Sunday, June 8, 2014

Weight Loss and Life Update

I thought this might be a good time for an update.  I know I haven't been blogging on a regular basis in quite awhile.  However, I do plan to add many posts this summer.  This month I am teaching summer school so I am not actually on summer break yet.  But next month, when I am on summer break, I will work on some new recipes and blog posts.  BUT, I wanted to update everyone who wants to know about my weight loss progress.

I have had so many people ask me which diet I am on.  They are always surprised and a bit annoyed when I tell them what I am really doing.  This isn't a diet.  "Diets" do not work.  Lifestyle is key.  I changed everything about how I think about food.  I learned how to cook in a completely different way.  It isn't convenient to do this and it isn't a temporary "diet."  This is a lifelong change.  If you diet and then go back to what you were doing before, it is only logical that you would gain it all back.  By doing that, you are repeating the same mistakes you have made over and over again.  That just doesn't make any sense.  But we seem to do it anyway.  And doctors, the people we are supposed to be able to trust and depend on to help us be healthy, are the ones making the same mistakes and telling us to do these diets that don't make any sense.  I will never go back and my family will be better for it.  It is hard.  It takes a lot of time and it isn't cheap with the way our society is now.  But I have tested it and it is almost as expensive to buy boxed and canned meals now.  It is more expensive to pay medical and prescription bills for the illnesses that come from eating horribly and becoming obese and unhealthy.

As of a week ago, I have lost 79 pounds so far.  It has taken two and a half years to get that far but slow is healthier.  It gives your skin time to catch up when you have such a large weight loss and it gives your body time to adjust.  I still have quite a bit to go but I feel so much better.  So I'll share a picture.  I took a picture at the beginning of my weight loss and lifestyle change journey.  I took another picture at 62 pounds down.  I took another picture tonight.  The three are fused together to show the progress thus far.  You can judge for yourself how well it is going.