Kiah Twisselman continued eating foods she loves, but her weight-loss journey still focused on long-term success
Kiah Twisselman, a California rancher, recently lost over 125 pounds and gained more 20,000 Instagram followers after her story was shared in People Magazine. She lost the weight without joining a gym and while still eating food she loves, including beef.
Kiah, who had struggled with obesity her entire life, said her desire to change came from reading Rachel Hollis’ book, Girl Wash Your Face, while on a flight where she had to ask for a seatbelt extender.
Losing weight in a way where she can keep it off was key throughout her health journey.
“I think we shouldn’t sign up for something that we absolutely despise just to lose the weight,” said Kiah. “It should be more about making small, baby steps consistently to create a lifestyle that we absolutely love.”
Those five baby steps that Kiah took were from Rachel Hollis’ book and the Last 90 Days Challenge:
- Wake up an hour earlier for yourself
- Drink half your body weight in ounces of water a day
- Move your body for 30 minutes
- Give up one food that does not bless your body
- Write down 10 things you are grateful for each day
On October 1, 2018, Kiah started her health journey by taking these five baby steps. She said she used free resources such as YouTube videos. Dance parties in her living room were where she began her exercise habit — then she started doing free strength training videos with $2 weights from Goodwill and watching Netflix while riding a stationary bike. Kiah is now training to run a marathon. All without a gym membership.
The important part of incorporating movement and exercise into your life is meeting yourself where you are currently, explained Kiah. An important question to ask yourself is, “How can I create a lifestyle that is healthy and that I absolutely love and am willing to commit to for the long haul?”
That commitment for the long haul is key in creating a sustainable health journey for yourself. Kiah reminds her Instagram followers that she isn’t special, she just keeps showing up and doing the work. “I’m a very average person, and if I can do this, you can, too,” said Kiah. “The only difference is that I started daring to believe that the future version of myself was attainable.”
Another key component for Kiah in this journey was the concept of failing forward. She explained that, in the past when she made a mistake, she threw in the towel. She reminds her clients and followers to give yourself grace in those instances.
“I used to think, if I couldn’t do it perfectly, then why am I doing it at all,” Kiah said. “That all or nothing mentality really gets in our way. Failure is not a stopping point.” The example she provided was if she ate one cookie, then why not eat the whole sleeve of cookies.
Kiah went on to say, “Failures are important because if you’re failing it means you’re making progress. Each failure is such a blessing because it’s a tool and opportunity to learn something and grow stronger on the other side of it.”
Throughout her weight-loss journey, Kiah continued eating foods she loves, which as a fifth-generation cattle rancher, of course includes beef. The information of beef as a healthy, diet food can be contradictory to what many seeking a health journey see online. Kiah’s favorite part of beef as a diet food is that it is big nutrition in a small package, keeps her satisfied and full longer, and is incredibly versatile.
“Beef is my favorite diet food,” was a quote from Kiah included on Access Hollywood’s coverage of her story. To her, that is a huge win for the beef industry.
Kiah’s social media growth was prompted by a feature in People Magazine’s transformation issue. From there Good Morning America, Daily Mail, Access Hollywood, Women’s Health, and more.
It has been estimated that the media exposure of her story was over 1.5 billion people. That is 1.5 billion people who saw first-hand that you can eat beef and still lose weight. Kiah continues to share her love of beef and the ranching lifestyle, which her family has been involved in on the central coast for over 130 years, on social media for her over 20,000 (and growing followers), and she helps to spread other lifestyle transformation tips.
Kiah officially launched Coach Kiah, a one-on-one coaching business, in August of 2019 and helps clients through health transformations from a place of self-love instead of self-loathe.
“While the physical transformation is the most apparent of course, the greatest transformation really had to do with my mind and mindset,” explained Kiah. She is also preparing to launch a digital course for those looking to live intentionally and to lovingly lose the weight for good.
Her advice for people wanting to transform their life, from a health standpoint or any other aspect, is to trust the process and to show up and do the work that creates the life you love.
“Nobody gets to decide how big or realistic your dreams can be, only you get to do that,” she said.
Michelle Bufkin is a freelance communication specialist whose goal is to help producers bridge the farm-to-plate knowledge gap that exists with consumers today. She uses her full-time position as the Membership and Communication Director at the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association to interact with producers and work on building that connection.
