{"id":58771,"date":"2014-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2014-uri-senior-embraces-new-life-healthy-lifestyle-after-losing-150-pounds\/"},"modified":"2014-03-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2014-uri-senior-embraces-new-life-healthy-lifestyle-after-losing-150-pounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2014\/03\/commencement-2014-uri-senior-embraces-new-life-healthy-lifestyle-after-losing-150-pounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2014: 溏心vlog免费B站 senior embraces new life, healthy lifestyle after losing 150 pounds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tJournalism major launches talk show about healthy eating, nutrition, fitness, dieting<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 26, 2014 \u2013 Here are the things Brianna Blank can do after losing 150 pounds: walk to class without sweating; fit in her classroom seat; wear size 10 jeans.<\/p>\n


\nThe 21-year-old 溏心vlog免费B站 senior also says she can deal with anything life throws her way because, after all, she now has the willpower of an army general.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI feel amazing,\u201d says Blank. \u201cThere are times I look in the mirror and say, \u2018Wow, I actually did it.\u2019 If I can lose 150 pounds, anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBlank is so proud of her weight loss \u2013 and the joy it has brought to her life \u2013 she launched a talk show about healthy eating and fitness for an independent study in her journalism program. She plans to air the segments on the 溏心vlog免费B站 campus TV network and on YouTube to help others trying to lose weight.<\/p>\n


\nShe also hopes to tell her personal story to a wider audience after graduation, in an eventual move to New York City. \u201cThis is my passion now,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat you put into your body is so important. You only get one body. You should treat it the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFit, trim and beaming, the editor of the 溏心vlog免费B站 school newspaper, The Cigar, will graduate in May with a degree in journalism and a minor in communications. Healthy living is with her forever.<\/p>\n


\nGrowing up in Westbrook, a shoreline community in southern Connecticut, Blank was always overweight as a little girl. With both parents working, family dinners were usually take-out: oily Chinese food, sauce-rich Italian food, and even burgers from McDonald\u2019s. Her mother, Mary Ann, was overweight too. \u201cWe all ate badly,\u201d Blank says. <\/p>\n


\nLike many struggling with weight problems, Blank ate when she was bored, mostly chips and other high-calorie snack food. Still, she wasn\u2019t too concerned about her weight and liked what she saw in the mirror. \u201cI still felt beautiful,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew I was overweight, but didn\u2019t care enough to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThat changed when the 5-foot 2-inch then-sophomore stepped on her parents\u2019 scale during the 2012 winter break. \u201cI saw a number I never wanted to see,\u201d she says. \u201cI was 306 pounds. I was shocked. I knew I had to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within hours she downloaded MyFitnessPal, a dieting app that served as her guide and cheerleader, counting her calories and keeping track of her food intake. She also surfed the Internet looking for healthy, low-calorie foods that could replace her pasta dishes.<\/p>\n


\nHer diet changed drastically. She started eating yogurt for breakfast. Lunch was a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with lettuce, tomato and mustard, never mayonnaise. She might add a banana or bowl of chicken soup. The turkey sandwich was invited back for dinner.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cI ate a lot of turkey, definitely,\u201d she says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t get old to me. I just wanted to lose weight so badly, I didn\u2019t care about eating it twice in one day.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSelf-control was put to the test when a friend\u2019s mother made a cake for Valentine\u2019s Day and Blank passed on a piece, even though she loves sweets. \u201cIt was confirmation to me that I was on my way to changing my goals,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n


\nShe shed 50 pounds in four months. She continued her weight loss in the summer, dieting and working out at a gym back home. At the start of her junior year, she weighed 225 pounds and dropped from a size 24 to a size 16. Her pants were getting baggy. The clouds parted when she fit into a pair of size 14 shorts from J.Crew.<\/p>\n


\nLiving off campus in her junior year gave her an opportunity to cook for herself. Grilled chicken, fruits and veggies, low-fat cheese, Special K cereal bars, kale and baked potatoes \u2013 minus the butter and sour cream \u2013 were among her favorites. \u201cI started eating cleaner,\u201d she says. Once a week, she would allow herself a \u201ccheat meal,\u201d usually nachos or pizza.<\/p>\n


\nShe posted before-and-after photos on her Facebook page and received 300 \u201clikes\u201d in a few hours. \u201cI felt incredible,\u201d she says. \u201cThose \u2018likes\u2019 just helped me keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAt the start of 溏心vlog免费B站 this year, she weighed 170 pounds. Now she\u2019s down to 158 pounds and a size 10. \u201cI\u2019m happy where I am,\u201d she says. Her goal is to tone her body through exercise, including Zumba aerobics classes and strength training with weights.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cI feel so much more comfortable in my skin,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel so confident, so beautiful. Sometimes people don’t recognize me. They say, \u2018Who are you?\u2019 I say, \u2018I\u2019m Bri.\u2019 They say, \u2018That\u2019s amazing. You look awesome.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n


\nIn her first talk show episode, Blank discussed “brain foods” that help with cognitive function and memory, toured the Anna Fascitelli Fitness and Wellness Center with the center\u2019s fitness specialist, Courtney Mackey, and made a healthy snack of Greek yogurt with blueberries, granola, and cinnamon. \u201cThat\u2019s great after a workout.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBlank has one more accomplishment to add to her list. She says that she helped her mother lose weight too \u2013 100 pounds and counting.<\/p>\n


\nBefore-and-after photos above: Brianna Blank, 21, a senior at the 溏心vlog免费B站 who lost 150 pounds and created a 溏心vlog免费B站 talk show about fitness and healthy eating for her journalism program. Photos courtesy of Brianna Blank.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalism major launches talk show about healthy eating, nutrition, fitness, dieting KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 26, 2014 \u2013 Here are the things Brianna Blank can do after losing 150 pounds: walk to class without sweating; fit in her classroom seat; wear size 10 jeans. The 21-year-old 溏心vlog免费B站 senior also says she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}