My latest confession is how I've lost 49 lbs in 5 months (and plan to lose more). My weight issues began 20 years ago, but I won't bore you with history. I've been fat and thin and fat and thin over and over. Why? I say no diet is truly sustainable forever. Inevitably you'll find yourself hiding in the back booth of Mellow Mushroom scarfing down a large Kosmic Karma pizza or at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts eating a hot dozen. Whatever. Pick your poison. I'm not judging. We've all done it. Then regretted it. Then started the diet over again. This past week Andy Stanley said something that resonated with me. He said, "Dedication is not enough. Regret and resolve are not enough. You must renew your mind and be transformed." My appetite for sugar will never fully and finally be satisfied, and this is why I must renew my mind and learn to live with the "forever" tension of wanting sweets, but saying NO.
In 2010, after Max was born, I had no more excuses. I couldn't stand to see anything over 200+ on the scale. I've lied about my real weight my entire life and I'm tired of lying. I'm 5'7" and my perfect weight is 155. The day Max was born I weighed 254. I couldn't believe I was 99 pounds overweight. I told myself "it's just baby weight". Yeah, keep dreaming Bev. More like "baby wrapped in carmel and then double dipped in chocolate" weight. Fast forward to 2013. I dropped about 30 pounds during those three years with some dieting and two plastic surgeries; a breast reduction and tummy tuck. Before you say, "OH! THAT'S HOW SHE LOST IT!" let me assure you, cosmetic surgery doesn't take off "big pounds." My breast reduction (Miles Gravier was my surgeon) was covered by insurance because my breasts were so huge and heavy. Incredibly embarrassing for me since high school! My doc removed 7 lbs of tissue and lifted those babies up to Heaven! After my 2 c-sections, my abdomen was a train wreck and I had a lot of extra skin. Marcia Byrd, my second surgeon, sewed my ab muscle wall back together super tight and removed all the excess skin. She told me most patients only lose 15 lbs or less, but they "appear" to have lost much more because their stomach is so flat. The surgeries gave me self confidence and core strength, but I remained very overweight. On Christmas day 2013, I was wearing size 16 jeans. Seeing that size 16 coupled with 200+ on the scale was the end. I had to face my reality and vow to become totally selfish and focus completely on me getting thinner and healthier. Yes, I said selfish. Extremely selfish and laser focused.
The first two weeks of any diet are hell. Being selfish is the only way to succeed. You must do this for YOU alone, not anyone else's benefit. Why? If it's not for YOU alone, you'll cheat in secret. You will eat in your car or at home where no one sees, but if you are honest and selfish, you'll say NO; I am sticking to the plan for ME!
Let's get specific: On Jan 1st, I stopped eating all sugar, including hidden sugar. Stopped eating all grains: Bread, cereal, oatmeal, crackers, muffins, all of it. Stopped all dairy. I did this because of an interview I'd seen years earlier with the actress Alicia Silverstone. She wrote a vegan diet book called The Kind Diet. She wasn't fat, but very sick. Always in the bathroom, always bloated, hurting, cramping, constipated, gassy, fatigued, foggy, and all around intestinally awful. She cut out all dairy and every problem disappeared. Then slowly she became vegan and felt even better. I thought, I'll never give up steak, but I sure can give up dairy. I had digestive issues like that too. Alicia was right. All those symptoms go away when you stop dairy. I drink almond milk if I need to.
Moving on. I drank tons of water. In the first month I lost 19 lbs and I think that was due to the excessive water. I gave up sweet tea and drank the amount of water in ounces that was half my body weight. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, you drink 100 oz of water a day. Yes, lots of peeing. It also helps speed up the detoxing that is happening in the first two weeks, which I why you feel so bad and why you want to quit the diet and eat an entire cake instead. The rest of the diet is basically modified Atkins. High protein, high good fat, low carb, no sugar. Still juicing some as well. When we juice, its always Granny Smith apple, lemon, kale, and carrot. For breakfast I eat organic eggs, bacon, sausage or an omelet, or fruit or vegetables or nuts. That's it. I eat a lot of homemade salsa that has: avocados, corn, black beans, cilantro, lime and red bell peppers (sometimes onion). I eat that alone or with 100% white corn chips, but not many. Remember, very low carbs. I eat lots of turkey and tuna salad, just no bread or crackers. Lots of salad with no dressing or super light olive oil based. Tons of citrus fruits and apples. No super sweet fruits like grapes, bananas, or watermelon. Organic butter on everything and with all grilled vegetables. Every meat and fish. All nuts. I carry nuts in my purse now so if I want sugar, I eat nuts instead. I am replacing the high sugar foods with the high fat foods and it's burning the fat off. Crazy, right? But its working! I put True Lemon in my water everyday so I can tolerate drinking that much volume. It has no sugar or aspartame. Aspartame causes terrible headaches and muscle aches. I had no idea. My secret weapon throughout this diet is the Skinny Chocolate. As a sugar addict, I had to eat chocolate everyday. The recipe is: 1/2 cup coconut oil melted, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, a bit of pure stevia for sweetness. Mix as a liquid and freeze to make solid. Great tasting chocolate and great for your body. The coconut oil raises your core body temp and helps you burn faster plus makes you more digestively regular. All coconut products make you healthier in every way. I also went to weekly weigh-ins with a "stranger" so I'd have accountability with someone other than family or friends. I joined the free online site www.extrapounds.com and logged my weight everyday and measurements every week. This was great encouragement! Especially because my weight loss was all over the place. Month one I lost 19 lbs, month two I lost 5 lbs. Then lost more in months three and four. It's frustrating to see small and big numbers, but if you chart it everyday, it won't bother you as much. I'm still charting because I still have more to lose. As for exercise, I didn't do any. Yep. Gasp! I know. I must get moving now or else I'll gain some back. I just needed to focus on one thing at a time. The diet was first to focus on. Now, I've got to do both to sustain it. My goal was to lose 50 lbs by our family beach trip on May 25. I'm barely going to make it~
Another great help was Bob Harper's 20 skinny rules. I followed them as much as possible. Bob says if you do 18 out of 20 each day you'll never be fat. I'm going to hold him to that promise!
1. Drink a large glass of water BEFORE Every meal
2. Don't Drink Your Calories
3. Eat Protein at EVERY Meal
4. Slash Your Intake of Refined Flours & Grains
5. Eat 30-50 grams of FIBER per day!
6. Eat Apples & Berries Every single day
7. NO Carbs after Lunch ( eat 'lean & green' at night)
8.Learn to Read Food Labels so You know what you are eating!
9. Stop Guessing about Portion Size & Get it right for good!
10. No more added sweeteners - including artificial ones!
11. Get rid of White potatoes!
12. Make one day a week Meatless
13. Get rid of Fast foods & fried foods
14. Eat a REAL breakfast
15. Make Your own food and eat at least ten meals a week at home
16.. Banish High Salt Foods
17. Eat Your Vegetables-(no excuses)
18.Go to bed hungry!
19. Sleep Right
20. Plan one splurge MEAL per week
Check out this site. Great stuff http://www.satisfyingeats.com/
