Losing weight!

Oh, Happy Day!

Today I met my weight loss goal of “under 150#”. My scale registered 149.3# this morning!!!! In the midst of the holiday season, I was able to lose weight!

It was not easy to achieve, but so well worth the effort. Here is my story (because something here might help you, not just because I want to brag!)

I struggled with my weight most of my adult life. Bearing six children, probably didn’t help, but mostly my “large” family tree was stacked against me. Most of my mother’s sisters, and their daughters (my cousins), are quite heavy, some weighing in excess of 200#. My own sister and mother have struggled with their weight, also, but have managed to work hard and keep their weight down.

I was thin as a child and teenager and into my mid-20’s. But from then on, I have really had to exercise and watch my diet to keep my weight within reason. I gradually gained weight, adding a little at a time through the years, mostly not being able to lose “baby” fat after each child I bore. But a sudden wake-up call changed my life last January.

When at my annual physical exam, last January, I was shocked to learn my blood pressure was high enough to immediately be put on blood pressure medication. A couple of days later, the bloodwork that I had had drawn that day showed an elevated blood cholesterol level. The doctor also wanted to put me on statins to lower my cholesterol. My weight had reached an all-time non-pregnant height of 175#. I could barely squeeze into my size 14 jeans, and really should not have worn them in public, but I refused to buy size 16s.

I was suddenly faced with the fact that, I could potentially have a heart attack or a stroke, and not be around or well-enough to raise my little children still at home. I asked the doctor for 3 months to try to lower my cholesterol without medication and got serious about losing weight and maintaining my health.

Several years before, I had successfully lost some weight on the Zone diet. As a nurse, it made scientific sense to me. Plus, when I follow the diet, I truly am not hungry. The meals are really delicious and filling. Although the original book was difficult to read and understand, what I did understand, made sense. However, through the years, being a busy homeschooling mom, I had drifted away from many of the principals that had been successful for me. After this wake-up call, I decided I’d better get the Zone book from the library and relearn what I knew had worked for me before. I had originally gotten interested in the Zone diet years before because of the heart disease that ran in my family, and through different pregnancies I had had some high blood pressure and heart palpitations. So, I was already concerned that my risk for heart attack or stroke might increase as I aged, but I was only 44 years old at this time! I wasn’t old enough for a heart attack or stroke!

Although my blood pressure and cholesterol level were the precipitating factors that made me get serious about this diet, I had been trying to lose weight for two or three years, since my last baby was born. I didn’t weigh myself very regularly, but I knew my jeans were getting tighter. And I did exercise regularly to different video tapes like Billy Blanks or Denise Austin. I really tried to eat healthy and watch what I ate, but I just kept gaining weight. It was a very frustrating few years, until I went back to the Zone.

I ordered the 7 days in the Zone book and I started doing it with all my being. I took my body measurements and weighed myself once a week, recording it. I believe writing it all down has really helped me maintain my focus and my goal. At the three month mark, my cholesterol was down, I didn’t have to go on statins, yeah!! But I was still requiring blood pressure medication to keep my blood pressure in check. Gradually, over the next six months, I lost a total of 24 pounds, but I hit a plateau at 150#. I stayed there, despite trying every “zone” trick I knew, and could not get “under 150#”. I really wanted to be able to go to the Dr. office, and them NOT have to move that bar up to the 150# mark! But I was stuck and couldn’t seem to get the scale to budge.

I was happy, though. When fall came and I tried on my too-tight size 14 jeans from last year, and they were too big, I danced around the house! Even the only belt I owned that I had worn last winter was too big to hold them up. I went to my 13 year old daughters room and asked if I could borrow one of her belts (well, it really was a little too small, but I managed to suck it in and wear it around the house that day), just because it made me feel better. All my exercising and sticking to the diet plan had worked. I dug out some old size 12 and size 10 jeans that I had put in the bottom of a drawer “just because”. They fit!

