For years, Helene Sula wouldn’t look at a scale.
She’d turn around when her weight was recorded at the doctor’s office, describing herself as “distraught and embarrassed” at the number, which she believes reached more than 200 pounds on her 5-foot-2-inch frame.
Sula’s weight had been up and down all her life, but she began getting much heavier in college when her younger sister was diagnosed with cancer.
“I really used food as a coping mechanism,” Sula, 39, a travel blogger based in Dallas, Texas, tells TODAY.com.
“To me it was like, well, I can’t control these parts of my life, and food is going to make me happy, so I deserve food, I deserve this treat to make me happier.”
She says she was uncomfortable with how she looked and didn’t feel confident in who she was.
Motivation to lose the weight came in an unexpected way while she and her husband were living in Oxford, England.
When they took a trip to the Cotswolds, an idyllic countryside with rolling hills, pastures and stone houses, Sula noticed a group of women with walking poles and found out they were walking the Cotswold Way, a 102-mile trail.
“I turned to my husband, and I said, ‘I’m walking this,’” she recalls. “From that day on, I literally changed everything in my life.”
Her husband, who has a degree in exercise science, created a four-month training plan that had her start with 2-mile walks and core workouts. She changed her diet to eat healthier and create a calorie deficit.
Sula began training in June 2024. Four months later, she walked the Cotswold Way solo in 10 days, calling it “stunningly beautiful.”
“It was one of the best things I’ve done for myself in my life,” she says. “Now I’m addicted.”
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She’s since completed the 150-mile Stevenson Trail in France and is planning to walk coast-to-coast across England, an almost 200-mile trek — travels and milestones she’s been documenting on her Instagram page.
In the two years since starting her training, Sula has lost 70 pounds and now weighs 134 pounds. She steps on the scale every Friday, calling it a tool to help her understand how she feels.
Sula wasn’t interested in taking a GLP-1 weight-loss drug. Here are her simple tips for losing weight:
Track Your Calories
When she became determined to walk the Cotswold Way, Sula started using an app to track all the food she was consuming in a day and discovered she was “massively overeating.”
“You can’t out-walk a bad diet, and I have tried. I have really tried,” she says. “I was very active, but I wasn’t being conscious of what I was eating.”
After taking a long walk, for example, she’d often go home and eat a “huge” portion of popcorn. Sula now tries to stay in a calorie deficit — burning 250-500 calories more than she eats in a day.
Don’t Obsessively Track Your Steps
A healthy goal doesn’t always have to be about the number of steps on your phone or watch.
“For me, it became an obsession and an unhealthy one,” Sula says. “I no longer track steps.”
She just follows a workout plan that’s a mix of exercise — no gym required. Her routine includes three long walks and two shorter walks a week; core workouts that she just chooses on YouTube; strength training with body weight exercises and light dumbbells; mini trampoline workouts and swimming.
She works out five days a week and has two days of rest.
Eat More Protein
When a friend lost weight and Sula asked her how she did it, the reply was simple: “Helene, you need to eat protein,” she recalls.
When she’s not traveling, she makes a three-egg omelet for breakfast.
“If I have cereal, that’s great. But if I have eggs, I’m going to stay fuller longer, and it’s going to help me to not binge eat or choose foods that wouldn’t keep me satisfied,” she says.
Lunch is usually rolled-up deli meat with a side of kale chips.
Dinner is ground beef, chicken or turkey plus a big salad with lettuce, spinach, tomato, carrots and other vegetables.
“I am a volume eater. I like to feel like I’m getting a good amount of food, so my husband and I will make a huge salad,” Sula notes.
She snacks on fruits, which can contain protein, and protein crackers.
Don’t Be Too Restrictive
Sula’s favorite 200-calorie treat every night is homemade ice cream prepared with skim milk, non-fat Greek yogurt and sometimes protein powder. She makes flavors including vanilla, chocolate and maple.
Regular ice cream is still occasionally on the menu, but she has one scoop instead of three.
When Sula travels, she loosely tracks her calories and watches her portion sizes.
“Part of travel, I believe, is trying the food. And what I’ve come to realize is that I can have everything, but not all of it,” Sula says. “So I absolutely try everything, but I try to be mindful of how much I’m eating.”
One a recent trip, she had buttery, flaky pastries in France, incredible cheese in the Netherlands, and beer in Belgium and didn’t gain weight.
Listen to Your Body
Sula realized that besides lots of exercise, her body also needed regular rest and time for repair, so she says it’s OK to regularly slow down. When it comes to food, she also no longer feels the need to feel satiated all the time.
“If you’re a little bit hungry before a meal, that’s totally fine. And I really kind of retaught myself listening to myself about being full, and utilizing all of those cues our body gives us,” she says.
