabetes in Just One Year – Hiding the Scale Was the Key to My Weight Loss
A mother who lost 44 kgs and reversed her diabetes in one year has opened up about how ‘hiding the scale’ and focusing on ‘non-scale victories’ helped her stay motivated.
Melissa Paluch, 44, from New York, struggled with her weight for most of her adult life and weighed 125 kgs at her heaviest. She avoided seeing a doctor for three years because she didn’t want to see the number on the scale.
Speaking with Today, she recalled how she discovered she had diabetes, high blood pressure, and borderline high cholesterol after having a physical and blood test for a scheduled hysterectomy last summer.
Paluch was also diagnosed with sleep apnoea after doctors were unable to complete her surgery because she had stopped breathing.
‘I told myself, “This is enough. I need to do something, and clearly, weight is an issue. I’m done feeling unhealthy. I’m done having no energy. I need to finally get on board,”‘ she said.
Paluch’s vow to get healthy was partially inspired by her late father, who died of cancer less than two months earlier.
‘He struggled with a lot of health issues because of his weight, and he had asked me several times throughout the year to try to get healthy,’ she explained. ‘I promised him that I would. He didn’t want me to have the same health issues.’
The mother of three embarked on her weight loss journey on July 1, 2022. She began following a low-calorie diet with a goal of eating 1,300 to 1,400 calories a day after speaking with her doctor. Paluch noted that she initially struggled with headaches and ‘never felt full,’ saying it ‘took about 30 or 45 days to get used to it.’
To make sure she stayed on track, she started planning her weekly meals on Sundays. She likes to have yogurt or cereal for breakfast and either a sandwich or leftovers with a salad for lunch.
She still eats her favorite foods, including lasagna, hot dogs, and pasta, but she monitors her serving sizes to make sure she isn’t overdoing it.
Paluch shared that she used to order takeout five to six times a week, but she has cut back to once a week — a change that saved her enough money to cover her family’s vacation. She also prioritized drinking water and now has 100 ounces a day.
In addition to overhauling her diet, she started walking with her 18-year-old son. ‘The first time, I literally only made it a half-mile. I couldn’t catch my breath, and I was so embarrassed,’ she told Today. ‘I went home, he finished his walk, and I told him I was going to do this every single day. My goal was to get to a mile.’
Within eight weeks, she was able to walk a mile without getting winded, and she joined Today’s wellness community Start Today for support. Paluch had to cut back on walking after her hysterectomy in October, but she picked up right where she left off once she was cleared by her doctor and is now up to three miles a day.
She explained that she used to weigh herself three or four times a day, but she would become frustrated by the fluctuations. In order to keep herself motivated, she put her scale away and started celebrating her non-scale victories. She only pulls out her scale once a week on Fridays to check on her progress.
‘Hiding the scale was the best decision I ever made,’ she said.
Paluch has lost 96 pounds since last July and is now down to 179 pounds. She no longer needs a CPAP machine to control her sleep apnea, and she is also on track to stop taking medications for blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol in September.