Around the end of October and first part of November, though, I actually started gaining weight again. Those Halloween chocolate candy bars in my children’s jack-o-lanterns, plus the homemade cookies we made periodically with the cookie dough fund raiser dough we bought were too much temptation for me. When the scale climbed to 155#, I knew I had to take drastic action again. The holiday season hadn’t really begun yet, and I was gaining weight again.

So, I did a search on the internet for books by Dr. Sears, to find another Zone book to motivate and encourage me. But I found a book written by Ann Louis Gittleman called The Fat Flush Plan. Dr. Sears had written the foreword, which was how I had found this book in my search. I got the book from the library and looked through it. Many of her principals were similar to the Zone, but her research on the liver made perfect sense to me. She described how the liver is the fat metabolizer of the body. Her plan is all about cleaning and restoring your liver. I didn’t want to completely jump ship, since the Zone had helped me lose 20#, I just wanted a little boost in the weight loss. There were two key things I started implementing taken from her book:

Diluted cranberry water with psyllium or flaxseed every morning and every night.
Hot lemon or lime water twice a day.

I started these 2 things less than 3 weeks ago, and changed nothing else. I have now lost the 5 “cookie and candy” pounds, and finally reached my original goal of getting my weight under 150#!! I had set this goal weight, also because it was the weight I reached at the end of my first pregnancy. I figured that I should be able to at least get down to the heaviest I was carrying a full-term baby!

Today, I wrote down a new goal. I am going to shoot for 135#, which was my heaviest “thin” weight in my 20’s. That had been my stop-everything-and-lose weight mark. I may not reach that goal. That’s okay. As long as I don’t put any weight back on, I have reached my original goal and I would be perfectly happy if I stay here the rest of my life. But, one thing I learned from Fat Flush Plan is that if you don’t have a goal, you won’t reach it. So, 135# is my new goal. But, I warned my husband, I’ll have to have some money to buy new jeans if I keep losing weight. He said he thinks we can find the money in the budget!

If you want more info on the zone, check out the 7 days in the zone book, first. The biggest points are to eat protein, good fat, and lots of vegetables with every meal. In the last 6 months, my husband and I have learned to absolutely love our morning omelets, they are so filling and delicious. I tell myself frequently that I love vegetables, because they are what keep me full between meals and speed up the digestion process. “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels” is another thing I tell myself when I am tempted to eat the wrong thing.

This quote is what pulled me in to the Fat Flush Plan: “My first revelation was the surprising connection between weight loss and the liver.” “…the liver is the main organ for detoxifying pollutants and chemicals in the body, but this vital organ also is a hidden key to effortless weight loss. Based on simple biochemistry and the charts from Gray’s Anatomy, I learned first hand that one of the best kept secrets to weight loss and lasting weight control is keeping the liver, the key organ for fat metabolism, in tip-top shape. For example, bile, which is synthesized and secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, helps the liver break down fats. Bile cannot do its job, however, if it is lacking certain nutrients that make up the bile salts or if it is congested or thickened with chemicals, toxins, excess sex hormones, drugs, and /or heavy metals. So I researched all the “liver loving” foods and nutrients that would enable the body to produce quality bile and aid in thinning it out. Since one of the primary ingredients of bile is lecithin – a highly effective emulsifier with a detergent-like ability to break up fats – I decided to experiment with adding lecithin-rich eggs to my daily diet. Soon, the addition of fresh lemon juice and water – a well-known bile thinner- followed suit twice a day. Not only did my own cholesterol come down (a good 20 points to be exact), but so did my weight. Just to make sure I was onto something, I enrolled thirty of my clients in a six-weight dietary exploration and instructed them to add at least two eggs daily to their current diet regimens and to add lemon juice and water twice a day without changing anything else in terms of diet or exercise. Without exception, they all lost weight, especially around the waistline. In fact, one woman lost 21 pounds over the six-week period.”
Well, that was what hooked me into trying it, and now I can say I have lost 5# in 3 weeks by changing nothing else but the lemon water and cranberry juice. I had already been eating eggs on the zone diet. If you want a sample daily plan, let me know!