Tuesday, August 16, 2016

One Year Vow and 80 Pounds!

I confess, I love sugar and chips and fast food and I truly hate vegetables!  My mom cooked mainly meat and potatoes as we grew up and there were always veggies on our plates but I avoided eating them at all costs!  (Yes, my dad made me sit many hours at the table looking at my brussel sprouts that I refused to eat!)  My mom only allowed us sugar and candy on Saturdays when we went to the store and were each allowed to buy one package of M&M's or a candy bar.  When I got married my husband was the exact opposite and a junk food junkie, loving candy and chips and fast food and it's a habit I fell into over the years.  Also being a Pastor's family and being so busy it was easier to grab something on the go as we ran around ministering to those in need, than to cook a healthy dinner at home. 
Those years of unhealthy eating caught up with me though.
 
 
I was so excited in October of 2014 to be able to go to Maryland for my brothers wedding, but I was horrified when I saw the wedding pictures!  How in the world had I let myself gain so much weight?  I looked absolutely terrible!  I was my heaviest weight ever at over 250 pounds and I decided there and then that I was change some things in my life and lose this weight!
 
Over the next ten months I would keep telling everyone that Monday I would start my diet and that Monday I would start exercising.  Monday would pass and I would tell everyone that this Monday I meant it, I would truly start my diet and exercise!  Of course after ten months of saying this no one believed me.  Over those ten months I had lost about 10 pounds
but that was no where near what I knew I needed to lose.
 
On August 15th, 2015 I knew if I really wanted to lose weight I needed to make a drastic change.  Because I didn't have the strength to do it on my own, I made a promise to God, a vow, because we all know if you make God a promise you can not break it!  I vowed that for one year I would not eat sugar (Candy, cookies, pie, cakes), chips, fast food, fried food, or drink any pop.  And thus began my one year healthy eating, junk food free journey.
 

People have asked me if I cheated especially in the first week of my diet. 
They said there is no way that someone can just cut themselves off chocolate and cake!  The answer is no I didn't cheat!  I was serious about my promise to God and I was serious about losing weight!  The above picture is two weeks into my diet when I went bird hunting with my brothers. 
 Doing this diet was hard enough at home but driving back to Idaho and being with my brothers and family was hard as everyone was eating so much good stuff around me but I did not give in!!!
 

 
I dropped 50 pounds in 5 months!!! 
That is five months with no exercise, just cutting out the bad stuff out of my diet!  Again this is with no cheating what so ever!  Christmas passed without me eating a single piece of fudge or having a single cookie!  Truly I love holiday goodies but I was focused on my goal and losing weight! 
 
After 5 months and losing 50 pounds I plateaued in my weight loss. 
  I ate the exact same everyday, oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, salad and veggies for lunch and meat and salad for dinner but did not lose anymore weight for four months.  I didn't gain any weight but didn't lose any either so I knew I had to find a way to start losing weight again.
 
 
I had gotten a Fitbit two year ago to help me lose weight and had used it off and on but when I got serious about losing weight I wore it everyday.  I started with a goal of 10,000 steps a day and I thought I was doing good.  Seriously though, anyone can get 10,000 steps a day.  When I saw I was not losing any weight, I pushed my daily goal to 15,000 steps a day and as soon spring hit, I pushed it to 20,000 steps a day.  I started walking two miles every morning and two miles every night and I started to see the numbers on the scale go down again.  As soon as summer hit, I started upped my goal again to get between 30,000 and 40,000 steps a day and started walking 4 miles in the morning and 4 miles at night.  This along with eating more veggies and less processed foods helped me to lose another 30 lbs for a total weight loss of 80 pounds in one year!
 
 
I am so happy with the weight I have lost but still have not met my weight loss goal.  I still have 30 pounds to lose but I have met my one year goal of not eating sugar, chips, fast food or drinking pop!  I will never go back to drinking pop as that is one way I gained so much weight and I will be more careful about how much sugar and unhealthy food I eat as I never want to gain back what I have lost!  People ask if I feel better after losing so much weight and I have to honestly say no.  I was healthy and never had any health problems before I lost the weight so now I'm still healthy, just a little skinnier! 
 
To celebrate I am headed to the east coast to spend time with my family as we celebrate my brother's military retirement and take my mom to New York City for her birthday.  I have taken my Fitbit off and for the next week will not worry about calories or how many steps I take.  (Okay, okay,  I am pretty sure I will be second guessing everything I put in my mouth and will not really eat that much!)  When I get back at the beginning of September I think I'll make a new goal of working out for a full year and see if I can get the last 30 pounds off and tone and strength my muscles.  Again I will have to make a promise to God because the only thing I hate as bad as veggies is working out and exercising!!!
 
 


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