It’s been nearly a year since Sherri Shepherd cut sugar from her diet — and she’s lost 10 more pounds since the holidays!
“I think it’s been over 350 days no sugar. It’s just changed my life, I lost 35 pounds,” Shepherd told Us Weekly exclusively at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on Thursday, February 21, 2019. “More focus and clarity and everything.”
In December, the former View host announced on Instagram that she had dropped 25 pounds after eliminating sugar and starting to follow the keto diet — the high-protein, low-carb way of eating that is one of Hollywood’s favorite diet trends.
Her tip for getting into the keto lifestyle is simple. “Who is going to be devastated if you’re not here? Who are you living for?” she shared with Us. “For me, I had a 13-year-old son. And I refuse to let my ex-husband’s side chick raise my child. It’s not happening.”
Her own mother’s death affected the 51-year-old’s decision to turn her health around and slim down. “My mom passed away at 41,” she continued. “I owe it to my mother, to honor her. I owe it to my son to be here healthy and happy. I still have to raise my child. Mo’Nique, the comic, said one time, ‘You would die for the people you love. What people would you live for?’”
Shepherd previously told Us giving up sugar was hard. “When I first started, I [cheated],” she said in December. But the actress, who also began going to the gym, developed plenty of tricks. She revealed that when she is tempted by a treat, “I do a lot of self-talk of, ‘Sherri, how are you going to feel? Do you want the emotion of already feeling bad with whatever you’re going through?’”
Now when people look to her for advice, says Shepherd, she recommends taking the diet and weight loss journey slowly so they don’t get discouraged or feel overwhelmed: “I say, ‘One step at a time. Little changes — look up in a year, big results.’”
With reporting by Taylor Ferber
