The Broadway Performer Who Lost 100 Pounds
So you think losing those 15 extra pounds is pretty much impossible? Think again!
Sometimes we just need to hear from the people who have literally “Been There, Lost That” to give us a little Fit-spiration on weight loss success, like Kate’s incredible story below. I wanted to hear firsthand accounts from people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off. Besides any extra advice that they wanted to add, I was curious about 3 questions in regards to weight loss success:
1. What mindset changes did you make?
2. What were the exercise changes you made?
3. How did you change your nutrition?
Weight Loss Success: You can too
Kate Chapman’s Incredible Story
- Name: Kate Chapman
- Occupation: Former Broadway Performer now a Health Advocate
- Height: 5’4
- Weight Before: 225lbs
- Weight After: 125lbs
- Weight Change: 100lbs
- Quick advice:
1. Become curious about how and why you’ve gotten to the point where you’re living inside a “house” that is in serious need of renovation in order to be comfortable for you.
2. I found with my body that it didn’t like huge, drastic changes. I did things very slowly and easily for myself and I really feel that was a huge key for my success.
3. For habits I wanted to modify, I put them on a list of goals, and I took small, gentle steps to reach them. Find a gentle path to get there at whatever speed is good for you. There is no rush in any of this.
Our first amazing weight loss success story comes from Kate Chapman a former Broadway performer turned health advocate who lost 100 pounds over six years ago in order to transform herself for her dream role.
She did this by making small, gentle changes to her lifestyle (a.k.a. the sustainable way). Her nutrition philosophy is a great approach anyone can take!
Kate explains, “I didn’t use any plans, surgeries, supplements, trainers, gyms, etc. Just me, my personal curiosity as to how I’d gotten to the point where I needed to lose that much weight, and a lot of patience with myself for needing to learn a new way of living.”
How did you make the mindset change that allowed you to do this?
There were a few things that converged at the right time to help me “get in the game”, so to speak. I was newly married and wanting to be a better wife for my husband. He had two sons from his first marriage and one of them was young but already overweight.
I knew from looking at my own family story – obese mother, overweight and obese siblings, obese me – that I couldn’t help him if I couldn’t help myself.
And then the final helper – and probably the one that shot me out of the gate – was that I was given one year to lose enough weight to play my dream role on stage, Eva Peron in “Evita”.
I knew I had one hundred pounds to lose, and I thought I could probably get fairly close in a year if I took it slowly and gently and took it as my job for the year.
I also told people I was doing it. I told lots and lots of people. I basically let everyone around me know that I was working on this – and that I hoped I could have their support.
I found that when I reached out to people and opened up about where I was, the responses were wonderfully supportive and rejuvenating sometimes when I really needed it.
What were the exercise changes you made?
I’ve always been fairly physically active since I was always dancing in shows–even at my heaviest. However, what changed was what I did when I wasn’t in shows, and in my off time.
I used to find any way possible to sit. Standing and walking were by and large chores that took a lot out of me, so I chose sitting activities when I could.
Since embarking upon this journey, I now walk many miles per week – at least three miles on average per day, but yesterday I walked seven, so it varies – I do yoga intermittently, I don’t enjoy seated activities very much, and I hike whenever I can. I now need to move every day for my emotional well–‐being as much as anything.
This body I live in now wants to move! I did run for a while, too, but I don’t really love it, so I only do it for short sprints now, which I do like.
How did you go about getting your nutrition under control?
I had, in the past, gone on every diet that came onto the market. By the time I embarked on this journey – again – I really had such conflicting information in my head about what to eat, what not to eat. I decided I would follow what Dr. Oz suggested when he was on The Oprah Winfrey Show one day.
He said to eliminate five things from your diet: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Enriched Flours, Partially Hydrogenated Oils, Trans Fats, and Sugar as one of the first five ingredients of food.
I knew if I went full throttle and eliminated everything from my diet at once that I would certainly end up failing again. [Editor’s Note: absolutely love that she mentioned this!] So, I decided to just eliminate them one at a time. I started with High Fructose Corn Syrup.
I read labels, and if that was listed in the ingredients, I didn’t eat it. If I had no label to read, and couldn’t verify whether or not a food contained it, I most likely didn’t eat it – unless it was something like simply prepared veggies or something that clearly wasn’t hiding sweetener.
After I was comfortable without all the foods containing HFCS, I moved onto enriched flours. Again, after I was comfortable, I moved onto the next one, until I had eliminated all five from my diet.
What I discovered through this slow, gentle weaning off of “the five” was that processed foods were really my problem, and if I just got back to eating greens and grains, roots and fruits, I’d get the weight off and keep it off.
So next, I focused on learning about whole foods and slowly, gently integrating them into my diet. I focus on eating my veggies first and foremost every day and go from there. I have a great relationship with food and I love to eat. I just eat “real” foods now.
And I got here slowly, gently, and one small step at a time. Now I don’t even think about it. It just comes easily with so much practice.
What are you doing these days?
I have spent the past year traveling from Uganda to Australia to California to speak to audiences about health and regaining it for A Feel Better Life. My passion is to help others find their way to moving back into their bodies and really enjoying them for the amazing dwelling places that they are.
And, to that end, I’ve just finished my first book, “A Pixie’s Prescription: a Fun Toolkit for a Feel Better Life”, which will be out on Amazon at the end of October.
Wrap-Up
“WOW” is literally the first word that comes to mind, what an incredible transformation and weight loss success story we can take a lesson from!
What I love about her story is that she did the right, sustainable way.
Kate’s weight loss success story is truly great and we thank her so much for sharing and providing us with some invaluable Fit-spiration!
For more on Kate’s weight loss success:
Kate on the Today Show
Huffington Post piece about Kate
Prevention’s piece about Kate
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