‘The Real’s’ Host, Adrienne Bailon-Houghton, Reveals What Inspired Her Weight Loss
Adrienne Bailon-Houghton has shared much of her personal life and struggles with the utmost honesty as a co-host on the FOX daytime talk show The Real. Viewers have participated in her journey in love – from her ending an engagement with a long term boyfriend to her marrying the man of her dreams when she wed Israel Houghton – she’s held very little back. The former Cheetah Girl recently opened up about her weight loss journey.
Bailon-Houghton initially told Hola! that she decided to make the switch to become vegan out of a desire to prepare her body to carry a child. Though that may have been part of it, she revealed in a recent video on her YouTube channel that insecurities related to her weight gain – and negative comments on social media – caused her to take her health more seriously.
Adrienne Bailon-Houghton shares how she got healthy
On a vlog posted to her YouTube channel Absolutely Adrienne, Bailon-Houghton said that she first dedicated herself to getting healthy this past summer. After spending years dieting on and off but always managing to gain the weight back, she made the decision to change her overall lifestyle and not take up another fad diet. Becoming vegan was her method to transition into healthier practices.
One of the first things she did was cut out bread and pasta. “I recognize that it makes me feel sluggish,” she said. “It fills me up very quickly but it has no nutrients. And I recognized there were other alternatives that I have found to love just as much.”
Ezekiel bread and rice cakes became a go-to alternative for her. She also loves popcorn, lentil soup and commits to drinking a gallon of water a day.
Bailon-Houghton says that she was able to stick to her changes with the support of her husband and by keeping up with both positive and negative comments as she went through the process.
Adrienne Bailon-Houghton reveals what inspired her lifestyle change
Bailon-Houghton said that there were two things that made her want to adopt a healthier eating lifestyle. She’d gained a significant amount of weight over the past few years and began to have self-esteem issues. On top of her own personal desire to shed the pounds, criticism from fans didn’t help. She noticed a lot of nasty comments about her weight gain online.
“You guys have also inspired me in a major way, some in good ways, and some in bad ways. Some of your comments that were like, why does she have seven chins,” she said. “Or why does she look a certain way, that was something that I turned into fuel to be the best version of myself.”
This wasn’t her first experience with dealing with negative comments about her weight. In 2018 vlog, she opened up about how those remarks made her feel.
“If I’m honest, my weight gain in the last few years has been like a struggle for me where I’m like, I never looked at myself as being overweight,” she said. “And it was weird to hear so many comments at one point that I was fat, and ‘Oh my God, she let herself go!’ I was like, ‘Whoa.’ So that was a little bit weird.”
Bailon-Houghton lost weight once before for her wedding to haughtiness. She’s confident that this time, the weight will stay off due to her complete lifestyle change. She shares tips on her YouTube channel from time to time and also keeps her fans updated via her Instagram account.
