“Losing weight isn’t that hard”

Pizza, hot wings, and beer. Those are three items, among others, Jennifer Butcher vowed she wouldn’t give up when she made the decision six years ago to start losing weight. Today, that’s held true, and she is 110 pounds lighter.

Back in 2011 Butcher would see “310 pounds” when she would step on the scale. Putting on weight back then just happened so fast for her it seemed, and it was hard to stop.

“I was going through a rough part in my life at the time,” said Butcher. “There were bad relationships and I wasn’t enjoying work. I got lazy and unhealthy.”

At the time, Butcher was a little over 30 years old and worked as cook at a Red Robin in Vancouver. Prior to gaining weight Butcher says she was very in-shape. As a teen and young adult she describes herself as being “super athletic” and played lots of sports. Eventually there came a tipping point where she just wanted that back badly enough to act.

“I finally just got tired of not looking good in the mirror,” says Butcher. “My shirts kept getting bigger and bigger. I didn’t like feeling like I always wanted to go home and sit on the couch. I finally just made it happen.”

As a cook, Butcher loves to eat good food, and as stated earlier, she wasn’t about to cut that out of her life. With a diligent work ethic, and a commitment to eating only “normal” food portion sizes, Butcher believed she could still get what she wanted.

In the beginning stages, Butcher forced herself to physically move around on a regular basis by selling her car. To get around she would either bike, jog, or walk. In addition to her everyday routine, she also became an avid hiker. Within one year 70 pounds had been shed from her body without excessive dieting and constant time in the gym.

Since then, Butcher has continued to steadily lose weight. Today she’s down to 200 pounds. With her weight loss several life changes have also occurred. For a period of time over the last few years she moved to Tucson, Arizona and back. Currently Butcher lives in Vancouver and works happily as a cook at Barrel Mountain Brewing restaurant in downtown Battle Ground. On days off some of her favorite places to hike are Dog Mountain, Hamilton Mountain, and Beacon Rock in the Columbia River Gorge, Lake Merwin, and the Ape Caves by Mt. St. Helens.

Recently, Butcher set her sights on a new goal - to get to 160 lbs by this summer. Though she’s at 200 right now, it was only about two months ago she was 230. Already, she’s almost halfway there.

“I want to look good down at the river,” she joked.

There’s no denying that Butcher’s weight loss is impressive, especially the pace at which it sometimes occurs such as the first year or the last couple months. On several occasions she’s been asked “did you do the liposuction surgery?,” to which she proudly replies “no.”

“Losing weight isn’t that hard. It’s not as extreme as it’s made out to be. It’s just one foot in front of the other,” said Butcher. “You don’t need to go to the gym for eight hours. You just need to be active. It can even be as easy as just walking around your neighborhood.”