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In July 2022, Melissa Paluch decided it was time to take control of her health and her weight. She hadn’t been to a doctor in three years, but she needed a physical and blood test before a scheduled hysterectomy.
At her appointment, she discovered that her weight had crept up to 275 pounds. Plus, her testing showed she had diabetes, high blood pressure, borderline high cholesterol and a genetic marker for heart disease.
When she went in for her surgery, they couldn’t complete it because she stopped breathing — severe sleep apnea was added to her list of health problems.
“I was sobbing because I had all these new diagnoses, and now I have sleep apnea. 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 says.
Her father’s death from cancer less than two months earlier also motivated her to make changes. “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. I promised him that I would. He didn’t want me to have the same health issues,” she says.
A year later, the 44-year-old has lost 96 pounds and seen countless improvements in her health and her life. “Honestly, it started off as a weight-loss journey and then turned into so much more than that,” she says. She shares what’s working for her.
It started off as a weight-loss journey and then turned into so much more than that.
Melissa Paluch
She tracked her progress with non-scale victories
Paluch started out weighing herself three or four times a day, but seeing her weight fluctuate wasn’t working for her — if her weight went up, she’d be tempted to skip dinner altogether.
Now she puts her scale away in a closet and only takes it out on Fridays for a weekly weight check. “Hiding the scale was the best decision I ever made,” she says.
Since she knew there would be weeks when her weight plateaued, she made a list of non-scale victories she wanted to achieve. She intentionally didn’t set timeframes for these goals, so she wouldn’t be disappointed if she didn’t reach them quickly. She’s achieved many of them and made progress toward even more:
- She no longer needs a CPAP to control sleep apnea.
- She’s on track to stop taking medications for blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol in September.
- She’s sleeping better, and that’s giving her more energy.
- She can sit with her legs crossed, which she hadn’t been able to do in about ten years.
- She can walk up the three or four flights of stairs to her favorite restaurant without stopping at the top of every flight to catch her breath.
- She can walk three miles in less than an hour.
- She’s looking forward to her next trip to Disney, where she’ll be able to ride the rides without feeling the safety bar pressing into her body.
When I looked at how much money I saved from not ordering, it blew my mind.
Melissa paluch
One of her non-scale victories had a surprising benefit. She had been ordering food five or six times a week, and she cut that back to once a week, cooking dinner at home instead. She saved all the money she had been spending on takeout, and she’s put away enough to pay for her family’s vacation at a beach house this summer. “When I looked at how much money I saved from not ordering, it blew my mind,” she says.
She eats what she wants, but less of it
Paluch had tried fad diets in the past and lost weight with them, but she always regained it when she stopped dieting. “They didn’t allow me to eat what I wanted to eat. I had to cut out so many things. I want to eat what I like and still see progress,” she says.
She talked to her doctor about starting a low-calorie diet. She wanted to aim for 1,200 calories a day, but her doctor recommended 1,300 to 1,400 and cautioned her to make sure she was getting all the nutrients she needed.
She admits that cutting back on her calories was hard at first: “I went cold turkey on July 1. There was no in-between. I had moments when I didn’t want to do it anymore. My body wasn’t used to it, I was getting headaches, and I never felt full — I felt like I still wanted something. It took about 30 or 45 days to get used to it.”
She does meal planning once a week
“Dinner has always been where I really have to focus. It’s my favorite meal of the day, and that’s where I was really packing on the calories. I’d have three or four helpings of something because it was so good,” she says.
Now, she plans her dinners for the week on Sunday nights, and she knows how many calories will be in those meals. She eats foods like lasagna, chicken cutlets, burgers and hot dogs, but she chooses serving sizes that work with her plan. She still eats bread and pasta. “I won’t cut that stuff out of my diet. I grew up with it. But I do control my portions,” she says.
Once she has her dinners planned, she can figure out what to have for breakfast and lunch each day to meet her calorie requirements. Breakfast might be yogurt or cereal, and she’ll have a sandwich or leftovers plus a salad for lunch.
The meal planning makes a big difference in cutting back on takeout, since she always has the ingredients for a healthy meal portioned out and ready to go. “It probably took two months to get out of the mindset of calling Domino’s and ordering a pizza. Now I make my own healthier pizza at home,” she says. She thought her family would miss ordering takeout, but they were happy to try what she was cooking — they had been eating takeout so often they were getting sick of it.
She also drinks 100 ounces of water a day, which is a little more than half her body weight in ounces. “I was never a huge water drinker, so adding a lot more water into my diet was a big change,” she says. But she finds it’s helped her weight loss and has improved her skin as well.
She walks every day
Her 18-year-old son walks a lot, so they started walking together. “The first time, I literally only made it a half-mile. I couldn’t catch my breath, and I was so embarrassed. 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,” she says.
By the end of July, she had reached that goal, and she could talk to her son during their walks without getting out of breath. She had to scale back her walking after her hysterectomy in October 2022, but after six weeks, her doctor cleared her for half-hour walks, and after 12 weeks, she could walk as much as she liked. Now she’s up to three miles a day.
She manages her mental health without turning to food
Postpartum depression after the births of her sons lingered, and she could be triggered when she got anxious or upset. She had been feeling depressed after her dad’s death. “My coping mechanism was always to eat, and I couldn’t eat like I used to,” she says.
“Now, instead of turning to food, I’m finding myself going for a walk. I talk to myself on my walks, and I talk to my dad, who’s in heaven. I don’t have to turn to food. The walks are my therapy.”
She connects with online support
Paluch saw that a friend was in the Start TODAY Facebook group, so she decided to join. Reading the posts of people who started walking programs inspired her, and she found TODAY fitness contributor Stephanie Mansour’s videos, posts and comments encouraging.
She decided to share her own post when she started walking. “I got over 1,000 likes and comments. Everyone was saying, ‘You can do this’ and ‘We believe in you.’ Every time I hit some kind of milestone, I would post, and people were so encouraging,” she says. “This group of strangers has become like a family. They’re so kind and supportive.”
Her advice for others
Paluch shares a few tips that are working for her:
- Be patient. "You didn’t put the weight on overnight, and you’re not losing it overnight. Patience is not one of my virtues, but it’s important for this type of journey," she says.
- Don’t just focus on the scale. "I started off thinking all I wanted to do was lose weight, but it’s turned into so much more than that," she says. "Make a list of the non-scale victories you want to achieve."
- Make yourself a priority. "Remind yourself that you’re worth the hard work it takes to reach your goals," says Paluch.