Destiny Lost 106 Pounds and Kept It Off With the 80/20 Rule — Here's How She Did It

To lose weight, Destiny began by changing her diet. "I know a lot of people think it's cliche, but it truly is 80 percent nutrition and 20 percent fitness," she said.

"The moment I changed my diet, [the weight loss] just happened." Initially, she began by cutting out red meat, chicken, and turkey and strictly followed a pescatarian diet. Currently, she follows a vegan diet but does eat seafood a couple of times a month.

"I don't count my calories, just like I refuse to stare at the scale," Destiny said. Instead, she likes to focus on how she feels. She also tracks her results by observing how her clothes fit and by how her performance has improved during workouts.

Here's an example of what Destiny typically eats in a day:

• Breakfast: a smoothie with strawberries, bananas, spinach, açaí or pitaya, mango, and spirulina
• Lunch: sweet potato, quinoa, and avocado
• Dinner: an arugula or spinach salad with bell pepper, Persian cucumber, and vegan Italian sausage

Destiny knew that changing her diet would help her lose weight, and she also decided to change her workout routine. "I committed myself to working out three to five times a week," she said. At the gym, Destiny said she would start her workouts with 15 to 30 minutes of cardio (she still does this). After that, she would focus on upper body with core or lower body with core. "Once I got my weight back down to comfortably play basketball again, I played about two times a week," she said.

It took Destiny time to lose weight, and she explained that one of the biggest struggles she faced was "the discipline that comes with doing a weight-loss journey." the discipline needed was mental and she had to train her mind "to break bad habits to make room for the good ones," she said. For Destiny, "the key was mixing discipline with consistency."

Her consistency and discipline is what got her to a point where she could run on the treadmill without her knees aching and fit into old clothes that didn't fit before she started her journey. "When I began, I was a size 24 in pants. My dream was a 12, and I have finally reached that," she said.