Saturday, March 31, 2012


christmas, 2010. that's me in the black sweater, on the right, next to the kid in the plaid shirt. i'm not going to say how much i weighed, but i was within 5 pounds of my heaviest weight ever. i was not exercising, i was eating pretty much whatever i felt like, and i was miserable. i always ate lots of veggies, good fats, whole grains, and kept my total fat intake at around 30% of total calories. pretty much sounds like the usda guidelines, right? i also ate lots of sugar -- i baked a lot, drank regular pop, and i love m & m's. i also was deficient in my water intake.

i was not happy, but it seemed like i was unable to make any changes that would stick. my husband was also overweight (that's him behind me to the right) but any time i tried to suggest changes to our diet, i was faced with strong opposition. this in spite of the fact that he was exhausted all the time due to severe sleep apnea that was being treated by a c-pap machine. that all changed this christmas, when a family member patted my husband's belly and asked him when he was due! the week after christmas, my husband announced that he was embarking on a diet and exercise program starting january 2, 2011. i was welcome to join him, he said, but he was going to do it with or without me. THAT was what i had been waiting for!!

on january 2nd (a sunday morning), i woke up and my husband was nowhere to be found. his truck was there, his wallet was there but he was not. his cell phone was gone, so i called him and when he answered, he was a huffin' and a puffin'! i asked him where he was and he said "i told you i was going to start exercising on january 2nd! i am out walking. i will see you soon." That conversation made me do some hard thinking. i decided i was going to go on this journey with my husband. on monday morning january 3rd, i was up at 5:30 am and went downstairs where my husband was doing some calesthenics. he asked why i was up, and i replied, "i am going walking with you." the look on his face was priceless! we started our walk and i was surprised to find that i was easily able to outpace him in spite of my own condition. we did our walk and got back home and got ready for work.

as the new year progressed, i began doing a lot of reading on diet. i stumbled upon the book "Protein Power" by drs. michael and mary dan eades. i found they had written a whole series of books emphasizing protein and vegetables over whole grains. i did not go as low carb as they suggested in the initial stages of the diet, but i did cut my carb intake by about half, from over 200 grams of carbs per day to around 100-125 grams of carbs per day. my husband and i had agreed to stick to a total calorie count of about 1600 calories per day, which we kept track of on the website www.fitday.com. this website made it possible to keep track of calories, fat and carbs on a daily basis.

by the end of january 2011, both of us had started losing weight. initially, i was STARVING all the time. after about 2-3 weeks, however, that empty feeling had started to subside. and the fact the i was starting to lose weight made me more motivated to continue.

so now you know how this journey started just over a year ago. tune in tomorrow for more of our journey . . .