I wanted to share my personal success with weight loss. I have received a lot of compliments lately and people asking how I lost the weight. I know many of women struggle with their weight. For me I just wanted to get healthy. I had been working out like crazy and just wasn’t seeing the scale move. I thought I was eating right…I hadn’t drank soda in 3 years and I thought I was eating well balanced meals. I
Dress My Truth which automatically made me look thinner and helped me to be confident in my own skin. I still knew I wasn’t at my absolute best healthy weight and I knew I needed to get at least 10 more pounds shed after having 5 babies.
{Disclaimer…this is my personal story and choices for how I went about my weight loss. I didn’t receive any compensation for the products I used to write this post.}
In May I decided I needed to do something different and I was talking with a few ladies at the gym about my challenge of working out but, not seeing the scale move. They had recently learned about a company called
Advocare and encouraged me to try the
Herbal Cleanse and I used Peaches and Cream Flavor. They had recommended it to several people who with in 10 days saw success and that it would really help to boost my metabolism. It made sense that I needed to cleanse my body. I was having a few other minor health challenges and so I decided to give it a try.
Along with the 10 day cleanse I prepared myself I would need to change my diet for optimal results. I took a month or so gearing up and mentally preparing myself for no white refined sugar, white refined flour, animal dairy products and cheese. I prepared myself to eat lean meats (like turkey, chicken and fish), lots of fresh veggies (steamed sweet potato was my favorite for lunch), fruit, almond or coconut milk and whole plain nuts. I just kept thinking to myself I wanted to eat as close to its natural form. I didn’t worry so much as to how much I was eating but, that if I were hungry or felt like snacking I ate following these guidelines.
I also bought
Spark Energy Drink – Fruit Punch flavor to drink when I woke up in the morning to help get me moving and not get tired for my work out.
The morning of the second day I saw my scale move 1 pound. Now 1 pound isn’t much but, I hadn’t seen the scale move at all so this was motivation to me. I came down to the kitchen only to find my Husband had left a huge cinnamon role from his early morning bible study class sitting on the counter…oh temptation for sure…but, I told myself “you just lost 1 pound in the first day so don’t give up now!” I didn’t I continued on for the full 10 days and after just 2 days I didn’t even crave the sugar like I thought I would. By 10 days I had lost 7 pounds. Almost a pound a day. I felt great and my body didn’t crave the processed foods or sugar. It gave me motivation to keep going.
I continued to exercise and focused some effort on to weight lifting and building muscle and eased up on the cardio. I also continued to stay as close to the diet as I could with little to no sugar, only whole grains and cut out as much processed foods as I could. I read the labels on everything to see the added sugar it has. I also drink the Spark Energy drink every morning.
In June I was able to listen to
Dr. Daniel Amen speak in Atlanta. He talked about diet and exercise in relates to our brain. He has been doing some work with Franklin Covey and The 5 Choices content they teach. The foods we eat do make a huge difference in how our body functions. I was feeling pretty good about the changes I had made in my diet and especially after seeing pictures of brain scans of unhealthy people. We don’t think about taking care of our brain and our brain is the number 1 thing we should be thinking about when it comes to our body. Our brain function effects our moods, our physical abilities, our mental capacities and when we are addicted to the wrong foods it makes a huge impact on our own quality of life!
Our brain uses 25% of the calories we eat to function on…what are we feeding our brain? Our brains need water in take…He says we should drink half our body weight in ounces in water every day! Drinking my water made a huge success in my weight loss.
Again all this was motivation to keep going and to live a healthy lifestyle that I was creating for myself and my family. I spoke with Dr. Amen after his lecture and he sent me out his wives
cookbooks that are full of healthy eating tips and recipes.
I still falter and my family and I still have some foods that we give into eating…like sugar treats every once in awhile. This is a process of getting healthy and it feels good to be on the right path. I was able to maintain my weight loss on a cross country road trip this summer. I looked for healthy foods to eat at fast food restaurants and it wasn’t easy. I found it interesting that I was repulsed by seeing fried greasy food and I craved salads and veggies after a long day’s drive. The pictures of unhealthy brains came to mind for sure. For about a month because of our road trip and Summer plans I didn’t really exercise like I had been. I was eating right though and I still lost more weight.
So as of today I lost approximately 15 pounds since the beginning of May. I have gone down a size in clothes. I feel great and on the days I slip up and eat something I shouldn’t because it was just there in front of me…I usually regret it and I don’t feel well afterwards. I have learned to listen to my body and learned that certain foods just aren’t good for me. I have learned healthy eating habits and how important it is that I pay attention to what I am feeding my brain. I also am striving to switch my family over to better eating as well.
If you are struggling with your weight or health I hope that my story gives you hope and encouragement to make the changes necessary to get healthy! Research the path you want to take and go for it! I know you won’t regret it!
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