Woman shares small changes that helped her lose over 200 pounds

(NEW YORK) — A woman who lost over 200 pounds said she accomplished it by focusing not on the weight she was losing, but the life she was gaining.

“I wanted to gain life more than I wanted to lose weight,” Leah Hope told ABC News’ Good Morning America of her motivation, adding, “There’s a much bigger picture that this is not about wanting a smaller body, but it is about chasing a bigger life.”

Hope, 35, said she hit a “rock bottom” moment in 2022 when she visited Disneyland in California with family members.

Weighing almost 400 pounds at the time, Hope said she remembers being in pain after just a few hours of walking at the theme park.

“I just had to end up spending most of the day by myself while my sister’s family was out enjoying the park,” Hope recalled. “I just left that day saying, ‘This is not the life that I want to be living, and if I continue on the path that I’m on, this is what my life is going to continue to look like.'”

After being overweight most of her life, Hope said she realized she had “become comfortable in my discomfort” and was motivated to change things.

She said she started small and focused on making one change at a time and then layering on more changes.

“Once that thing didn’t feel overwhelming anymore, then I added another thing,” Hope said.

For example, Hope said she started her weight loss journey by just adding one nutritious food to her diet each day.

Once she was comfortable with that change, she added one nutritious meal, and then began walking 10 minutes per day and later began writing what she was eating in a food journal.

“What prompted me to try to lose weight naturally was my focus on wanting to get healthy from the inside out, both internally, hormones, organs, all that, and mentally, emotionally, just holistic health, changing my lifestyle overall,” Hope said. “And so it seemed like it would make most sense to approach this naturally for myself.”

Hope added that while small changes and a natural approach to weight loss worked for her, everyone is different. People should consult with their health care provider before starting any weight loss routine.

“I strongly believe everyone has to decide what the best route is for them,” Hope said.

As she started to change her lifestyle, Hope began sharing her journey on social media. A TikTok video she posted last year, one year into her weight loss effort, now has over 14 million views.

When she faced obstacles on her two-year weight loss journey, Hope said she reminded herself of her focus on “gaining life” versus losing weight.

“As long as I continued to tell myself that, I could look at the scale and say, ‘You know what? Maybe the scale didn’t go down this week, but I did 2,000 more steps this day,’ or, ‘I actually enjoyed this healthy meal that I prepared,” Hope said. “Shifting my mindset to focus on building healthy habits, rather than just seeing a smaller number on the scale, is really what helped me continue through the road bumps, through not seeing the results that I wanted, and just continuing to remind myself that there’s a much bigger picture to this.”

The Walt Disney Co., is the parent company of ABC News.