This is such a wonderful time of year, as the weather is cooling down, the color of the leaves are changing bringing out wonderful scenery. This is also a time that some people begin watching their weight or cut back on their food intake as not to overindulge for the upcoming holidays. For me, my weight has been an issue for me because there is a long history of obesity from both my mother's and my father's families and I have seen first hand how it has affected lives of the entire family. Both of my grandmothers had diabetes and both my mother and father faced the challenge of diabetes as they grew to the retirement age. After my father died at the age of 62 from complications of diabetes, I knew that was not a condition I ever wanted to have and I also wanted to live my life to the fullest.
I did not have a weight issued until after I had given birth to my first child at the age 19, my documented weight went from 137 to 217 on delivery day. I was profoundly depressed when the weight would not come off. I knew then the fight was on. When my daughter was three months old I started my own exercise regiment of walking, common workout exercises of 1 to 2 hours a day in order to loose the weight. Then when my daughter was 13 months old, I again was pregnant with my second child, but this time I continued my work our routine and for the entire pregnancy only gained 16 pounds and 8 pounds 6.5 ounces was all baby. By the time my son was 3 months old I had lost all the weight I had gained and continued to loose unwanted pounds until I was back to that 137 pounds I was content at being. However, there were people who told me I was to thin since I was 5 foot 11 inches in height.
That was 27 years ago, and many changes have happened along the way. Now I have to say my control on my weight has been a roller coaster ride. I have bounced around from 137 at my lowest to my heaviest 289. I reached my highest weight after the death of my brother, I found myself in a depression that my comfort was food and sleeping. It was not until my son told me that he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby did I snap out of it.
I took a long look in the mirror and did not like what I saw and I knew no one but myself could do anything about it. I knew that I have tried every fad diet that was on the market and with each I would lose 10 to 20 pounds and that was where it stopped and it was frustrating. It was even more frustrating when I would go to the doctor and they would say increase exercise and decrease my food intake. This made mo sense to me since my exercise consisted of power walking 8 miles a day, and my daily diet included a SlimFast shake for breakfast and dinner with a salad for lunch. So needless to say the advice I was getting did not improve my weight lose. I then took everything about my weight lose program into my own hands and I was determined to loose the weight and without loosing my health along the way.
I have a treasured friend that lives in South Africa that I had told of my frustration of not loosing the weight that was I felt holding me back from being my best. He in turn sent me a diet that a physician friend of his that specializes in cancer treatments gave to him. This diet consists of mainly fruit, yes that is right fruit. I was instructed to have a serving of uncooked fruit before every meal or as the first course of my meals. I thought this was crazy, but for me it was not a hard thing since I am one who loves fruit. All fruit is good as long as it is not cooked. Also for between meal snacks was to be fruit, and before bed snack was to be fruit if there was a need for one.
May 01, 2010 I started my diet with the fruit concept added, within the first 3 weeks I was averaging 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss daily. I did away with all fried foods, fatty foods, and as a personal choice very little meat. To supplement my diet, I cleaned out my cabinets of all weight loss pills and instead of wasting the money I spent on them I decided to rotate them in with my food diet. I had the Hoodia diet plan, the Syntra5 plan and the Ultimate Twin Cleanse diet and the Acai berry diet, and the Slim Quick plan. After I had gathered all these onto my dining room table I estimated that I had invested hundreds of dollars in all these plans that each one alone did not accomplish my weight loss goal.
This following plan is working for me, and I am not saying it will not work for everyone, but it is working for me and I am documenting my diary of my diet and weight loss program and how it is working for me. As I stated I started this at my highest weight of 289 pounds, with a goal to loose 140 pounds in a healthy manner. I began by following a diet high in fruit, yogurt, vegetables, minimal meat, bread, rice, and potatoes and no fried foods at all. Each day I would take a different diet plan pills as directed on their bottles along with my vitamins and pre-menopause treatment. Within the first 30 days, I was loosing 2 pounds daily on average. Doctors and weight management professionals will tell you do not weigh everyday, but I found weighing every morning and every night helped me to see how which foods I was eating would support my weight loss or would increase my weight. This was the key for me, I would write in my diary what I ate each meal, everyday and weighing everyday I was able to see what foods were best for me and which diet supplement was working the best at bringing the weight off.
Today, October 03, 2010, I am weighing 232 pounds and I am still averaging 1 to 2 pounds a day, the only time I see my weight have a high fluctuation is the week prior to my menstrual cycle, the week during, and the week after. I have found that the week prior I have gained upwards to six pounds, then during the week of I will loose the access from the week before along with as much as 3 - 5 extra pounds, and finally the week after I have continued to maintain the average of 1 to 3 pounds.
The positive aspects I have found with this weight loss program I have designed for myself is that it is working for me and I cannot say that it will work for everyone, but I am healthier than I have been for the last three years, I have no signs of diabetes, high blood pressure, or cholesterol problems. I will continue to use this plan and modify it to maintain my weight loss until I have reached my goal. Once I have reached my goal I will share my documentation of any and all modifications so others can benefit from my diet and research that I am doing along the way of this journey.
We have all heard that once you pass that 40 year mark everything gets harder, I have to say that for me it has not gotten harder as my determination has gotten stronger. I have found that I spent my 20's and 30's focusing on being the mother to my children that they needed me to be, and during my 40's I was a first time grandmother and I was assisting my daughter parent my grandson. Today, at 49 years young, grandmother of 2 beautiful grandsons, I find myself at my healthiest point in over 20 years, and I am finding pleasures and peace of mind that I did not realize I would be having at this point in my life. I hope that this will give to those that have been wanting to know how I have been loosing my weight and looking younger than most of my friends my age, as well as have so much more energy then my children have and they complain they cannot keep up with me. Life has been hard, but I have received so many blessings that I can honestly say life has been good.
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