Heather Burnett Lost 150 Pounds and Regained Her Confidence on Keto
Age: 47
Starting Weight: 278
Current Weight: 130
How long have you been following a ketogenic diet? 5 years
What is your favorite keto meal? Shrimp and cauliflower rice (my recipe for keto shrimp and grits)
Why did you start keto?
After my third child, I found myself over 150 pounds overweight, depressed, sick, and unrecognizable. Running from the camera was my cardio. But it wasn’t just family photos I avoided—I missed out on a lot of life because I was ashamed of how I looked, but I had zero energy to do anything about it. I couldn’t look in the mirror
without feeling like I was failing. And every day that I didn’t take action to do something about my health was a day I was failing my family, and myself.
What was the hardest part of keto and how did you overcome it?
I lost 148 pounds on the keto diet and revolutionized my health. But guess what? It wasn’t easy.
Nobody wakes up and says I’m going keto today, then clicks their heels together three times, and automatically understands how to calculate macros and how to convert a coconut flour recipe to almond flour.
Learning keto takes time, and so does losing weight.
But there’s one big secret no one wants to tell you that I had to learn—painfully—by myself. I have to spill the major keto weight loss secret nobody talks about. It’s more about mindset than macros. More specifically, it is determining and defining your personal WHY, the big reason you want to lose weight, the thing that haunts you day and night.
Why do you want to get healthy?
Lose weight?
Lower your blood pressure?
Raise your HDL?
Is it because you want to feel better? Run and play with your kids? Dance with your husband?
Get a revenge body?
Take less medication?
Be alive to see your grandkids?
Empower yourself and others by taking control of your health?
My big WHY evolved as I gained momentum and started seeing results. At first I focused on vanity. Losing a few pounds, and dropping a couple of dress sizes morphed into an exercise in empowerment. I noticed that as my weight decreased my confidence increased. With every pound I became a little less afraid, a little less intimidated, and one step closer to my authentic self, which started to become more motivating than losing weight.
Biggest changes in your day to day life?
It didn’t take me long to realize that this new path of self-discovery was my secret weight loss weapon and that if I could teach others how to do it I could change the world. This vision led me to study holistic nutrition and become a Certified Health Coach with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
Today I am on a mission to help others end their lifelong struggles with diet and weight loss—without losing their religion, sanity, or themselves in the process.
Best tip for newbies?
Give yourself grace, and time.
If there is one thing that you could tell yourself when first getting started, what would it be and why?
Throw out that damn scale and stop obsessing over weight. Basing your success on a number that changes daily is not the way to motivate yourself.
Anything you would like to add about your story?
I am the author of Rebel Keto, a Certified Health Coach, founder of Word To Your Mother Blog, and a woman who knows what it feels like to wake up at 35 and not recognize herself in the mirror.
I took radical steps to change my health and mind, and now I’m on a mission to help other women do the same. I enjoy keeping it real, mom-ing, and dancing like nobody’s watching. (Because they’re not—they’re on their phones.)
